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Saturday, December 25, 2010

What Will Happen As Baby Boomers Hit Retirement Age?

Baby Boomers Approach Age 65 - Glumly - The Philadelphia Bulletin

The "Age Wave" is about to hit retirement. Baby boomers, from the very beginning, have changed the world as they hit various stages of life. Some describe this as sort of like the bump a pig makes as it is being swallowed by a python.

We saw this Age Wave prompt the building of hospitals, baby food, elementary schools, and sports shoes. Nearly everything you can think of has been touched by the expanding demand of the baby boomer age wave.

In just a few days, the first baby boomers will turn 65, the traditional retirement age. Many things about how baby boomers think will make a mark on retirement as well. According to this research by the Pew Research Center, one week from today baby boomers will start turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day for the next 19 years.

Answers to questions in this study point us to some of the changes we can expect in the future. Baby boomers don't think 65 is old. Baby boomers want to have more control of their lives. These are some of the factors already pointing to the emerging trend of baby boomers quitting their "day jobs" and becoming entrepreneurs. This is resulting from a desire to have a change from traditional retirement.

If you are a baby boomer, if you are someone who wants to sell to baby boomers, you may want to read this report. It is likely to point you to needs that will have to be filled over the next two decades. Filling needs is the sweet spot in life for entrepreneurs. You might even be inspired to join the baby boomer entrepreneurs.



Shallie

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, Would You Let Your New Business Play In Traffic?

If you had a new puppy, how would you protect it? Would you let it play in your front yard alone? If there is a 95% chance that it would get killed within a year if you just let it do what it wants, would you let it run free?


If you met the love of your life and decided to get married, would you forget to tell them every day that you love them? Suppose research proved that 95% of people who don't tell their spouses every day that they love them have a divorce within a year? Wouldn't you take action to protect your relationship?

When your child gets big enough to play outside, would you let it play in the street if there is a 95% probability that it would get hit by a car within a year?

These are the same odds that a baby boomer entrepreneur faces, that something will hurt or kill her business within the first year, with a 95 % certainty. This is true for all entrepreneurs, from baby boomer entrepreneurs through Gen -Y. I suspect that it even applies to kids with lemonade stands, but I haven't seen the research.

What we can see in the research is staggering. In the United States alone, a business started today has a 95% probability of not surviving for twelve months. Next month 500,000 businesses started across America will produce that same result. And next month another 500,000 businesses will have the same fate...and then the next month...until six million businesses are started in the year. And every January 1st a new year starts the cycle all over again. If you knew this, wouldn't you do something different to make sure your business is among those that survive?


When you have a child, you want them to learn to walk, go to school, graduate , and eventually become a responsible adult contributing to the world. Though you have the lofty vision of their life, you first immediate goal is to keep them alive until their first birthday. As they grow, you will protect them from the new set of age appropriate set of dangers.

If we know businesses have a 95% infant mortality rate, why do we wrap our beloved new born businesses in a baby blanket, set it in a basket in the street and ignore the traffic? Would YOU do that and expect to be a successful baby boomer entrepreneur?


Shallie

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Image: Tom Clare / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Monday, July 05, 2010

Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, Do You Want A Worthless Business?





If you are like most entrepreneurs, you are building your business primarily to give yourself a job. This is true not only for baby boomer entrepreneurs, but entrepreneurs of all ages. If you are currently, or hope to be, one of the owners of the 23 million businesses in the U.S., and don't want to explore being able to build a business you can sell to someone else, this book is not for you.

However, if you want to maximize your options, this is the book you seek. If you want to be the 1 out of 100 business owners who have something of value that someone else would want to buy, this could be the book for you. If you are tired of the typical chaos of small business or you are tired of the business practices that make most service businesses unsellable, you may want to look over the shoulder of Alex Stapleton, the owner of the business discussed in this book. Learn why building a sell-able business might be your best option.

Following Alex through this fictional account as he learns how to build systems and a management team will expose you to new options. Even if you are already a fan of E-Myth's Michael Gerber, you will gain new insights on how to “work on your business and not just in it”. Through his story, author John Warrilow shares the benefit of much experience in actually doing what he teaches you to do in the book. You will learn what to do, how to do it, why to do it, when to do it, and how to handle situations with conflicting priorities. He even gives you an “8 Step Model For Selling Your Business” in the recap of what you should learn.

As baby boomers, a new business may be the best bet for a comfortable retirement. If you are already a baby boomer entrepreneur looking to downsize and form a different business, this book may help you. If your goal is to get freedom with your time, I recommend you take a look. You might even only want to sleep better knowing that you could sell your business if you want to do so.

READ Built To Sell if you want to know:
1. How long it will take you to prepare your business for sale.
2. How to find prospective buyers.
3. How to avoid being taken advantage of by your advisers or your prospective buyers.
4. How to reward your management team for helping you build a sell-able business and make them willing to stay with the business when you leave.

If you are a baby boomer entrepreneur, you will be delighted to learn how to turn your business into one you can sell. Of course, this is true for entrepreneurs of all ages.

For more videos and more information, see my Squidoo Lense: Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, Do You Want A Worthless Business?

Shallie Bey

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Do You Really Have To Pay To Play, Aspiring Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs?

In the old era, you had to pay to play. But today's aspiring baby boomer entrepreneur has a new edge. In the old model you had to buy attention. But today, corporations are discovering that big budgets don't produce results the way they once did.

So, if big companies are spending less on social media and getting better results, doesn't it make sense that you can make it on a low or perhaps no budget too?

You can't buy attention anymore.
Having a huge budget budget doesn't mean anything in Social Media.
The old media paradigm was PAY to PLAY.
Now you get back what you authentically put in.
You've got to be willing to PLAY to PLAY.
------- Alex Bogusky, Co-Chair, CP&B


The following video shares with you a glimpse of how Social Media is completely changing the nature of the game.





You can do market research on social media. You can serve your customers through social media. Social media is the doorway to your success as a baby boomer entrepreneur.



One very exciting example of market research is the new use of Twitter to predict customer response to a product.

Two researchers at HP Labs have established that they can use Tweets to predict how well a movie will do - research that can be applied to all manner of events including how well a product or ad campaign may perform.

Although the researchers, Sitaram Asur and Bernardo Huberman, have only applied their methodologies to Hollywood movies, the accuracy rate of their tests is startling - essentially it was more accurate than the current gold standard, the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which the industry uses, writes Fast Company.
You can click here to get the full story. http://www.marketingvox.com/twitter-as-a-predictive-tool-046619/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink

Fellow baby boomer, we are blessed to be living in the most exciting of times for entrepreneurs. If you know what business you want to be in and how you want to serve your customers, you can PLAY TODAY.

Shallie Bey

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs Gary Vaynerchuk Explains The New Opportunity

Gary Vaynerchuk explains what he sees as the new opportunity for entrepreneurs. It is the ability to build a business focused upon your personal happiness and your personal range of opportunities. This is wonderful news for everyone, but especially for aspiring baby boomer entrepreneurs.

He explains that we are in a sea of culture shifts. These shifts create opportunities that did not exist: five years ago, a year ago, even days ago.

Gary Vee believes that the Internet is the single most under-rated aspect of society today. It is the open door to the "Thank You Economy" that places word of mouth on steroids. It is the opportunity to create real relationships in new ways.




Winning this battle requires living in a world where content is King and marketing is Queen. It opens the opportunity for "Tag Team Partners" where a content producer can partner with a marketing partner. The team can produce results that neither could produce alone.

Now, in the spirit of disclosure, Gary is about passion. In the midst of his excitement, that passion shows up in the form of a word that you might not use in polite company. But, if you can overcome that, Gary Vee has a word for you about becoming a baby boomer entrepreneur.

Shallie

Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog

Note: The video is about an hour and eighteen minutes long. The first thirty minutes are presentation with the balance being Q & A. You can find the direct link at:

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs Seth Godin's Linchpin Has Been Out For A Month

Well, baby boomer entrepreneurs, Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin, has been out for a month. What are we seeing about it's impact so far?

As for me, it has been a wonderful month. I've read Linchpin a couple times. I've shared it with many of my friends. I created a squidoo lens called Become A Linchpin. That is exactly what I want to do, be a linchpin. What have you decided? Why don't you tell me in the comments below?

Shallie Bey
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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Baby Boomers - Especially Entrepreneurs - Seth Godin's New Book Linchpin Is For You



How can I make such a statement to you baby boomers? After all. Seth says:
- I didn't set out to get you to quit your job
- or to persuade you to become an entrepreneur
- or merely to change the world.

Yet, he also says: ...fearful employees are in pain. They're in pain because they're overlooked, underpaid, laid off, and stressed out.”

“You weren't born to be a cog in the great industrial machine. You were trained to be a cog.”
“ You were promised: Follow these instructions and you don't have to think”

Now I ask, who can he be speaking to other than baby boomers. Who has lived under this training longer than any other generations? All of our lives, we baby boomers have been “pushed to produce, to conform, and to consume”. That is why 77+ million of us are looking to end our work careers. That is why many of us are seeking an alternative to traditional retirement and searching for advice on how to start your baby boomer business. We don't want anymore “attendance based compensation”.

We want the choice to be indispensable and to make a difference. As consumers, employees, and business owners - we do not want to participate in the old model “of racing to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities”.

As baby boomer entrepreneurs, we are starting baby boomer businesses at an amazing clip. We are already half of all the self employed business owners in America. Baby boomer women are leading the way at business formation at about twice the rate of men.

Seth doesn't promise you a map. What he does provide is a compass to point you in the right direction. He does advise you to focus on the audience you choose. He advises you to listen to them to the exclusion of all others. He advises making these customers happy. “Let the other guys pound sand”.

Baby boomers, especially entrepreneurs...this one is for you!

Friday, January 01, 2010

Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, What Is Your Problem?

Roman Ross and I met for breakfast at a truck stop in Dallas. It was a great way for old friends to begin the new year. We like the buffet at the truck stop, having met there for breakfast before. It has good food and lots of variety, all at a reasonable price.

We were greeted by a very gracious server who seated us and brought menus. Roman asked her if there would be a buffet. The server told us the buffet wouldn't be open for about thirty minutes. Or, we could order anything we wanted from the menu. Roman told her we would wait for the buffet. The server brought us coffee. While we waited, we began to discuss the problems of the world, especially the new ones that have unfolded since our last visit.

New Year's Day is always a good time to discuss the topic of change. Change influences options. For many of us baby boomers, change seems to have reduced our options. We are older. For many of us, our problems are health related: vision, mobility, high blood pressure or diabetes.

Perhaps our problem is from our history. We might have issues lingering from earlier in life. We might not have the "right college major". We might have dropped out of college. We migh not have gone to college.

Perhaps our problem is from our present. We are getting a divorce. We don't have a job. Our industry that we have worked in all our life is dead, downsized, or outsourced. Our car isn't running.

The key to our future is recognizing and understanding problems. This is not about problems in the since of our personal sources of vexation and perplexity. We must understand the problems of people around us. We must think of problems in the sense of being a question raised for consideration or a solution.

All around us, people have problems that require solutions. People are eager to find solutions to their problems and will look upon you as a hero if you can show them effective solutions. They will pay you to help them find solutions when they don't know how to solve their problems.

Just as I was sharing my point about the word "problems" having two definitions, I noticed the servers were opening the buffet. Before I could suggest to Roman that we head over, I realized that people were getting up all over the restaurant. They were making their way to the buffet in mass.

Roman and I just sat and drank a bit more coffee. We watched the people serving themselves. The buffet became our case study on solving problems of people around us. We saw how the restaurant manager became the hero for 25 - 30 people by opening the buffet...by providing what the people wanted.

Though it was not obvious when we first arrived, it looked like nearly everyone in the restaurant was waiting for the buffet. Presumaby, we were all hungry. We could have ordered from the menu pretty much anything that we would have taken from the buffet. But we all wanted the buffet.

The solution to our hunger problem was not just food, but food delivered in a special way. The buffet gave us a package with options under our control. We could have what we wanted, with any combination we wanted, and as much as we wanted. As one of the hamburger commercials promises, we could have it "OUR WAY" and we had control of the maximum price.

Having once been a restaurant owner, I enjoy referring to delivering your product or service in such a special way as your "special sauce". YOUR special sauce is what makes your solution different and...to the taste of your customer. A hamburger can be a commodity like a light bulb if there is no way to tell one from another. A hamburger becomes special when your special sauce gives the hamburger a taste that makes your customer drive across town...to get a hamburger that tastes exactly the way they want it to taste.

So the way we create opportunities or options in our future is not to study the problems that limit us. Success is in studying the problems limiting those around us. We want to offer solutions to their problems. Our problems must have our "special sauce"...the way that not only fills their hunger, but in a way exactly according to their taste. Our special sauce makes it impossible for anyone else to solve their problem our way. Your problem is to find solutions to things vexing and frustrating those around you. The solutions to the problems of others are your doorway to new opportunities.

So, baby boomer entrepreneur, look around and discover the problems of health, the problems of the past, and the problems of the present...the problems that limit and vex those around you. Be the leader in solving a problem or some aspect of the problem, so you can help those around you. We call that a niche. What problem of others will you adopt for the purpose of finding solutions? To whom will you be a hero? So, baby boomer entrepreneur, what is your problem?


Shallie
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PS...Do you need help with your baby boomer business? Do you want to develop your special sauce? Join our free mailing list. Just fill on the box in the top right corner of this page. I will share with you some of the best business building tips available for free on the Internet. We can help you find your problem, the one that will solve the needs of your customers and will make you their hero.