Author: Maria Alfano
Working for yourself can be quite scary when you are thinking of starting a business over age 40, well into midlife, and beyond. Well, I am here to tell you – You CAN DO IT! It is never too late to start working for yourself.
If you can help your boss line his pockets with dollar bills, you can sure as heck line your own. You have skills and experience to draw from. You got this.
Taking a leap into entrepreneurship can be frightening, especially if you have never done anything like this before. The world is a very different place post-March 2020. Everything you knew was turned on its head. And, many people got the opportunity to start to feel what working for themselves is like when they were forced to work from home because of the pandemic.
If you have the drive, skills, and ability to be self-motivated while employed by an organization, you have what it takes to work for yourself. This post will explain the reasons you should start your own business; when you should start, what you need to start a business over age 40 and beyond, how you can start your business, and potential business ideas for anyone 40 years and older.
Entrepreneurship Later In Life – Powerful Success Tips You Need To Start A Business Over Age 40 Into Midlife & Beyond
Get out of your own head and address the elephant in the room:
1 -You feel like you don’t have much time left in life. So why start a business anyways? Start with the end goal in mind.
- Leave a legacy for your family. Big or small, your business is one way to provide for your family once you are gone. It is your gift to them.
- Pay for your final arrangements. Departure from this earth can be quite costly. Starting your own business over age 40, into midlife and beyond, is one way to offset those costs.
- Too much time on your hands. The average commute is approximately 30 to 45 minutes each way to and from work. What are you doing with all your extra time during the week? Watching TV is not getting you any closer to your goals. Use that time to start your own side hustle.
2 – The financial risk is too high.
- Budget – Write down exactly what you need to survive each month. What’s your number? Start putting aside money from each pay to save up at least 6 months’ worth of payments. This will ease the stress and burden of worrying about bills.
3 – I don’t know how to run a business
- Team – The great news is you can hire a team to help you run your business. An accountant, a lawyer, a business coach, all provide services for use and can be economical when you engage them as needed until your business is booming.
Now that this is out of the way you can focus on the task at hand. Whether you are 40, 50, 60, and beyond, it doesn’t matter. You can start a business. Here’s what you need!
WHY
- Lost your job – The best time to start a business is when you lost your job. I know what you’re thinking…she has lost her mind. Truly, I haven’t. Think about it. You are not working and you likely received some sort of severance package to keep you going for a few weeks. Take a day or two to lick your wounds, then pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start making plans for part two of your financial life.
- Can’t find a job – Finding a job during these times can be difficult, but you don’t care! You have the experience and the skills to put those university grads to shame. So your age and your salary come at double the price of the latest MBA to join the firm and new firms won’t touch you because of your maturity. So what? They can’t stop you from starting your own business.
- Loss of spouse – Sadly, once you hit midlife, you start to prepare for the inevitable. If your spouse was the breadwinner and they are no longer with you, you are left to fend for yourself. You have so much to offer to the world. Start a business to show them what you got and support yourself while you’re at it.
- You have a dream. No one can take that away from you but only you can make it happen. Whether you want to try something new or take your skills and experience to do it for you and your family, a business over the age of 40 is not such a bad idea. You get paid what the job is worth when working. You get paid what you’re worth when you do it for yourself.
- Spare time – Too much time on your hands? Once you’re retired, you need to stay occupied with fruitful activities. Why not start a business?
HOW
- Free stuff – Take advantage of free resources to keep your startup costs down. You can try programs like SCORE for small business mentorship. EIX has some amazing business articles. ENCORE is a great resource for ideas, fellowships, and more. These are all free.
- Government – Visit your local government website for their resources. You will find things like grants, small business loans, business plan templates, and so many other hidden jewels.
- YouTube is a student’s best teacher. No matter what the subject matter is, there is someone teaching a lesson about it on YouTube. Your education is free.
- Social media whether you like it or not is the lifeblood of any small business. You need to open your free accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even the newest kid on the block – TikTok.
- Determine your offering. Is it a skill, a program, coaching, or consulting? Whatever it is figure out what you want to do and write down in detail what you will be selling.
- Sales – Did I mention selling? Yup, you will need to sell. Oddly enough, people today don’t buy the product or service because of how great it is. They buy because of how great they think you are. You need to become the best salesperson ever.
- Collaborate with others. It might take the sting out of the financial burden or lessen your stress about the skills you don’t have when you collaborate with someone else. Perhaps they have a product or service that compliments yours. Or, they have the skills you feel you are lacking and vice versa. This could be a business match made in heaven.
WHAT
Before you embark on this journey, there are some things you should consider:
- Plan your finances. By this I mean try to eliminate as much debt as you can. The less debt you have the less you need to live on. Create a little nest egg for a rainy day. When you prepare that monthly budget I mentioned earlier, include everything. Be 100% honest on everything you need to live month to month. If you leave things out you will only hurt yourself. Be brutally honest with those numbers. This budget planner from Amazon will help you to do just that.
You need goals. They say a dream without action is just a dream. A dream with goals becomes reality. Set daily, weekly, monthly goals for what you need to get done to move your business forward. Evaluate these goals each month to understand your stumbling blocks and what you need to do to overcome them.
- Outsource your weaknesses. If creating a business card and letterhead is not your thing then you can easily outsource that to places like Vistaprint or Fiverr. They can complete the task with all the right skills in a fraction of the time you can. Check out Fiverr by clicking on their logo below.
WHEN
The best businesses for your age group are listed below. It truly can be easy and painless to start a business over age 40, into midlife, and beyond. Don’t let your age deter you from fulfilling the goal of being your own boss. After all, as the old cliche says – age really is just a #…
Business Over age 40
- Start a blog. You have so many experiences you can share – fashion, parenthood, being a working woman, or about life in general at your age.
- Write a book. It can be your memoir, a novel, or coaching/teaching for your line of work. A really awesome resource for that is Designrr. It simplifies writing and cover design. Check out Designrr by clicking on the logo below.
- Online sales. Only if you have been living under a rock since the early 1990s you would not know about online giants like Amazon. There are so many ways to sell online. Check out the blog listed below for more information on this.
- Coaching and mentorship – do you have a specialized skill that can help others do their job better? Why not capitalize on that skill by training others to know what you know?
- Consulting – this is almost like being an employee but with a nice twist. You name your fee and you determine when you want or don’t want to work. There are some great agencies that will do all the work of finding gigs for you. You just show up and do the work. The company to whom you are providing your services pays the agencies to bring you to them.
business Over age 50
- Provide services – you can help seniors with cleaning their homes, cooking meals for them, or doing their laundry for them.
- Babysit – for school-aged children to provide for them a safe place to go before and after school while their parents are working.
- Pop-up store or restaurant – our local hospital rents out spaces throughout the hospital for a day at a time. You can easily use this space to sell your wares. Sign up for the church bazaar. Or, have a street sale. All these are great options to test if your product/service is worth exploring further.
- Bed & Breakfast or Airbnb – are you an empty nester with spare rooms in your home? Do you have a nice in-law suite or basement apartment? Temporary rentals are a great way to earn extra cash and have the business perks that go with it.
business Over age 60
- Teach crafting – what is your favorite craft? Needlepoint, scrapbooking, soap, or candle making? Whatever your passion, someone will want to learn the tricks you have accumulated over the years. Teach a class. Check out our free Course Cost Analysis below.
- Pet sitting – nothing is satisfying than an affectionate and loving pet. You can alleviate the stress many pet parents have of leaving their fur babies home alone. You can start a business minding pets – all the fun and pleasure of having a pet without the ownership and expense.
- Notes/minutes taker – the worst part of any meeting for me was always having to be the one taking notes. Accurate minutes are important for many businesses as they are a required part of their corporation’s books management. You can provide that service so they can focus on the meeting instead of taking notes.
- Gardening services – if you have a green thumb you can use it one of two ways. 1- teach the fundamentals of gardening or, 2- provide services to help manage gardens for friends and neighbors.
- Party planner – if you love a good party and enjoy hosting them, you can put these skills to work for you by planning parties for seniors. Who would know better than a senior what seniors like at their parties?😉
This post was all about starting a business over age 40, into midlife, and beyond, how you can start a business and some pretty cool business ideas.