Ah, retirement! A time to kick back, relax on a golf course, conquer your personal reading list, and take it easy throughout the remaining golden years of life. For those retired individuals that were previously entrepreneurs, however, now might be the best time to skip a few years of disconnecting from the working world and start another small business.
According to the 2017 American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, small business owners of all ages are experiencing a rise in optimism. Over the next six months alone, three quarters of entrepreneurs have a positive outlook on the economy and their business prospects.
Baby boomers make up nearly 80 million of the American population and each day, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65-years-old.
Despite their age, boomers are still planning to keep working and with 45 percent of baby boomers considering themselves to be entrepreneurs, it’s highly likely that their next venture will be a small business.
What kind of startup should a boomer embrace and make their own? While the answer will ultimately depend on your areas of expertise and passions, here are a few types of businesses retired entrepreneurs can try on for size.
1. Seek out a position you would naturally enjoy (and are good at)
Do you have years of financial consulting services under your belt? How about an extensive portfolio as a personal chef? Were you once a professor with books published on subjects you taught and excelled in like history and mathematics? It’s one thing to work in a specific field for a certain amount of time, but quite another to do more than what is required of you because you naturally enjoyed it so much.
Starting a business in a field that you have years of expertise in does more than put you in a position for success. It also immediately cements you as a credible source. You’ve put in the hard work and have received recognition along the way, ensuring with your existing clients you’re the real deal and allowing them to spread positive word of mouth about your skills to others.
Related: Q&A with Leading Authority on Encore Entrepreneurship
2. Exercising body, mind and soul
Rather than opt to head back into business that requires sitting at a desk for eight (or more) hours a day again, consider the idea of starting up a company that specializes in exercise for the body, mind and soul.
Retired entrepreneurs come from the fortunate place of understanding what they are and are not physically capable of at this stage in their lives and what their weaknesses are, as well. Do not push yourself to start a business where you’re a personal trainer to a pack of millennials! Avoid anything else that could be too labor intensive as well, where heavy lifting or a high amount of go, go, go energy is required. Consider instead the idea of a startup that centers around beginner’s yoga or Pilates lessons or offers self-care practices for all ages including unplugging from social media, going on nature walks, or practicing bullet journaling and the art of calligraphy.
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3. Indulge your creative side
Maybe you spent years in the corporate world (and did well) but never felt as though it fulfilled you on a creative level. There might have been a time when you were more likely to spend your free time painting, making jewelry or playing an instrument, but shelved some of that passion in an effort to focus on work or your family.
Now is the time to dip back into those artistic endeavors. As pointed out on Bankrate, retired entrepreneurs typically have a nice nest egg to fall back on as a financial cushion. This makes it much more possible to return to old passions and concentrate on learning more about them without worrying too much about the business as a whole. As an added bonus, 51.6 percent of businesses operate from home, which is a huge plus in saving money from potentially leasing or purchasing a storefront for your new startup. Best of all, many of these creative side gigs can also be done from the comfort of where you live!
