“I should have done it when I was twenty.”
Of course, hindsight is perfect vision. Of the past, which we cannot change.
If this is how you feel at 50, do you want to be looking back at 70, or 80, and saying to yourself, “I should have done it when I was fifty?”
The “it” we are talking about is starting a business.
The appeal of a business after retirement
The way life is set up, many of us choose employment as a career choice once we attain maturity and adulthood. It is not necessarily the best out of many options we evaluated, but it is something that many before us have done and many around us are doing. It could be the ready availability of a job, the lower risk, steady income, or the work-life balance it seems to offer; the reasons could be many. And it seems to have generally worked out for many people, and taken them through to the golden years.
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Along the way, as we mature and learn more, other opportunities for self-sustenance and supporting our dependents become visible, mostly in the entrepreneurial or business space, other than taking up employment of a different type, in a different role, or in a different industry. By this time, usually, we have created a lifestyle of a certain kind and may have borrowed money to improve our life. Pursuit of an identified opportunity in business would mean compromising the life and comforts we have created, with no certainty, only hope, that the same can be recreated or bettered. We also have to worry about the repayment of the loans taken, without a salary coming in periodically.
By the time we retire, we have built up a corpus designed to enable us to live our life, usually without depending on other revenue sources. If there are others, that is a bonus. Most of our loans have been paid off. Our children, the dependents that almost everyone has, are likely to be on their own, and do not require our support.
It is difficult to get off a treadmill while it is in motion. You could get hurt in the process. Let Retired But Ready, an exciting new platform that strives to enable retired persons take better decisions, guide you.
Factors working for you
Your track record
You have created value for a business or organization, someone else’s, through your expertise and experience in a certain field. You have delivered to satisfied customers and created trusting relationships. There is no reason why you cannot leverage the same expertise, experience, and relationships for your own business.
Low entry barriers
Thanks to the digital revolution, the playing field is now level, with no significant entry barriers other than your own commitment and conviction. A business no longer means setting up a factory, or even an office space, and employees. Some businesses only need a computer and an internet connection, apart from an idea. The pandemic has further solidified the ‘work from home’ culture.
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Leveraging passion and interest
Hopefully, you know yourself better at 50 than you did at 20. This includes identifying and developing your interests, often different from the area of focus at work, and sacrificed at the altar of professional growth. You now have the opportunity of creating a business around your areas of passion and interest, and not struggle to find time to indulge in them. It need not be all about maximizing revenue; you can skew the balance a little towards creativity, personal expression, and community.
What you should watch out for
Competitive marketplace
A free market loves competition. Where you see an opportunity, many others probably also do. Do not be guided by a misconception that your competitors will step back because of your seniority in age. You have to be prepared to battle it out.
Changing technologies, changing needs
The world keeps changing. The rapid proliferation of AI-based applications has challenged many established jobs. Customer expectations also evolve. Music CDs and movie DVDs have given way to online streaming solutions. Limited hours customer phone support has yielded to omnichannel 24×7 support. So, ignore developments and change at your own risk.
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Your energy levels
You may no longer be able to work through the night on a critical requirement of the business. You may need to choose a business that can match your pace of work.
Who should contemplate starting a business after retirement?
Retired But Ready is for all members of the retired community. At the same time, each person’s situation is unique.
If you have long awaited that moment when you would be able to enjoy the rewards of your lifelong hard work, put your feet up and watch the sunset, when you will not need to work towards deadlines, keep customers happy, take ownership and responsibility, you should probably stop reading here.
If you are a person who seeks purpose in life beyond having a ‘good time,’ this could be an option for you. A business can be trusted to provide challenges, many of them new and unexpected, as you are operating in the real world, and not in a classroom or textbook. It can also be trusted to provide intellectual stimulation and a sense of achievement from time to time.
Like Muhammad Ali is believed to have said, there are ‘different strokes for different folks.’
In conclusion
They key is to ensure that the decision to start, or not start, a business, is taken in a conscious and aware manner, like any important decision in life. As people with rich experience of life and work, retirees are better equipped than most to do so.
“I’ve never been happier than since I started working for myself” is a refrain one hears from many retirees who chose to start a business.
Supporting people in taking informed decisions about starting a business is Retired But Ready, the world’s only platform exclusively for the seasoned, battle-tested members of the global human community.
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