Can reason only young people? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! Senior Entrepreneurship is a movement that is growing worldwide and shows: Even in “older” age can be with our 7 steps, a startup from the baptism. How this works and where the hurdles for the so-called Late Bloomers are, is shown in our Quick Guide.
What is a senior entrepreneur?
Scientists are also dealing with this question. For a definition is not as easy as the findings in the Paper Senior Entrepreneurship – what is it and does it matter? Illustrate. In it, the author writes:
Most of the articles referenced in this regard suggest that senior entrepreneurship is a very heterogeneous group, with significant differences between people, for example in the fifties or sixties, in motivations, decision-making, and so forth.
In the paper, the scientists also bring to the point in which the difficulties for a uniform definition lie:
In addition to the lower age limit, should we consider cultural and contextual factors, the nature and dimension of the business being created, etc.? Several authors examined this large group on the basis of entrepreneurial intentions, motivations and preferences, but very few quantitative and representative studies were conducted with samples of the population of actual senior entrepreneurs who actually started a kind of business.
Older company founders make up the minority with a share of 9.9 per cent. This further complicates the creation of a uniform definition. But older-year entrepreneurs are on average anything but rare. So found a study found that founders in the US tech sector are on average 45 years old.
Let’s continue: The typical senior Entrepreneur does not exist. Generally, however, he describes himself as an entrepreneur from age 50 and male. Even if we will give an example later, which opposes this type.
Speaking of examples: The following three show that senior entrepreneurship is not a new phenomenon and can be very successful.
3 examples of high entrepreneurship
Below we present three completely different models of top entrepreneurs who successfully compete in the market.
# 1 Denali Flowers (today Moose Tracks)
At age 57, Wally Blume founded Denali Flowers in 1995, today Moose Tracks, one of the most successful ice cream menus in the US. The million-dollar business has been running excellently for over 20 years and more than 40 types of ice cream.
# 2 Leonhard gGmbH
Leonhard gGmbh, based in Germany, was founded by today’s 75-year-old Bernward Jopen. The nonprofit company offers entrepreneurship education for prisoners to help build small service companies after the arrest.
# 3 AllerAir
Finally, a US company: Sam Teitelbaum was 61 years old when he founded AllerAir, a Canadian air purification system company in 1996. Since then, the company is proliferating, which is not least due to a good mood, as Teitelbaum told entrepreneur.com :
If you laugh and have fun, that does not mean that you are not a severe or successful businessman. In fact, smiling makes you feel so good that it attracts success.
This would give you a valuable tip to start as a senior entrepreneur: humour. Which one is there?
# 1 Do not consider age as an exclusion criterion
“For that, you are much too old!” Or “The pension is to rest” are winged words that come in our youth-trimmed society many over the lips. No wonder: the focus of the media is young entrepreneurs. Age, on the other hand, does not just see friends or relatives as a hurdle when it comes to self-employment.
But it’s never too late to start a startup. By no means, every person in his later years has only the quiet retirement in mind.
Age does not have to be a hindrance, but can even be a real asset to a successful start. (Photo: piktochart)
Many prefer to use the quieter post-working lifetime to start their own business.
# 2 Drawing on the experience of life
Everyone has gained valuable life experience in their old age – for example, do you look back on a successful career in which you have gained a lot of know-how? Such as Professor Werner Mäntele from DiaMonTech, who together with his team, developed a non-invasive high-tech blood sugar meter.
The process sounds simple:
Our patented technology works with an invisible infrared light beam that looks into your skin and counts the glucose molecules.
But behind the innovation, which can make life easier for millions of diabetics, is 30 years of professional experience in research.
Professional experience is only a source for business ideas and their successful implementation. Even extreme life events can help to develop an exciting plan for a startup.
Anyone who has already completed several job changes will have learned a lot about flexibility and personnel management.
Household activities are also valuable since you know the everyday problems of families in this way. Many brilliant business ideas come from mothers and fathers who spent years working hard at home, seemingly casually finding creative solutions to everyday needs.
# 3 Reduce fear of contact with online marketing and social media
The days when the Internet was reserved for young people are over. Meanwhile, older people are using e-mail clients, social media and messengers like WhatsApp for granted.
Because it pays to get to know online media and the associated marketing options such as social media ads and chatbots.
But these media are also extraordinarily fast-paced, and even for experts, it is becoming increasingly challenging to filter out channels specifically for target groups in the sense of an online marketing strategy.
If the masses of portals and services overwhelmed finds in the network numerous practical instructions for the application of social media marketing. Also, there are training and coaching offers in all major cities to quickly gain access to online marketing and social media as a senior entrepreneur.
# 4 Set up the workplace according to the circumstances
What applies to young entrepreneurs, can not be wrong for high entrepreneurs: Set up your startup so that it fits in with your own lifestyle. So you stay active and productive at the same time.
Ideally, your home and work in the home office connect with each other, so you save work paths. However, make sure to separate work and leisure time both spatially and mentally. That’s the only way you can break down hard-working founders every now and then.
The top priority is an ergonomic workstation, where a lot of movement is possible at any time.
# 5 Attention: Lending could be difficult
Business founders do not find it easy to get credit from banks. First and foremost, you need a complete financial plan to promote a loan convincingly.
For older founders, the whole thing is a bit more complicated. So it may well be that your bank has not yet heard of senior entrepreneurship or would like to give you no credit for starting a business because of your age.
Therefore, look for alternative financing models, for example, at Kickstarter. There, the 89-year-old Grandma Pearl has secured $ 3,500 for her first startup, Happy Canes. Today, apart from traditional financial institutions, there are many opportunities for corporate financings, such as crowdfunding and investing.
But you should avoid one thing …
# 6 Do not claim the savings
For senior entrepreneurship, the idea of using your own savings when founding a startup is obvious. Some older founders even sell their private reserves for this purpose. We strongly advise against it.
There is nothing wrong with resorting to savings for a successful start. However, under no circumstances may your personal pension plan suffer from it.
# 7 Take care of your health
Senior Entrepreneurship is excellent but also has its limitations. And health. It just remains a difference whether you start with 20 or 60. Therefore, look at your health situation clearly and honestly: Are you fit enough for the foundation?
Life as an entrepreneur is stressful and associated with many burdens. This should not be underestimated. Sufficient time for regeneration is a must, which also ignores many young founders and land in a burn-out. And in the case of chronic illness or other age-related restrictions, it makes sense anyway to talk to the doctor about ambitious business plans.
Senior Entrepreneurship: The Chance in the Best Age
High Entrepreneur brings something to start up a business that is lacking young founders: lots of life and work experience. This can save you many mistakes on the way to a successful startup and definitely shorten this path. We wish you good luck!
