How to Start a Business After 50 (Part 3): Refining Your Idea
Let’s start with some good news. If you have taken the time to identify your strengths and brainstorm business ideas, you’re already ahead of 90% of people who dream about starting a business. While others fantasize about financial security, you have taken action. By now, you should have a rough idea of the kinds of business opportunities that you are interested in. Now it’s time to refine your ideas so that they can form the basis of your profitable business. Read More
What Starting Eternal Collection Taught Me About Business… and Life
In a previous article, I discussed how I came to start Eternal Collection, my costume jewellery company, based in the U.K. Looking back, it is amazing how the evolution of Eternal Collection was influenced by – and influenced – almost every aspect of my life. It has been an amazing journey! Read More
What All Women Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Starting a Business
Every year, thousands of people take that first brave step and set up their own business. These people are from all walks of life. Contrary to popular stereotypes, many first-time entrepreneurs are in their 50s and 60s.
It’s always heartening to hear stories of entrepreneurs starting from scratch and doing well. Though anyone who runs their own business will understand how much effort it takes to get a new venture off the ground. I hope that my own entrepreneurial story will encourage the other women in the Sixty and Me community to follow their passions. Read More
How to Start a Business After 50 (Part 2): Finding Your Idea
When I asked the 44,000 members of the Sixty and Me community what was preventing them from starting a business, by far the most common response was “I don’t have a business idea.” As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, the first step to take when starting a business is to examine your own strengths. But, what next? Read More
How to Start a Business After 50 (Part 1): Finding Your Strengths
Most people think that successful businesses start with an idea. They don’t. Successful businesses start with a person. More specifically, they begin when a person recognizes his or her unique talents and sets out to improve the lives of others.
If this seems obvious, think about the number of people who never start a business because they “can’t think of an idea” or “don’t know where to start.” Many of these people could become successful freelancers, small business owners or entrepreneurs, if they examined themselves before looking for ideas. Read More
Are Aging Stereotypes Stopping You from Starting a Business?
Does the way we think about words like “retirement” and “bingo” change our behavior? Could aging stereotypes even have an impact on how many of us decide to start a business after 50?
According to a 1996 study by John Bargh, and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, there is reason to believe that they do. As a result, it is more important than ever for us to redefine retirement and provide positive examples for each other of what we can accomplish in our 50s, 60s and beyond. Read More
Starting a Business After 60? Why “Doing What You Love” Isn’t Enough
People like simple explanations to difficult problems. We know that relationships are complicated but we like to believe that “love conquers all.” We understand that starting a business requires passion, discipline, value creation and luck, but, it’s so much more pleasant to believe that if you “do what you love the money will follow.”
The problem is that half-truths are often more destructive than lies. They wrap our desires in a warm blanket of believability and prevent us from making rational choices. Nowhere is this truer than in the myth of the successful hobby-business. Read More
Removing Mental Blocks to Starting a Small Business After 50
Since starting Sixty and Me, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with 100’s of talented, passionate older people. Many members of the community have the skills and experience to supplement their income in retirement – either as freelancers or business owners. So, I often wonder, why is it that so few men and women of my generation set out to supplement their income as they approach, or enter, retirement?
The conclusion that I have come to is that most people allow their own mental blocks to prevent them from having the lifestyle that they want. Read More
Want to Start a Business After 60? Ask Yourself these 6 Questions First!
Women over 60 have a strong independent streak. When we were younger, we used the word “freedom” in a carefree way. It defined a lifestyle. We were free to wear bohemian clothes, free to travel cross country or to choose unconventional lifestyles. Read More
Starting a Business After 60? Begin with Your Mindset
As women in our 60s, we have demonstrated our resourcefulness and resilience throughout our lives. We’ve become experts at doing things for the first time. We’ve earned degrees, raised families, managed our careers and travelled alone. We have proven again and again that we are masters of reinvention.
Now as we reach our 60s, many of us are facing our greatest challenge yet – how to survive and thrive without a job. One option is Read More