NOT READY TO RETIRE?
Entrepreneur Magazine
June 8, 2009
ENTREPRENEUR MAGAZINE interview of Judith Moore, founder of Charleston Cookie Company.
The typical age to start thinking about retirement is now the time to consider a move to self-employment.
These days, the 30s are the new 20s, and the 40s are the new 30s. But with the nation's 78 million baby boomers now entering their 60s at the rate of approximately 8,000 a day, the 50-and-older group has undergone a rather youthful transformation as well. What was once the typical age to start thinking about retirement has become the time to consider a career change--particularly into self-employment.
Business ownership is a logical step for the mature work force, says MetLife Mature Market Institute executive director Sandra Timmermann, who cites incentives like having more control and flexibility in their lives; a desire to pursue personal dreams; or, less agreeably, a measure against age discrimination. "It seems an ideal time to launch out into something you've always wanted to do and even be a mentor to younger people," she says. "You know how to work smarter, and you really know what you want. You have experience and resources and may not be starting from scratch."
Timmermann, a gerontologist, notes two reasons people are staying in the work force longer: One is that the older generation is healthy and still very active; the second cause is rooted in finances. A 2008 McKinsey Global Institute study revealed that two-thirds of boomer households are financially unprepared for retirement. And Timmermann adds, "Expenses are high because they're helping their children and grandchildren."
In 2011, the first of the nation's baby boomers will turn 65, but if pollsters are right, vast majority will be working well into their traditional golden years. Says Timmermann, "We have a great resource in the country of people who are older, and they will change the way we think about the work force. It's just the beginning."
Whether you're twentysomething, thirtysomething or fiftysomething, the important thing to remember is that building a successful business is an undertaking that requires a monumental amount of time and effort. The main difference is that as you get older, the risk of failure--and its resulting consequences--may loom larger.
Confidence and experience helped the entrepreneurs profiled in this article make the right decision to start a business after age 50, and they have clearly demonstrated that when it comes to business acumen, older definitely means wiser.
Judith Moore
Charleston Cookie Co. LLC
Judith Moore, 61, founder and CEO of Charleston Cookie Co. in Charleston, South Carolina, turned her lifelong baking hobby into a profitable business and considers herself too young and productive for retirement. "[If I were retired]," she says, "I would probably make anyone around me insane because I have too much energy to just be playing all the time."
A former marriage and family therapist, Moore traces the origins of her business to Christmas 2001. "I went on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, but I went through a whole bunch of recipes and couldn't find one I liked," she says. So like a model entrepreneur, she stepped up to the plate. Her cookies soon gained an avid following, and in 2003, Moore subleased a small space and opened up shop. Six years later, Charleston Cookie Co. occupies a 5,000-square-foot warehouse and is projected to break $1 million in sales.
Moore has learned plenty of new skills on the job and says that's part of the thrill. "When I started, I had never opened an Excel spreadsheet before," she recalls. "But for the business plan, I had to learn how to do cash-flow projections, costing and accounting myself. It was painful, but it was like, welcome to the life of an entrepreneur."
Although her retirement was interrupted in favor of the business, Moore does plan to step back from daily operations within the next five years. "I don't have the energy I did when I was 30 or even 40," she says. But she does have some words of wisdom for the older entrepreneur. "You better be doing something you love. And if you're not risk-tolerant, you shouldn't be running a business, regardless of how old you are."
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