Starting Your Own Business?
Are you starting your own business in 2020? If you are you are not alone. There has been an explosion of business formation applications in 2020 (census.gov).
What the census bureau has not published is the age ranges of the people who have formed businesses. We are expecting that in the next few months, many of these new business owners will be over 50 years of age.
Jeff Haden wrote in his Inc.com article, Why a Record-Breaking Increase in Small-Business Starts Matters for You – An unexpected outcome of Covid-19 is a startling increase in small-business starts:
And over the past three months, more new businesses were launched in the U.S. than in any quarter in history. Between June and September, nearly 1.4 million startups were founded, a 49 percent increase over the second quarter–and a 67 percent increase over the previous third-quarter startup high set in 2018.
That is a lot of startup businesses.
Who are Starting Businesses?
Dave Lavinsky wrote the article, Coronavirus Pandemic Yields Largest Increase in American Entrepreneurship Ever and hypothesized the following:
“First, we are seeing unemployed workers starting their own businesses. Realizing they need to be responsible for their own financial destinies, these entrepreneurs are opting out of the traditional workforce to start their own companies. Secondly, we are seeing virtual employees launching their own businesses.”
“I think the mindset for many has become ‘if I’m going to ditch the office, why not ditch the boss too?’ And many new work-from-home employees have now gained one to three hours per day as their commutes have been eliminated. Some have been using this time to develop their business plans and launch their own companies.”
According to the latest Career Pivot reader survey, a lot of the readers of this blog are either unemployed or underemployed.
What about you?
Listen to the most recent episode
Will You Be a Solopreneur?
Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines solopreneur as: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise without the help of a partner.
I have been a solopreneur for almost 10 years. There are plenty of people who support me which includes my virtual assistant, Stephanie Brodt, and the Standard Beagle web development team led by Cindy Brummer. I also have my trusted writing companion, Susan Lahey who has collaborated with me on all 3 editions of Repurpose Your Career.
You can be a solopreneur and work with others to complete projects. Being a solopreneur does not mean going it totally alone.
Let me give you a couple of examples from the Career Pivot Community.
Matthew Shannon is the founder of Ascenify. Ascenify provides digital marketing services for technology, software, and other companies that sell complex products and services. Matthew has a few clients and is working on acquiring more.
Russ Eanes is the founder of Walker Press. Walker Press provides consulting services in self-publishing and substantive and content editing of manuscripts. Russ is also an accomplished author who wrote and published The Walk of a Lifetime: 500 Miles on the Camino de Santiago.
Becoming a solopreneur is probably the simplest way of getting started. Check out John Tarnoff’s article, Do You Know These Top Keys to the Solopreneur Workstyle?
Do You Need Help Getting Started?
There are a lot of resources available to 2nd half of life entrepreneurs and some of them are free. Kerry Hannon recently wrote an article for Next Avenue called A Roundup of Business Startup Programs for People 50+.
Kerry talks about the following types of resources:
- Blissen, a three-month virtual boot camp for entrepreneurs over 50.
- The AARP Foundation’s Work for Yourself @50+
- The Experience Incubator
- The Senior Planet Startup!
- The Center for Women & Enterprise
- A roster of online courses
- MIT’s Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?
- The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School online has a Coursera roster of five free courses on entrepreneurship.
- Boots to Business is an entrepreneurial education and training program from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
- SCORE, a nonprofit affiliated with the Small Business Administration, provides mentoring and educational workshops nationwide.
- Entrepreneurship courses are also provided by the SBA’s Regional Small Business Development Centers and Women’s Business Development Centers.
Why Now is a Good Time to Start Your Own Business.
The COVID-19 pandemic will leave long-lasting scars on the U.S. and world economies. This is going to leave many of the readers of this blog unable to find full-time employment in the near future.
As I discussed with Chris Farrell on last week’s podcast episode, A Discussion with Chris Farrell on The 50+ Economy [Podcast] that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the digital economy.
Many of you will be forced into an unplanned early retirement. I wrote about this in the post, “Have You Prepared For Your Unplanned Early Retirement?” after my discussion with Mark Miller from Retirement Revised in the podcast episode Retirement in the Time of COVID-19 with Mark Miller [Podcast].
What Got Me to Start My Own Business?
For me, it took a sociopathic boss and my declining health that came from that experience. Sometimes we need a kick in the butt to get us started. I was in my mid-50s and did not want to ever work for someone else again.
I have to admit it took 18 months for me to stop waking up in the middle of the night worrying about not having a steady income. It was 18 months before I was profitable but it would be 3 years before I started paying myself. That was emotionally stressful in that my own self-image was wrapped up in making this business successful.
Fast forward 9 years, my average monthly business expenses typically are under $1000. That includes services that I would have normally paid for any way out of my personal expenses, (Internet, cell phone, some computer services like VPN,…). This includes paying my virtual assistant for several hours of work each week. You can run an online-based business very affordably.
What is Stopping You?
Starting a business during a recession is very common. I have been coaching a number of individuals in the Career Pivot Membership Community through a Mastermind group. Everyone’s roadblocks tend to be different. Some classical examples are:
- Analysis paralysis
- Procrastination
- Fear of selling
- Imposter syndrome
All of this can be solved by getting help to get out of your own head. I refer to this as MSU disorder (MSU – Make Stuff Up).
When I got started my business coach told me to determine what I can do but do not like to do AND what am I not good at. All of those tasks I needed to outsource to someone who could it better and faster than I could. WHAT!!
I have been blessed with a series of partners over the years that have made my business successful. Success does not mean just financial success but also allowing me to satisfy my own personal goals.
Do you need help getting started? The answer for most of you will be “yes.” I have listed a lot of resources in this post – including the Career Pivot community.
What is stopping you from starting your own business?
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