Be Your Own Boss - Career Planning for Baby Boomers
Be Your Own Boss - Career Planning for Baby Boomers
Workers in the age group of 55 and older now represent one of the fastest-growing groups of self-employed people in the US. The total number of 55-plus Americans who choose to work for themselves has gone up by 28 percent since the year 2000. Compared with this, the statistics for most other age groups shows that numbers are either stagnant or actually declining as regards self-employment, according to government data. Baby boomers and seniors today account for a total of 56 percent of the self-employed workers in America. Clearly, many baby boomers are using self-employment as an easy transition move, a bridge to retirement.
Many boomers also feel younger and more productive than previous generations at this age. With increasing life expectancy and better overall health, baby boomers intend to work for much longer than most previous generations. But, they mostly want to work on their own terms. This is why they are creating jobs that give them a lot more control over their own lives and much more self-fulfillment. This is precisely the reason that so many of them choose to become their own boss. In their mid-50s, they much prefer working their own hours, maybe from their own home, to putting in 15-hour work days at corporate juggernauts where work takes over their life.
The large scale corporate downsizings over the recent years have also provided an additional impetus for older workers to consider entrepreneurship. There is also a financial angle to that. Older workers may have to accept buyouts from their erstwhile employers, but without the traditional pensions or the retiree health benefits, they can't afford to retire. The biggest surprise, for baby boomers being downsized, is the high cost of health insurance. Without the employer-subsidized group coverage of their corporate jobs, many are shocked by the prices when they begin to shop for health insurance for themselves.
Whatever the reason for choosing this path, the good news is that most companies now have a new openness to outsourcing processes and hiring independent contractors, or consultants to perform certain tasks. This helps to create great business opportunities for the people with experience in various fields, who choose to become self-employed.
Anyone starting a business must have a good business plan which spells out exactly what and how they proposed to do. People also tend to underestimate the money needed to get started. Estimate properly, remembering that lenders will expect you to put up 20 to 30 percent of the cost.
Be Your Own Boss Career Planning for Baby Boomers - To learn more about this author, visit Anna Banks's Website.
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Many of the baby boomers, whether from a desire to be active longer, or necessity, are planning to work beyond the usual retirement age of 65. After 20 years or more in big companies, in corporate jobs, and careers, many veteran retirees are pondering, or taking early retirement from their companies and old jobs, and branching out. A large, and growing, number of baby boomers are happily abandoning traditional post retirement employment in favor of being self-employed. This growing breed of proactive baby boomers figures that they are too young to retire completely, and have started their own businesses, and have dived bravely into new fields of work. And all this, a time of life when other employed people begin to think, quite longingly, about retirement
Workers in the age group of 55 and older now represent one of the fastest-growing groups of self-employed people in the US. The total number of 55-plus Americans who choose to work for themselves has gone up by 28 percent since the year 2000. Compared with this, the statistics for most other age groups shows that numbers are either stagnant or actually declining as regards self-employment, according to government data. Baby boomers and seniors today account for a total of 56 percent of the self-employed workers in America. Clearly, many baby boomers are using self-employment as an easy transition move, a bridge to retirement.
Many boomers also feel younger and more productive than previous generations at this age. With increasing life expectancy and better overall health, baby boomers intend to work for much longer than most previous generations. But, they mostly want to work on their own terms. This is why they are creating jobs that give them a lot more control over their own lives and much more self-fulfillment. This is precisely the reason that so many of them choose to become their own boss. In their mid-50s, they much prefer working their own hours, maybe from their own home, to putting in 15-hour work days at corporate juggernauts where work takes over their life.
The large scale corporate downsizings over the recent years have also provided an additional impetus for older workers to consider entrepreneurship. There is also a financial angle to that. Older workers may have to accept buyouts from their erstwhile employers, but without the traditional pensions or the retiree health benefits, they can't afford to retire. The biggest surprise, for baby boomers being downsized, is the high cost of health insurance. Without the employer-subsidized group coverage of their corporate jobs, many are shocked by the prices when they begin to shop for health insurance for themselves.
Whatever the reason for choosing this path, the good news is that most companies now have a new openness to outsourcing processes and hiring independent contractors, or consultants to perform certain tasks. This helps to create great business opportunities for the people with experience in various fields, who choose to become self-employed.
Anyone starting a business must have a good business plan which spells out exactly what and how they proposed to do. People also tend to underestimate the money needed to get started. Estimate properly, remembering that lenders will expect you to put up 20 to 30 percent of the cost.
Be Your Own Boss Career Planning for Baby Boomers - To learn more about this author, visit Anna Banks's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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