Some Thoughts On Starting A Business In Middle-Age

By Carole C Rochford

There must be thousands of us, over 50's, who are faced with very little prospect of finding employment in a recession.

Like many before me, I came to the conclusion that the choice was to start self-employment or spend a very long time chasing jobs that I wasn't going to secure.

This isn't an account of how to make loads of money from nothing. It is an account of how hard it can be to start with almost nothing.

Free Advice

• A common saying is 'There is no such thing as a free lunch'. This can make one suspicious of any offers of help when starting a business or trying to grow one. There was literally a free lunch when attending the now defunct 'Business Link' workshops. Nobody bombarded us with unwanted offers during or after the sessions. It is sad to see such workshops cease due to the government cut backs. You might find the UK Business Forums a useful site for free advice.

• Radio 4 'The Bottom Line' is useful and free. Although only a short programme, it often gets successful business people to reveal how they operate and what problems they have overcome. Here is what has been gleaned from some recent program

Work out what you are good at and spend most of your time doing that

Don't be the cheapest

Celebrate when you make a mistake. (No celebrations if you repeat the mistake!)

It's OK to change your mind or 'pivot' as it is known

The second of these was familiar to me as apparently Sigmund Freud claimed that if his therapy was free, the patients would not value it! What more proof does one need?

Stick To What You Are Good At

This is my favourite bit of advice, learnt the hard way.

There are many challenges when trying to set up and run a small business. New start-ups are told they must have a website/ if you aren't on the web, you are dead. Why not try to make yourself a website to advertise your business? Surely a child of 10 could manage this task. After countless attempts at building a site, none of which looked in the least professional, it has occurred to me that;

1. There is no need for every business to have a site

2. No website may be better than a poor one

3. If you really need a site and have no skills, save up and pay someone to do the job.

The British are often told they don't have a 'can do' attitude and this holds us back. Maybe some healthy pessimism is actually a useful attribute for the budding entrepreneur.

http://www.rewarding-reads.blogspot.co.uk

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