Boomer Entrepreneurship Renaissance

A short post this weekend, but something near and dear to my heart.

If we boomers are going to have to work longer, why not work at something we love through our own small businesses?

The most recent Kauffman Foundation Index of Entrepreneurial Activity found that the highest rates of entrepreneurship came from people age 55 to 64. Boomers had the highest rate of business creation of any age group in 2008. The only other demographic with higher startup rates were immigrants. Both good stories needing attention.

The Kauffman story breaks down new business startups into high and low income types of businesses. However, I would posit that many boomer startups are not intended to be high growth, big money operations.

Boomer businesses are typically small enterprises based on work the entrepreneur loves and skills and knowledge the boomer entrepreneur has developed over decades. They are typically self-funded and are designed to produce an income or two or three. If it grows from there all the better, but if it reaches these plateaus and can contribute financially in this awful market, good on 'em.

In my work as an economic developer and when I teach startups, I see the boomer demographic most strongly represented as the emerging power in new business creation. They have subject expertise. They have love for a niche. Most importantly they have wide ranging contacts in their field they can turn to as peers.

If we're going to have to work longer, why not be passionate about the work? Why not design the work to fit into our lives rather than vice versa? Why not put those years of hard work to use for ourselves for a change?

Whether you want to do it or need to do it or just are looking for an enriching challenge, you can do it, my boomer friends. There has never been a better time. This is the Renaissance Age of Entrepreneurship and it's just beginning.

We boomers are perfectly positioned to take advantage of it to help ourselves and help the planet. More on this specific subject in upcoming posts….


Kauffman Foundation Index of Entrepreneurial Activity highlighting boomer entrepreneurship

Boomer Biz

80,000 Americans turn 60 every single day*

I look at the financial mayhem that just befell the world, and I know that it is hitting all parts of society hard.

I think the style of entrepreneurship that I've written about here is especially suited to boomers. I think that there is a clear need for information about slow paced startups that offer not only a realistic return but importantly, a path for the new entrepreneur to make a contribution to their communities. There is a real potential for creating millions of new small businesses from within this demographic. Scaled right and planned appropriately, this path could offer many of my boomer peers additional financial security and a chance to make a difference.

This is not the only demographic that needs help, but I think the tools and approach of sustainable work fit this bunch the best.

Plus, as a fellow traveler well into boomer-hood, I don't have to be polite to my peers. I get to tell it like it is.

Taking the time to research what you love is the first step. Let the research take you into challenging directions, not the same-old, same-old. Learn from the wonderful young people and all the things that we're inclined to run from. Embrace it. Take the opportunity to slow down and make changes that utilize the new digital and cultural tools that are appearing. Then hurry up and try them out.

Are you going to get rich with your boomer startup? It happens, but the strongest likelihood is that if you plan it right, you'll be able to make a sustainable job for yourself going forward. One that won't be dependent on distant corporate managers or the vagaries of the specific geography you live in.

If you team up to market yourself with like-minded peers of all ages, you can bolster the chances of success for all of you.

It does not take a lot of money to start most new enterprises. It takes the kind of skills and knowledge that most boomers have, but often don't value: time, patience, deep understanding of a specific subject, the ability to see beyond the immediate crisis.

Is Boomer Biz for everyone? Surely not. Is it a viable option that many of us should be exploring? You bet. Boomers and self enterprise are a perfect match!

I was just at a meeting of the Inventor and Entrepreneur Club in Vernon County, WI. This club is run by one of the best economic development pros I am privileged to know, Sue Noble. There were about 50 people attending. All were looking for new ideas to help them launch or improve their new enterprises. As they went around the room telling their own stories, the new ideas flowed and the inspiration just kept getting more compelling. Certainly there were young people in the group, but the vast majority were boomers starting new businesses or boomers just beginning to explore a way to put a toe into that water.

It was so cool to see peers my age just flat out excited about learning new skills and trying new things. They were challenging themselves. They were alive. It was just a really fun room to be in.

If you are a boomer take the time to start acquiring the skills to create your own small enterprise. Done right, it may be the best security you can create for yourself in this economy. More importantly, we can help create a new, better and more secure economy that benefits everyone in society.

It's not hard. It's just new. Deep breath. You can do it.



Vernon County, WI Economic Development

*Fast Company June 2009 p. 103 .

Boomer entrepreneur opportunity

I'm in contact with folks setting up a pilot for a really cool sounding TV show.

It's going to be geared toward boomer entrepreneur couples that are considering, or are in the early stages of leaping from their prior lives into the world of entrepreneurship.

As many of you know, I've got something of a specialty beginning to emerge with boomer entrepreneurs. The producers of this show have asked me to suggest additional candidates. They are doing casting for the show right now.

Here's how they describe who they are looking for:

"Have you always wondered how wonderful life could be if you started that business, took that hobby more seriously or changed your career? Is there anything you always said you'd do once your kids got older?"

"For many people in their 40’s and 50’s, the time has come to restructure their life and do something they’ve always dreamed of…….it could be anything from owning a Bed & Breakfast to running a Scuba Diving School in the Caribbean."

"Our show, “Life Begins at 40” will give a husband and wife team an opportunity to Road Test their Dreams."

Please send me an eMail if you're a reader that matches this description. It looks like a great opportunity and a lot of fun!

And by all means you're not alone. Dr. Gene Cohen, M.D., PH.D. who is a scientist and researcher at George Washington University discussed the huge trend of adults taking on new challenges and discovering new meaning in their lives in the Jan 16, 2006 issue of Newsweek.

In an article titled, "The Myth of the Midlife Crisis", Dr. Cohen said only about 10% of the people in midlife that he studies describe this time as a crisis.

"Far more say they're filled with a new sense of quest and personal discovery. 'I'm looking forward to pursuing the career I always wanted,' one 49-year-old woman told me. 'I'm tired of just working on other people's visions, rather than my own, even if I have to start on a smaller scale.'"

C'mon my boomer friends. You know you want to make this leap. Here's the nudge you've been looking for!

Send me an eMail to nominate yourself and your idea for the show.

Newsweek article on boomer brains and what we can do with them

Dr. Cohen is also the founding director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University Medical Center. This article is adapted from "The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain." It's now out in paperback, and you can read more about it at Amazon.com

Encore careers: Boomer entrepreneurs and the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Did you know Americans aged 55 to 64 start small businesses at a higher rate than any other age group?

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is an ideal platform for launching an 'encore career'. You can live anywhere you want and start a safe, legal food business without betting your savings. It can even be a lot of fun!

This is the Renaissance age of entrepreneurship, and it's just beginning. If you are a boomer thinking about starting your own artisan food business, you need to contact the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.


SBA site for 50+ entrepreneurs

"Encore careers combine purpose, passion and a paycheck"

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Photo is of a fall crocus, a late bloomer and great contributor to the landscape, just like boomer entrepreneurs.

"Why Baby Boomers are the innovators of the future" ... or... why you should start a food business, my boomer pals

"Are Baby Boomers the face of the innovative startup of the future?"

This is a great overview posted yesterday by Dominic Basulto at the Washington Post.

There are many great reasons boomers have to launch their own enterprise. This article supports those opportunities.

Of special significance is the idea that boomers will lead in the creation of new enterprises focusing on good health.

Food enterprises should be considered as the leading edge in the business category of good health. Keeping us healthy through good food is far more valuable and less expensive than medicines, surgery and biotechnology. This opportunity will last for decades.

Food entrepreneurship through our Innovation Kitchen model is making a significant contribution to this discussion.

Opportunities for boomer innovation and entrepreneurship are everywhere. Don't slow down. Accelerate.


Washington Post - "Why Baby Boomers are the innovators of the future" by Dominic Basulto. Original quotes and graphic are copyright the Washington Post. Thank you.

This great post written by Dominic Basulto

Earlier Sustainable Work posts about boomer entrepreneurship

Accelerate. "To cause faster or greater activity, development, progress, advancement, etc., in: to accelerate economic growth." Dictionary.com

Encore careers

I had not heard the term 'encore careers' until I read a commentary by Marc Freedman in the Nov. 2007 Ode magazine.

Marc is the founder and CEO of the think tank, Civic Ventures (Helping society achieve the greatest return on experience) has written a book called Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life. I have it on hold at the library but judging from the commentary piece in Ode, this looks to be a great premise.

I'd like to use this post to highlight some quotes from Marc's commentary...

After setting up shots of dreamy seniors on sailboats and golf courses...

"But wait a minute: Who looks forward to endless retirement anymore, 30 years of R and R? Who can afford it - even with the most diligent savings plan? For reasons of money and meaning, the golden-years vision being peddled by the financial and real estate industries is already obsolete. Stretched from a justified period of relaxation after the mid-life years into a phase lasting just as long, this version of retirement has been distorted into something grotesque, something that no longer works, for individuals - or for society."

"But this troubling conclusion amounts to scenario-planning through the rear-view mirror. Retirement as we've known it is far from an eternal verity. In fact it is already being displaced as the central institution of the second half of life, soon to be supplanted by a new stage of life and work opening up between the end of mid-life and the eventual arrival of true old age. Indeed four out of five boomers consistently tell researchers they expect to work well into what used to be known as the retirement years."

Here's the part that I find most inspiring and I see it clearly in the wonderful boomer launches I work with...

"...boomers should be encouraged not only to continue contributing, but to rethink the purpose of that work - in short, to dust off their idealism of the '60s and '70s, and get to work making the world a better place. It is the perfect opportunity for the generation that set out to change the world and got lost along the way. Now, as tens of millions of boomers careen toward what were once the golden years, I believe more and more people are interested in living out a distinct and compelling vision of contribution in the second half of adult life, one built around an 'encore career' at the intersection of continued income, new meaning and significant contribution to the greater good."

Good words from Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures.

The service economy is growing without pause through all kinds of economic turmoil. The wisdom accumulated by older workers can be applied in unlimited creative and valuable ways.

I see small, smart, self-funded, boomer enterprises emerging everywhere to fill this need and to take advantage of this growing opportunity to serve.

These new enterprises do not have to fit anyone's model but our own. They can operate at a pace and scale we choose. I've written before about the slow startup movement, and I think it's a perfect fit for boomer entrepreneurs and this enormous opportunity. Start early and start slow. Plan carefully and launch at your own speed. What's important my friends, is that you start.

You should consider this more than just an interesting idea. It's a big, big social trend. Welcome aboard!

Civic Ventures

Ode Magazine

5 Reasons to Create Your First Start Up

The title of this piece is a blog title written by Chris Campbell. This was written in Nov. 2006 by Chris who co-founded Wufoo, which is a very nice new web based form that I've just started using. ("The best thing to happen to forms since the submit button" - I wholeheartedly agree!)

Chris hits on some real trouble spots possible in some types of start ups. Although I believe Chris is a young man, he speaks with experience and describes these pitfalls well.

This kind of talk will likely scare off many of my boomer pals but Chris Campbell's piece is not talking about boomer micro start ups.

It's geared toward small tech startups

Here is some from Chris Campbell piece linked below...

"The moral of the story is that now is a great time to begin your first startup because there is usually a lot to learn before your first real success. The act of starting a business will help to solidify your ideas, weed out bad co-founders and give you a feel for the time commitment required."

Here's Chris' list:

1) It Prepares You for How Much Work Is Involved

2) It’ll Teach You What to Look for in a Cofounder

3) It’ll Show You How Flexible Your Ideas Need to Be

4) It’ll Teach You the Importance of Passion

5) It’ll Show You How Little You Know About Money

Read the details. It's short and worth it.


The Wufoo blog piece

Check out this cool Wufoo site

I'm also a big fan of the venture folks behind them and one of their principals Paul Graham. Check out Y-Combinator

Catch the Culture

A newly released paper from Harvard economist Edward Glaeser reinforces a theme regarding startups and emerging enterprises that I'm finding to be true everywhere I turn.

Professor Glaeser's paper, "Entrepreneurship and the City", was discussed in the online forum, The National Dialog on Entrepreneurship, a Kauffman Foundation site. The abstract is available from the Harvard Institute of Economic Research. I have purchased the full article, but it's not here yet. However, the abstract and NDE discussion is enough for me to make the point of this post.

While this research looked specifically at what made cities more successful, I have no doubt that the same findings can be said for any region and probably any country.

The paper concludes that it is the culture of entrepreneurship that is critical to the success of a city. Specifically, cities don't have entrepreneurial cultures by some magic stoke of good luck. They succeed because they support and educate the widest number of people who then become entrepreneurs.

Professor Glaesser finds that cities with a skilled and appropriate work force tend to have higher rates of self-employment and relatively higher proportions of small firms.

The paper also concludes that, "There is a strong connection between area-level education and entrepreneurship."

There is no mention of advanced business school training, only education leading to a "skilled and appropriate work force".

Yes. Absolutely. The culture of success is built person-by-person, startup-by-startup, new enterprises becoming small creative, valuable contributors to their cities and regions.
Does that mean all these small new entrepreneurial ventures are going to succeed? Of course it doesn't. Just the opposite. The vitally different - and better - way of asking that question is why is the idea of failure universally seen as nothing but negative by so many people?

Why can't failure be seen as the valuable learning step it can be? In successful entrepreneurial cultures, you aren't looked down upon for failing. You're looked at as someone that's working hard and could use an introduction or two, maybe a referral to a needed link in their next chain.

Now, if your failures involve lots of money and little planning, the value of that lesson is dimmer and can be hard to locate.

If you fail by losing important money in some high risk gamble, that's not failure, that's stupidity.

But if you roll out your startups following the ideas in the slow startup movement I've been writing about and you fail, congratulations! You've learned something valuable without paying much for it. You now know one small thing better than most of the population of the planet. String a few of those together, and you're gold. Nobody can catch you now. You'll know one specific set of things that virtually no one else on earth knows. If you launch your new startup by spending more time than money on it, the world of enterprise becomes an entirely different and more welcoming place.

But you need the culture of support for innovation that only comes from doing it not talking about it.

In many of the circles I travel in, I hear all kinds of supportive talk for entrepreneurship.

This week, I was fortunate enough to see this kind of culture-building support for innovation actually being done.

Was it valuable to for the entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs? There are a few metrics I could use to define success, but let's use one that should have obvious meaning. I saw a large group of people come out on a cold November night in Wisconsin, at the very same time the Green Bay Packers were playing the Dallas Cowboys (both with records of 10 and 1), to share and support their entrepreneurial ideas. Value? Hmm. I'd say.

This was an Inventor and Entrepreneur Club meeting in beautiful Juneau County, WI. Wow. The stories, the mutual support, the flat out usefulness of the entire process was really fun.

Terry Whipple coordinates the meetings. No, that's too orderly a word… Terry mobilizes the meetings. These are very peer-to-peer driven. I'm excited for their organizations. Terry and Sue Noble from the Vernon County Club, and I got to meet before, during, and after the meeting. Talk about getting it! Talking about building entrepreneurial cultures for all the right reasons.

I also came away from a recent Green County I&E club meeting with a similar sense. There are wonderful, low-cost, effective, and highly supportive ways to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, one person at a time.

This is new enough for a Harvard professor to be writing about it, and yet surely is as old as commerce itself.

The folks working at these grassroots levels in my state are not counting business plans and filtering them for their high tech/biotech/nanotech sex appeal. They are building cultures of entrepreneurship one person, one relationship at a time. They are building networks on networks, one network at a time.

Sue Noble told me a story about her I&E Club which almost had me in tears. I'm headed to one of their Vernon County meetings ASAP, and will post that story soon.

Professor Glaeser writes that "local entrepreneurship depends mainly on having the right kind of people". And I would suggest that to create the most efficient and widespread effects, the right kind of people would be those that are respected, supported, and trained to learn from failure and to grow in sustainable ways. That's a real culture of innovation.

Terry had posters all over the room reading 'Catch the Culture!'. I got it but didn't post it to my notebook. The next day I read about the Harvard study, stating that regions that create systems for supporting small scale entrepreneurship build successful cultures. Terry suddenly seemed smarter than he'd ever claim.

There is a tantalizing reference in Professor Glaeser's abstract for my boomer entrepreneur buddies. "Self-employment is particularly associated with abundant, older citizens and with the presence of input suppliers." Yikes. Boomer biz with lots of small operations. The research paper is ordered. Stay tuned.

I love studies that agree with me. They seem so prescient. Yet the truthfulness and the timeliness of these ground-up ideas makes perfect sense. The idea of building successful, entrepreneurial cultures from the bottom up has to be true.

Is this a knock on other kinds of enterprise creation? Of course not. Those high tech, biotech and nanotech models can be wonderful and produce spectacular results. What I do intend to say is that those models aren't the only valuable kids on the block. The entire entrepreneurship movement needs support and respect for the whole culture to grow and prosper.

This Harvard study focused on two measures of entrepreneurship: self-employment and the number of small firms. "Both of these measures correlated with urban success."

You do the numbers. Any region needs more entrepreneurs and more small enterprises to be successful. That is NOT the same as more headline grabbing this-tech or that-tech venture funded firms. It's sheer numbers. More entrepreneurs and more enterprises make the culture succeed. From this perspective, risk in the economy of our regions gets spread around and diversified, more people get to contribute, and more people become engaged solving problems. Tell me something bad about this approach.

Thanks, Harvard. More importantly, thanks Terry and Sue and all the other good folks working from the bottom up to create a culture of entrepreneurship for all of us.

To anyone considering their own startup or new enterprise, I'd say "Welcome aboard". We all need you.



Juneau County, WI Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club

Contact Vernon County, WI economic development folks to learn more.

Abstract "Entrepreneurship and the City" (October 2007). Glaeser, Edward L., Harvard Institute of Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 2140

Barbarians at the gate

Is this a bad time to start your own enterprise?

Are there things that could go wrong? Did you see the stock market last month? What if there's a recession, or interest rates wig out, or what if consumer confidence drops, or what if...?

My daughter and I went to a film festival debate/seminar a couple years ago that included Philip Gourevitch, one of my favorite writers (The New Yorker) and now Editor of The Paris Review. Mr. Gourevitch's writing about Africa is especially worth searching out.

Someone asked him about his fear of going forward given the chaos of the world.

He responded in a very unexpected and creative way, I thought. He said this:

"Barbarians have always been at the gate.

Barbarians will always be at the gate.

You just need to do what you do."

Both of my grandfathers started their own businesses. My Dad started his own business and my Mom worked for tech startups before that word was remotely fashionable. Computers in refrigerators stuff.

They all did it in times of significant chaos. My last start up (a manufacturing company) was launched right into the teeth the largest downturn in manufacturing since the Great Depression.

Times are always chaotic, for ever and ever, amen.

People have been creating new enterprises in times of apparent disorder and danger for millennia.

Guess what? Remember the opening question, 'Is this a bad time to risk starting your own enterprise?' The answer is, thankfully, yes.

If times are bad, then you have ready access to the key raw material for all startups… problems. If you can provide a real solution to a real problem, opportunity is limitless.

In a global economy this big, and this integrated (and this is just the start of the start of global integration), you can plug your new enterprise in easier than has ever been possible in the history of the world.

Your enterprise can be for-profit, non-profit, social entrepreneurship, screaming-cool high tech sprint, or a beautiful, slow-mo boomer launch. I don't care. If you want to create an enterprise to support yourself and build some sustainability into your life, the time is now.

This era will be looked back on as the renaissance age of entrepreneurship, and it's just beginning.

You need to refine your contribution to the industry, or the markets you know best and where you have the authority and the skills to compete.

Then you need to put one foot in front of the other no matter the seeming dangers.

Are there barbarians at the gate? I don’t care what neighborhood you live in anywhere on the globe, the answer has been, is, and always will be, yes.

Can you create some measure of control over the outcome? Yes.

Is this a bad time to start an enterprise?

Only if you don’t try.


Wiki Philip Gourevitch

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, Mr. Gourevitch's great book on the Rwanda genocide.

Brand You 50

Tom Peters has written many great books and hosts an especially valuable web site and blog that I recommend you visit often for information and inspiration.

I noted with great interest that Tom has initiated a seminar series based on one of my favorite books of his called Brand You 50. This is the one business book I insist my startup clients and students read.

I call Brand You 50 'the book that can not be excerpted'. If you took out all the valuable stuff, you'd be left with the blank pages and copyright stuff.

This book was first published in 1999 during the precipitous rise in the economy, yet Tom used this work to focus not on big picture, meta stuff, but on the role individuals can and should play in their own commercial lives. If you haven't followed or read Tom before, you'll need to adjust to his writing style. Tom's free flow of street level wisdom will hook you.

The substance here is clear and demanding: you'd better matter. Quickly.

I believe the book was initially written for people working to advance their careers within organizations,. However, I make every one of my startup clients get this book and absorb it as early as possible in their emerging lives as entrepreneurs.

What's so valuable to me about this lesson in entrepreneurship is that you not only matter, you have to change the world. It will likely be in small incremental ways (or perhaps Ghandi-esque proportions), but you need to participate. We need you. You need to get in the game and help the world grow better.

Here's several pieces that I really think are clarion calls to entrepreneurship...

(On vanishing job security)... "My answer: Return to Job Security! (Not the answer you expected, I bet.) But it's New Job Security. Or, actually, Very Old New Job Security. It's what job security was all about before - long before -! Big Corp. Before Social Security. And unemployment insurance. Before there was a big so-called safety net that had the unintended consequence of sucking the initiative, drive, and moxie out of millions of white collar workers."

"I'm talking about job security in the Colonies and in the first century after our country was founded. Which was: Craft. Distinction. Networking skills."

"Craft = Marketable skill.
Distinction = Memorable.
Networking skills = Word of mouth collegial support."

"It's as old as the colonial blacksmith. (And his modern counterpart, the housepainter, or local CPA) As new as Hollywood. Or the peripatetic web programmer in San Francisco, or Austin, or Raleigh-Durham... or Tahiti."

"It's about being so damn good and meticulous and responsible about what you do (and making sure what you do is work that needs to be done) that the world taps a T1 speed path to you."

Bingo! Be responsible and authoritative about what you do and make sure what you do solves a real problem. There's an elevator pitch for entrepreneurship if I've ever heard one.

Let me take one more piece from Brand You 50 and hoist it up the flag as a shout out to everyone (and a flat out demand of my boomer peers!) to embrace and honor the entrepreneurial instincts within all of us...

"Master bootstrapping. From UPS to Marriott, most of the companies we most admire were founded on a shoestring. Literally: Less than a coupla thousand bucks."

"You don't need a silver (corporate or personal) spoon to sally forth. You do need passion, commitment, a few pals... and a Consuming Desire to take the next, usually wee step"

"NO EXCUSES:

- you do have 'space'.

- You don't need 'permission'.

- You don't need 'power'.

- You don't need a 'big' task.

- You don't need money."

"Money kills (or at least it can). With big bucks, you're too soon beholden to the funder... which can prevent us from taking the truly WOW leaps. But mostly, history is on your (poverty stricken) side. Most cool stuff - products, and companies and revolutions - was started in basements and garages, for (literal) pennies. Sony, UPS, Marriott, Apple, HP, Pizza Hut, Microsoft, FedEx, etc."

"Consider: Imagine Ghandi's budget. He merely created Earth's Largest Democracy."

When I train or mentor new entrepreneurs virtually all have the desire to launch, but many are too ready to back away from barriers they have only assumed were there. These barriers are of our own making. In fact, as Tom Peters indicates, most barriers are resources to build on, seen from the right perspective.

Get this book by Tom Peters, then read all the rest he's written. Visit Tom's web site often. Go to the Brand You seminar if it lands near you.

If you need a book to inspire your entrepreneurship goals, Brand You 50 is it.

This is the renaissance age of entrepreneurship, and it's just beginning.

You are important to all of us. You are vital to all our futures. You belong in the world and you can make an entrepreneurial contribution that is compelling and valuable. Don't wait for a time when things are just right. Take your "WOW leap".

We need your contribution as an entrepreneur. Your time is NOW, friend.

Tom Peters web site

Slow Startups. What to do first.

The economy is rebuilding, but I don't know anyone who feels relaxed about their future economic security.

People want to put some stability and meaning back into their economic lives. There are certainly many paths to get there.

I've been writing about slow startups as a viable path for creating smart new enterprises that can make significant financial and cultural improvements in people's lives.

We've got slow food, and now slow money. Why not slow startups? Everyone wants viable new solutions and the emerging model is competence and sustainability, not speed.

Just as there is great honor in slow foods and what that idea brings to commerce, there is also great honor and long-term value in creating slow enterprise models.

We need to make entrepreneurship simpler and more accessible. We need to nurture entrepreneurship that builds and sustains our communities and our regions. We need to help people create and build their own enterprises in ways that fit into their lives appropriately.

Slow startups take into account whatever your personal and financial status is. This model allows you to build and test your own enterprise at your own pace, so that in the end you will have a service or a product that you're passionate about and a sustainable business model supporting it.

Slow startups certainly match up well with my own boomer demographic. I also think these kind of slow launches will fit in well with the wonderful artisinal young people doing so many cool things out there. And if you're in the middle, what's wrong with trying to create a long-term job for yourself by slowly starting your own business now?

So, here's my news: Most startups take far longer than the people think. This is especially true for small, self-funded startups. That's not a bad thing, it just is. What this should be saying to you is to start creating your own small business ASAP. It will take longer than you think to get underway. Start one while you have a day job. Start one in your spare time. I know, this is not easy, but the time is there. Find what time you can and put it to work.

By taking the process slowly, you will learn far more than by rushing through it. You will learn to enjoy the journey.

If you REALLY love this process after trying it out, you can circle back and do startups over and over - a perfectly viable and compelling career path in the 21st century.

In trying to help some new enterprises through our economic development office, I've been re-using the Micro-Enterprise courses I wrote and taught through the Small Business Center at WCTC in Waukesha. It's my slow startup manual.

Slow startups perfectly suit micro-enterprise and vice versa.

What do I really mean? I mean you can invest a few hundred dollars and a year or two of part time effort and come out the other end with a viable enterprise that's making money and building greater security and independence into your life. From there you can nurture and grow it in any direction you want.

If you have more time and money to invest, you can shorten your timeline to launch. This also makes it possible to make expensive mistakes. Careful.

So, start now. Start slow. Take some time to think about this and explore the possibilities. Here is my outline:

Slow startups. What to do first.

There are six fairly simple, but critically important steps to launching a slow startup. These make slow startups sustainable:

- Get a realistic understanding of what it takes to wake up an idea, as well as the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and how to plan for both.

- Learn what information you'll need, how to find it, and how to use that information once you find it.

- Learn how become a professional at what you do, and where to turn for help.

- Create a management structure that builds your own confidence, deals with the details, and creates peace of mind for all involved.

- Learn how to market and sell in your niche.

- Learn to capture your data and turn it into commerce.

These six approaches to slow startups were the core of the six courses I wrote and taught through the Small Business Center.

They are my roadmap for creating slow startup enterprises. Each one of these topics unfolded into a 90+ minute discussion in my Micro-Enterprise courses when we dug into all the how-to stuff. There are multiple, discreet steps behind each of these major categories. I really loved sharing these ideas in depth.

I want you to know that it's not complicated. It just takes time. Take informed, measured steps. Develop mastery in small valuable steps. Make as many inexpensive mistakes as you can as quickly as you can. Execute. Innovate. Repeat.

It is not hard, but it does take time. Slow startups. Start one now and you'll thank yourself down the road.

As Tom Peters says, "Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark."

This is the Renaissance Age of entrepreneurship, and its just beginning.

Welcome friend. Now get going.


Tom Peters site

Boomer startups and encore careers

Long time Madison and Wisconsin contributor Nino Amato is currently the President and Executive Director of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups.

There was a very good interview with Mr. Amato in the November 2010 Madison Magazine.

The discussion of an aging workforce can be looked at from many ways. Certainly there is a financial risk to individuals and to the system.

However, starting new careers and new businesses may be one way older Americans can meet this challenge.

As Mr. Amato closes out his interview, he cites a movement I'm seeing in many areas of my economic development work, especially in the field of artisan food entrepreneurship through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

“'Baby boomers don’t think they’ll be ‘old’ until they’re eighty,' Amato says. Citing survey research conducted by Merrill Lynch, Amato says 76 percent of baby boomers intend to continue earning income full- or part-time after they retire from their main line of work. Many plan to begin new professional careers or start their own businesses."

For anyone thinking about starting their own small food enterprise to help carry them into and through their older years, the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen may be a great option right in our own back yard.

Sounds like a plan...


Interview with Nino Amato in Madison Magazine.

Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. Focusing on issues that impact older adults and people with disabilities.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. Mineral Point, Iowa County, Wisconsin.

The slow startup movement

You’ve heard of the slow foods movement? Perhaps the slow cities movement?

I’ve got an addition. The slow startup movement.

The common language of start ups these days is FAST. If you are not currently involved with the debate as an entrepreneur but would like to know more, listening in hurts.

The talk is all speed. Speed of the markets, speed of innovations, speed up new products. Kill or be killed. If you’re not in hyperdrive on this highway you’re road kill.

Here’s an idea. Don’t get on that highway if you can avoid it. Take the back roads. They’re more scenic. You’ll have time to think and to stop and talk to people. If you plan your journey right, you’ll understand many are smarter than you about things you need to learn.

Not all start ups fit this profile, but many could. I’m a 50 something boomer and it fits my demographic like a glove. Start now. Get the process in place on your schedule. Enjoy the learning curve. When you’re ready, jump in with both feet. I also think this can apply to young people, people in their middle years, single people, folks with families and seniors. I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t benefit by creating a slow start up for themselves.

Think of the benefits of slowly starting your new enterprise, if you have the time and resources available…

If you can start slow you can start small. This means no big outlays of money while you organize it. Take small bites and little risks and see where it takes you.

If you can start slow you can start smart. This means taking the time to weave a wide mix of vendors, end users, accounting professionals, sales channels and many others, into business processes that work for you and your enterprise. You can take the time to make your enterprise sustainable on your terms.

If you can start slow you can manage your risks. This start up process is fraught with risk. Starting slow teaches you how to understand which risks are valuable and which are dangerous.

I've been through a number of different kinds of startups. Some are entirely appropriate to launch through public funding channels. When speed is necessary, it can be readily provided by traditional channels. Angels, venture firms, loans, convertible debt, development organizations, banks, governments, and all of the other usual suspects are great resources and should all be used where appropriate.

But not every new venture needs those resources. Not every new enterprise is an appropriate match for those tools. You don’t have to follow that path just because that’s all anyone is talking about. If you have the time available to start slow, do it. You don’t have throw yourself or your enterprise onto the fires of the official start up channels. It’s rough out there. Speed and deadlines rule in those markets, as they should. If you’re not ready for prime time, and most seed stage ventures are not, create sustainability ahead of speed.

The slow startup is one clear path to sustainable work.

Slow startups don’t mean less work. They mean more. You’ll need to capture and measure every result. You’ll need to sift all your data from many directions to find the patterns that will take your enterprise forward. You will need to quickly learn from every mistake. You will need to get smarter every day.

As you infuse your business processes with this information, your slow start up can provide you and your enterprise increasing successes, personal and professional nourishment, and the discipline required to keep flapping your wings.

Then, when you’re ready to take flight, you can do it successfully. At the time of your choosing. Into an environment of your choosing with the tools and resources you’ve developed

When the right time comes, you won’t be talking about a start up. You’ll be talking about a take off.

Enjoy your journey, slowly.

Best said in cartoons

Sometimes things in life are best summarized by a great cartoon.

The Jan 16 New Yorker has a good one done by Barbara Smaller.

A human resource/finacial planner guy is at his desk. Behind him, on the wall, is a poster labeled 'Your Future' with an image of an hourglass, rapidly draining out. Across from him sits an older guy sitting nervously.

The planner is asking, "Have you given much thought to what kind of job you want after you retire?"

Hmmmm. Not too far from the mark, my boomer pals.

For a number of good reasons we should all be looking to put some financial and personal control in place as we get older. You can always be a greeter at Wal-Mart, but running your own enterprise makes getting out of bed every morning a LOT more interesting.


Barbara Smaller cartoons at The New Yorker

Boomers. Yeah you. Now!

Boomers, gather round. Button up your cardigans. Put your ears on the radio. Ready?

WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!!!

If you've thought about starting your own gig, now is the time. Not later. Now. We need you and your skills out here. Get out there and fix something. I don't want to meet you for the first time on the obituary page. I want to first learn about you as you're out kicking ass in some creative and helpful way.

There has never been a moment in human history where innovation and design improvements have been needed more. There have never been this many tools available to execute great solutions.

Life is not a rehearsal. Put some wheels on it, friend.

The world needs your help. You've got the skills. You've got the understanding. Fix something. Fast! Faster!!

Start your own enterprise. Start a non-profit. Start a for-profit. Become a social entrepreneur. Become a risk taker and a change agent. Start it up on the side. Start it up with a friend. Start it up with partners in town or partners oceans away. There is no perfect way. There is no single ideal organization model. Put together something that works for you.

Is it easy? Of course not. But you're got all that boomer imagination sitting around mostly unemployed. You need to plan well, execute even better, then get out there and change the world.

C'mon. There is a lot of work to be done. Your ability to execute your own solutions and create your own brands has never, ever been better. You've got a ton of life skills to build from. Put them to work.

You want more security? Make your own. You want a more fulfilling life? Don't wait. Do it yourself.

Boomers! Get busy, damn it. Don't make me use more superlatives.

Fire up you impact on the world before your chance to change the world passes.
.

Citizen Entrepreneurs

I’ve been looking for a way to describe my approach to entrepreneurship for a long time.

The business press is full of many competing descriptions. It can get confusing very quickly when you look into the subject about just what it is to be an entrepreneur. If you’re starting out like most of us, as small scale, big dream types, the official entrepreneurship press can make you feel pretty damn inadequate.

I’m not here to disparage any style of start up. The world is a big place, and there are uncountable niches for fitting your start up style into an available slot.

I am here to say that you should NEVER feel second rate for any effort you can muster. Entering the world of entrepreneurship is your right and a privilege that people living in the generations before us could only dream of.

It took getting mad to find the language I was looking for to describe entrepreneurship as I see it.

When I write about this stuff, I focus on positive aspects of the subject. As you can probably tell, I’m a glass-is-half-full kind of guy (because the glass IS half full). I don’t write about parts of this subject that tick me off because they are usually worth ignoring.

And yet, here is my first post focusing on personal anger management.

The normally wonderful Wisconsin Entrepreneur Network’s newsletter, entrepreneur@work dated April 25, ‘07 links to an article titled in a way that attracted my interest. “The frugal company culture: How to make your start-up last.”

Cool. We all need that.

Then I read my way into it. What should have made me smarter initially made me feel inadequate for what’d I’d done as an entrepreneur. However the more I stewed about it, the more it seemed like an April fool’s joke. Ha! “Gotcha. You thought we were serious didn’t you…”

Advice to the frugal start up: “Don’t hire 100 new employees.”

Why thank you. We start ups rarely worry about payroll. You’re right, I probably shouldn’t hire 100 new employees as a frugal start up.

Granted this is at written for dot-com start ups that have been over paid by private equity types. However, if you think most new enterprises live in this kind of world, stop reading this and go get the comics.

Also of great interest to frugal start up is storing their excess cash, “A money market is another conservative option. On $10 million, even 5 percent is $500,000, which could fund you for an extra month.”

Half a million dollars buys me another month. Great. High comfort level there when that’s your monthly nut and you’re struggling for that kind of cash flow. Count me in.

OK, this is certainly not my niche. When I re-read the article to write this post, I found it to be pretty cool for people operating in that economic space. Some advice in the article is good for all of us (especially the advice about using incubators).

However, I spent the time following my first reading feeling like I’d just never gotten far enough, fast enough.

Then the new May ’07 issue of Fast Company lands and the cover photo and story is, “The kid who turned down $1 billion dollars.”

In working through all that, here’s what I came to and here is the way I’m going to describe the kind of entrepreneurship I’m talking about:

The citizen entrepreneur.

It is your right and your privilege to enter the commons and participate constructively, increasing value in our communities in beautiful ways, small and large.

My kind of entrepreneurship is at the citizen level. The place in life where we have responsibilities to contribute and rights to participate freely.

The kind of world where problems get fixed, families get raised, friends increase, bills get paid, and you feel overworked and satisfied.

There is no level of legal entrepreneurship that you should ever be made to feel inadequate about. Do not accept it. Don’t compare your story with anyone else’s. You’re in charge of your story and you need to honor it and build it. It’s your story and your most valuable asset.

Citizen entrepreneurship means that all of us have the right to change the world. We all have the capacity to build small, effective organizations to support ourselves, and any others we choose to include.

Age does not matter here. To my boomer freinds especially, I say, 'Welcome to a great new phase in your lives!' Don't put this chance off any longer. Take the shot you've always thought about.

For all of us, there are not many hard and fast rules when it comes to creating new enterprises. You’ll need to learn those rules and never deviate from them. The rest of it is your blank sheet of paper to fill in.

You do not need to meet standards set by the biz media or anyone else. The size and shape of your enterprise is yours and yours alone to define and build. Let no one make you feel small or insignificant because you don’t meet the standards shouted from headlines.

Your enterprise has significance because it comes from your heart and it’s there to make the world better.

As a citizen entrepreneur, no one can take that away from you.

Good luck and go get ‘em, fellow citizens.



The Wisconsin Entrepreneur Network index page for their newsletter Entrepreneur@work


Article about keeping your $10 million start up frugal This article is meant for entirely different start ups than I’m talking about, so I don’t mean to disparage it. There is a very good reference to using business incubators, which I highly encourage. Incubators represent the biggest steal on the planet for entrepreneurs. Everybody in your town/region is contributing money to get you a place to work from. This model doesn’t happen a lot elsewhere in life. I highly recommend incubators and gratefully use this resource myself.

Ageless Startup / CAE - reviews, interviews, podcasts, and articles - during the pandemic

I am using this post to gather media links since the book was published. This is a sample of reviews, interviews, podcasts, and articles - during the pandemic

Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age.
Rick Terrien
Entrepreneur Press. April 2020. www.ageless-startup.com

The Center for Ageless Entrepreneurs
A peer-to-peer network for experienced entrepreneurs.
Business driven. Non-profit managed.
Co-founder. Executive Director.
www.agelessentrepreneurs.org

REVIEWS:

Carl Schramm, former president of the Kauffman Foundation:

"Entrepreneurship provides an exciting new career for millions of older Americans, one they would never have anticipated growing up in a world that presumed people’s work life would end at 65. Rick Terrien has provided a fabulous roadmap on how to approach this new chapter in life. His brilliant 'Ageless Startup' is a handbook for how to shape your future so your most rewarding work lies ahead — work that benefits you and makes a difference in the lives of countless others. A must for career planning for anyone over forty!”

Carl Schramm, former president of the Kauffman Foundation, author of Burn the Business Plan, serial entrepreneur, active venture investor, and University Professor at Syracuse.

AARP:
“The book provides a roadmap to kick starting an entrepreneurial journey at any age. It offers tips and insight into entrepreneurship and contains interviews with past Purpose Prize Winners and Fellows. The book embodies the core mission of the Purpose Prize."

"Rick Terrien is a 2015 Purpose Prize Fellow and an entrepreneur repeatedly recognized for innovation excellence. He spent his career building creative business solutions to address societal problems. He received the 'Fast 50 Award' from Fast Company, the United States Small Business New Product of the Year Award. And now, he can add ‘author’ to his list of accomplishments."

Media: Podcasts, articles, and interviews

Upcoming:

Dec, 2021 Book Chapter: Models for Regenerative Sustainability - Rick Terrien. Starting Up Smarter: Why Founders Over 50 Build Better Companies Dr. Mary Cronin, Boston College

Dec 3, 2021 Podcast interview – Grow Money - Business Podcast

Dec 9, 2021 Presentation – Stanford Longevity Center Annual Century Summit: Ageless Entrepreneurship in New Economy, Stanford University

Dec 17, 2021 Podcast interview – All About You. (Valencia, Spain)

Not yet published:

Nov 29, ,2021 Podcast interview – No Labels.

Published:

Nov 18, 2021 Live interview – The Pirate Syndicate: Ageless Startup – Rick Terrien Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-yb3Jh9Sjs Audio: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catch-rick-terrien-on-the-piratebroadcast/id1488373670?i=1000542358315

Oct 21, 2021 Human Capital Innovations: Why the Narrative about Older Workers Is Upside Down with Rick Terrien. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL36Aw1-0I4

Oct 26, 2021 Embark on Your Third Act: Ageless Startup – Rick Terrien Audio: https://lizsolar.com/embark-podcast/ Scroll to Fall 2021. My interview starts ~ 11:20

Oct 14, 2021 Third Act Quest – Live Storytelling: Ageless Startup – Rick Terrien Not yet posted

Oct 7, 2021 Interstellar Business Show – The Enormous Overlooked Talent Pool: Talent Opportunity of Biz Veterans – Rick Terrien --- Podcast: https://interstellarway.life/podcast/0016-talent-shortage-undervalued-biz-veterans-solution/

Sept 28, 2021 ValueVerse: Start Your Real Career – Ageless Startup – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://valueverse.podbean.com/e/start-your-real-dream/

July 20, 2021 Clarity and Purpose: Your Entrepreneurial Journey at Any Age – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://bit.ly/2UQhZix

June 25, 2021 Coffee, Lunch, Beer: The Ageless Entrepreneur – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://anchor.fm/coffeelunchbeer/episodes/The-Ageless-Entrepreneur---Rick-Terrien-e13e05v

June 21, 2021 Entrepreneurs Over 40 – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://entreprenuersover40.podbean.com/e/entrepreneurs-over-40-episode-6-with-rick-terrien/

June 4, 2021 Money On My Mind: Mastering The Ageless Startup with Rick Terrien (Muscat, Oman) Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/mastering-ageless-startup-rick-terrien-money-on-my/id1534155222?i=1000524122645 Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mbwUkjEEErnoeook25YVn

May 11, 2021 B++. Entrepreneurship with Abhii Dabas (Singapore) Podcast: Not yet posted

Apr 2, 2021 Kickass Boomers: Now Is Your Time to Take Action – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mbwUkjEEErnoeook25YVn

Mar 26, 2021 Webinar presentation – Bloom. (Canada) Webinar: https://admin-at-hellobloomers.wistia.com/medias/ho9any4qkd

Feb 23, 2021 Webinar presentation – Founders Over 55 Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_mZOpoUiEg&t=38s

Oct 12, 2020 Review – Skip Prichard. Ageless Startup: Start an enterprise that represents your values, your goals, and your legacy. Review: https://www.skipprichard.com/start-a-business-at-any-age/

Sept 18, 2021 Callum Connects: A peer-to-peer business development network for people in the second half of life. Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIskIn83uGE

Aug 20, 2020 Exit Coach Radio: Exploring Entrepreneurship in the Second Half of Life with Rick Terrien Podcast: https://exitcoach.podbean.com/e/rick-terrien/

Aug 12, 2020 The Podcast with Cameron Tousi – Covid-19 to Decimate Employment for 45 to 64 Year-Olds. Answer: Entrepreneurship – with Rick Terrien Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCj7k9UqGc

Aug 3, 2020 Unobatanium with Oz Kahn. How Do You Achieve A business Startup at Any Age? With Rick Terrien Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rick-terrien-on-achieving-ageless-startup-entrepreneurship/id1508403348?i=1000486995836

July 19, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Author CV at Entrepreneur. Link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/rick-terrien

July 16, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Transitioning Older Workers Into New Opportunities Doesn't Have to Be Hard. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/352880

July 13, 2020 The Author Inside You: Working With a Professional Publisher – Rick Terrien. (Most downloaded interview of the year) Podcast: https://www.theauthorinsideyou.com/show-notes/working-with-a-professional-publisher

July 9, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Older Entrepreneurs Should Embrace Working From Home. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/352936

June 23, 2020 CT Expert Insights. It’s Never Too Late to Start Your Business – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6hawbj4MT0UwKO2LY4XKEc

June 2020 Inc. Magazine. Why Now Is the Time to Have a Second Career as an Entrepreneur Article: https://www.inc.com/martin-zwilling/why-now-is-time-to-have-a-second-career-as-an-entrepreneur.html

June 12, 2020 School for Startups Radio – Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age – Rick Terrien Podcast: https://schoolforstartupsradio.com/2020/06/start-business-at-any-age/ Audio: http://cdn1.cyberears.com/33957.mp3

June 4, 2012 Entrepreneur Magazine. Market Optimization Is the Way to Boost Your Late- Career Startup – Rick Terrien Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/351365

May 29, 2020 Market Watch – This entrepreneur says you’re never too old to launch your own startup, even in this economy: How to bootstrap a new business in midlife or in retirement – even in a pandemic. Article: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-entrepreneur-says-youre-never-too-old-to-launch-your-own-startup-even-in-this-economy-2020-05-28

May 27, 2020 Strategy Driven: Older Workers – An Opportunity Created from Danger – Rick Terrien Article: https://www.strategydriven.com/2020/05/27/older-workers-an-opportunity-created-from-danger/

May 27, 2020 Boomer Bloomer – Real Wisdom people can learn and earn by." "A visionary and award-winning writer." – Rick Terrien. Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=3224913821066079&ref=watch_permalink

May 26, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. It's Never Too Late: How to Start Your Own Business at Any Age – Rick Terrien Webinar: https://ageless-startup.blogspot.com/2020/05/ageless-startup-free-webinar-this.html

May 23, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Older Workers Must Be Proactive About Their Future – Rick Terrien Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/350825

May 20, 2020 Forbes. Advice For Ageless Startups, Even in A Pandemic. How to bootstrap a business in midlife or in retirement. – Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2020/05/20/advice-for-ageless-startups-even-in-a-pandemic/?sh=702731907b31

May 20, 2020 Next Avenue. People think it’s scary to start a business. In my opinion, it’s much scarier NOT to start your own business. Article: https://www.nextavenue.org/ageless-startups/

May 12, 2020 Succession Stories. Ageless Startup: Next generation Entrepreneurship Rick Terrien Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/05-ageless-startup-author-rick-terrien/id1507050698?i=1000474319361

May 12, 2020 The Feed (Canada) – Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age – Rick Terrien. Podcast: https://ambermac.com/thefeed-nasa-virtual-hackathon-ageless-startup-contact-tracing-apps/

May 11, 2020 Live radio Interview – Mary Jane Pop. KAHI Radio, Sacramento, CA – Rick Terrien. Interview: https://ageless-startup.blogspot.com/2020/05/interview-monday-may-11-poppoff-with.html

May 5, 2020 Live radio Interview – Doug Wagner. WMT Radio. Cedar Rapids, IA. Interview: https://ageless-startup.blogspot.com/2020/05/radio-interview-with-wmt-in-cedar.html

April 30, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. The 3-Step Strategy to Help You Determine Your Business Mission, Values, and Goals. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/347161

April 16, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. The 2 Systems You Need to Set Up for Startup Success. One involves people; the other, finances. But both are essential to run your business effectively. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/347159

April 9, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Laying the Groundwork for Your Ageless Startup. Find out what first steps you need to take to maximize potential. Rick Terrien Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/347158

April 2, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. Starting a Business That People Need. Businesses succeed by solving real problems. Here's how to determine what problems you can solve to make your new business a success. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/347157

Mar 26, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. 26 Questions to Help You Decide If a Late-in-Life Business Is Right for You. Rick Terrien Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/346439

Mar 21 2020 Association Now – Running a New Organization? Take it Slow. – Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age. Article: https://associationsnow.com/2020/03/daily-buzz-running-a-new-organization-take-it-slow/?fbclid=IwAR2sXPxPJjfDCSD-FS9lbCPTazH4kLF6ZV8iYIZ9Pr7AXxyw2DKaAgocXD4

Mar 19, 2020 Interview with EntreEd: The National Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education: Starting a Business at Any Age – Rick Terrien Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b4df4bzEZg

Mar 12, 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine. The 3-Step Startup Journey. Get each of these steps right, and you just might have a successful business on your hands. Rick Terrien. Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/346438