When it comes to launching a successful new venture, youth is not the magic ingredient. Did you know a 50-year-old founder is 1.8 times more likely to achieve upper-tail growth than a 30-year-old founder?
There are a few reasons that older entrepreneurs outshine younger startup counterparts.
To name a few: better management skills, marketing and finance experience, richer and deeper knowledge of an industry.
Plus, older adults have more financial resources and more social networks to leverage.
This all sounds great. But before anyone makes a beeline for the local Venture Capitalist, here are 5 ideas you can pull from your back pocket to get the creative juices flowing.
Do you have a yummy family recipe? Mommy Sauce was formed in 2015 when the founder was 71. She began to package and sell her secret Korean sauce recipes.
Do you have a quick fix that all your friends copy? The Blissful Dog sells dog moisturizers, stemming from a dog show where the founder dabbed shea butter on her own dog’s dry nose, and realized its incredible healing power. The founder was a few years shy of retirement age and morphed her new enterprise into that next chapter of life.
Do you enjoy teaching? Think about teaching your skill or hobby to individuals or small groups of people. You would be shocked that even the most niche of skills have an avid audience.
Join a Centre. For example the “SAVI” Social Business Enterprise is an Entrepreneurial Vocation Center that employs retirees in a variety of occupational options in a workshop that creates craft kits and gifts for sale.
Artistic? If friends and family love the crafts and artworks you made for them, consider opening up an online shop and expanding your reach. If they love it, others may too!
Retirement is the perfect time to put aside the “should haves” and “would haves,” and have a go.