The District Chronicles

Issue date: 9/27/09 Section: Business

For baby boomers these days, retirement is an opportunity to start up a business.

Throughout corporate America daily water cooler gossip often involves talk of retirement. Perhaps you recognize such retirement conversations, the day many dream to sail off into the sunset resting at that peaceful gated community or golf resort.

But today, we live under the burdens of $9 trillion national debt and spiraling healthcare costs reaching almost $2.4 trillion annually about 17 percent of GDP. The realities have shifted an entire generation's thinking, as one in three entrepreneurs ages 51 to 69 plan to make the career transition to self-employment after age fifty. Initially, one of their primary driving factors is to recapture financial losses suffered recently during the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Over the past year, the average baby boomer between 45-54 has lost about 45 percent of their median assets, leaving them with just $100,000 in net worth, including home equity. Older boomers have fared marginally better. The majority between 55-64 have lost about 38 percent of their assets, leaving them about $170,000 net worth. As this group rapidly approaches retirement, most plan by necessity to continue working to recapture financial losses.

Traditionally, financial resources are a key ingredient for most successful entrepreneurs. And it is here that we find the baby boomers in the top 50 percent of the U.S. population by net worth. Although, the baby boomers have suffered loss during the economic crisis most can still muster the necessary $10,000 or less that t typically helps fund over 75 percent of all startups. Further, many business ventures require no more than a couple thousand dollars particularly given low cost mobile Internet technologies that enable immediate access to millions of potential customers.

But financial resources are not the only advantages baby boomer entrepreneurs offer, in fact they bring a wide range of skills, years of trusted experience and social networking connections. The vast career opportunities available to mature entrepreneurs includes healthcare, financial advisor, employment counseling, educational writing and teaching, carpentry, alternative medicine therapy, security guard, retail sales, bakery goods or senior fitness coach.

According to U.S. Department of Labor Statistics,  the self-employed aged 55 - 65 rose 33 percent in 2008, double the number of self-employed 25 - 35 year-olds. Research shows that approximately 22 percent of all new startup businesses are registered by people between 47 and 65 years of age. No matter what the age or circumstance - the sky is the limit, life's perceived boundaries lie only in the mind regardless of external fears of failure.

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