Reworking Retirement – A Dream and Business of Your Own

What is retirement?  It may not mean playing golf or sitting on a beach.  It may mean the opportunity to pursue your dream of owning a business.

If you have “retired” from the corporate world, you may be ready to pursue the “American Dream” of owning your own business.  If so, you have an advantage that many entrepreneurs don’t.

Senior entrepreneurs bring life experience to the entrepreneur role.  They also bring perspective.

As many of the “reworkers” tell me, they learned from years in other people’s businesses that it take time to do things well.  The majority also had a more mellow attitude when things didn’t go as planned or expected.

This isn’t saying they are driven to succeed.  Nor does it mean that the standards of performance are lower.  Quite the opposite is true, they expect to accomplish more because they finally have the opportunity to pursue the business of their dreams.

These “senior” entrepreneurs may be running a bed and breakfast or a consulting practice.  They may be founding not-for-profits in support of causes they have supported as donors previously.  Whatever they are doing, they are doing it with purpose, with vision, and with savvy.

None of these senior entrepreneurs had experience running a business – the full scope of activities.  Many weren’t even exposed to the “business” end of the companies they worked for.  However, each has jumped in and learned from the successes and failures.  Giving them the freedom to experience both hasn’t been the biggest challenge.

There seem to be two groups of senior entrepreneurs:  those pursuing the dream of running a business and those building a business because of necessity – retirement funds aren’t enough to last for the additional 20 or more years they may be needed.

What does it take to be a successful senior entrepreneur?  The same things  it takes for any entrepreneur:

  • Desire
  • Determination
  • Stick-to-it-iveness
  • Resilience
  • Funding
  • Time
  • Business model (that works)
  • Planning
  • Timing
  • Decision-making
  • Ability to adapt
  • Responsiveness

It takes YOU to succeed – in your time, your own way.

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