No! You’re Not Crazy!

If you have started a new business at the ripe old age of 55 or 60, you might think you are a bit meschugene (meaning crazy in Yiddish- somehow there are no words in English that come close to the emotional vibration of Yiddish).

It is in fact, a crazy idea because it’s the time in your life that society says you are supposed to slow down, play with your grandchildren and knit. The truth is you can knit even if you haven’t slowed down.

In fact, the fastest growing group on Facebook over the last six months are women over the age of 55.

And according to Score, people age 55 and up represent the fastest growing group of self-employed. The majority of these are women.

I’m sharing these statistics so you know you are not crazy and you are also not alone. Here are a few more interesting statistics I grabbed from bizoffice.com.

• 70 percent of women business owners are financing their business with their credit cards and personal resources.

• Women-owned businesses have staying power: more than 40
percent have been in business for 12 years or more.

Beyond the statistics there is other data that is less measurable but more interesting. I am talking about what it is that drives women to begin a whole new venture at age 60. What makes women risk their life savings and where does their drive come from?

Just yesterday I talked to a new client. She is 58 and beginning a business as a personal trainer for women age 55 and up. I asked her, “How important is it to you to be successful at this venture on a scale of one to ten?” Immediately she responded with no hesitation and said, “ Ten. I want this more than anything and I am willing to do whatever it takes.”

I hear this response over and over. I can make some guesses and I would love to hear from you as well.

My guesses:

• Most women tend lose their energy and sense of purpose during menopause, however menopause is really a metamorphosis and afterward their energy comes back magnified and more focused.
(mine did)

• Women spend their earlier adult years being a mother and doing what they need to do to support their family. When that ends, they have the space to express their own passion.

• Younger women want to make it in the world and are often driven to compete with men and their esteem comes from reaching success in their profession. This becomes less important after age 55. It becomes more important to do their own thing that has intrinsic meaning.

• Women want to work in their own way, their own time schedule and with full license to be creative and productive in their own way. In other words, they like the freedom of doing their own venture. They still want the work/life balance of traveling, spending time with family etc.

• Women are natural entrepreneurs great with relationships, networking, wanting to make a difference in the world.

• By the late 50’s women finally feel secure in themselves, are less concerned about whether everyone likes them or not and have huge wisdom from all those years where they did care!

Please leave your comments. I’ll publish another article with everyone’s responses.

Wishing you the gift of business success in this holiday season.

Kaya Singer
Free small business tools on my website
Awakening Business Solutions
kaya@awakeningbusiness.com