What Is the Best Business for Retired People?
You are either retired, or about to be.
You either need or want additional income, or for any other reason you want to have your own business.
(Maybe, instead, it's your parents that you are considering.
) Naturally, you ask yourself: "Should I get another job? What about going into business? What is the best business for retired people, people like me?" We're going to consider that you've decided to look at business rather than a job.
So, let's discuss several of the factors you'll need to consider.
Skill Sets You have a certain set of skills that you have acquired over the years.
Some have been developed from your career and others from your hobbies and interests.
You should make a list of your skills and prioritize them.
You may even have skills that are not readily apparent to you but are obvious to people close to you.
Ask your spouse, children, other family members and friends what they consider to be your best skills so that you can include them.
Often, but not always, the best business for retired people incorporates skills they've developed over the lives they've lead.
Interests In some cases people who have retired would much rather have a business centered around their interests rather than the sets of skills they've developed in the work place.
One of the significant advantages that provides is the desire each day to do the things necessary for success.
That is, of course, if you can take those interests and really make them a business instead of continuing to treat them as a hobby.
This is an area in which I have counseled my clients to be very careful not to ruin interests they've had for decades because of business pressures that can come into play.
You may wish to keep your passions separate from your business activities, unless you are comfortable with the business pressures that are inherent.
Financial Situation There are so many things to consider about your financial situation.
Entire books have been written on this subject alone.
For brevity's sake, however, you really need to assess what you can put into a business for start- up.
Next, you'll want to develop a pro-forma for your ongoing expenses and revenues.
I advise that you consider free organizations like the Small Business Development Centers or SCORE to help you in properly addressing all of your expenses and revenues.
Then, before deciding on the business, you'll want to determine if what you have left over can provide for all of your living expenses until your business can generate the net profit you need.
Other major issues you'll need to address in this category are the risks associated with any business you consider.
If the whole idea fails, can you withstand the loss, or will it wipe out your entire retirement nest egg? Time and Travel When you retire, like I have, you have obligations that you want to keep as well as those you need to keep.
If you have adult children, possibly grandchildren, you undoubtedly want to spend as much time as possible with them.
So, now the question may need to be modified to read: "What's the best business for retired people who want time available for their family and interests?" Again, it's a great idea to project the amount of time you need over each week, each month, each year, etc.
, so that you can really consider that when starting your business.
Ask yourself if you can find a business that allows that time and maybe even the travel you'd like to do.
Personality When considering what the best business is for retired people, a lot of us forget that our personality is critical.
In fact, the best franchises do personality assessments on their franchisees to determine which personality traits correlate to their best performers.
They then search for people who have those traits along with the other requirements.
We've used several different standard personality assessments as well as one that was developed specifically for our business in order to help people choose what fits them best.
You have to remember that you are more likely to conduct the daily activities you need to do to succeed, if they fit your personality along with your skill-sets and interests.
Other Issues The above considerations rank at, or near, the top for issues you need to address regarding the best business for retired people.
However there are more.
For instance, what sales and marketing issues will you conduct yourself? Will you need to hire people for some of the most important activities, or will you do them yourself.
What is your image of yourself? Really, I'm serious.
Many people cannot see themselves in certain business that may be very profitable, but don't fit with their self-image.
Would you rather work inside, or in an outdoor environment; how about at home vs.
away from home? And, there's more.
Address as many as you can.
You either need or want additional income, or for any other reason you want to have your own business.
(Maybe, instead, it's your parents that you are considering.
) Naturally, you ask yourself: "Should I get another job? What about going into business? What is the best business for retired people, people like me?" We're going to consider that you've decided to look at business rather than a job.
So, let's discuss several of the factors you'll need to consider.
Skill Sets You have a certain set of skills that you have acquired over the years.
Some have been developed from your career and others from your hobbies and interests.
You should make a list of your skills and prioritize them.
You may even have skills that are not readily apparent to you but are obvious to people close to you.
Ask your spouse, children, other family members and friends what they consider to be your best skills so that you can include them.
Often, but not always, the best business for retired people incorporates skills they've developed over the lives they've lead.
Interests In some cases people who have retired would much rather have a business centered around their interests rather than the sets of skills they've developed in the work place.
One of the significant advantages that provides is the desire each day to do the things necessary for success.
That is, of course, if you can take those interests and really make them a business instead of continuing to treat them as a hobby.
This is an area in which I have counseled my clients to be very careful not to ruin interests they've had for decades because of business pressures that can come into play.
You may wish to keep your passions separate from your business activities, unless you are comfortable with the business pressures that are inherent.
Financial Situation There are so many things to consider about your financial situation.
Entire books have been written on this subject alone.
For brevity's sake, however, you really need to assess what you can put into a business for start- up.
Next, you'll want to develop a pro-forma for your ongoing expenses and revenues.
I advise that you consider free organizations like the Small Business Development Centers or SCORE to help you in properly addressing all of your expenses and revenues.
Then, before deciding on the business, you'll want to determine if what you have left over can provide for all of your living expenses until your business can generate the net profit you need.
Other major issues you'll need to address in this category are the risks associated with any business you consider.
If the whole idea fails, can you withstand the loss, or will it wipe out your entire retirement nest egg? Time and Travel When you retire, like I have, you have obligations that you want to keep as well as those you need to keep.
If you have adult children, possibly grandchildren, you undoubtedly want to spend as much time as possible with them.
So, now the question may need to be modified to read: "What's the best business for retired people who want time available for their family and interests?" Again, it's a great idea to project the amount of time you need over each week, each month, each year, etc.
, so that you can really consider that when starting your business.
Ask yourself if you can find a business that allows that time and maybe even the travel you'd like to do.
Personality When considering what the best business is for retired people, a lot of us forget that our personality is critical.
In fact, the best franchises do personality assessments on their franchisees to determine which personality traits correlate to their best performers.
They then search for people who have those traits along with the other requirements.
We've used several different standard personality assessments as well as one that was developed specifically for our business in order to help people choose what fits them best.
You have to remember that you are more likely to conduct the daily activities you need to do to succeed, if they fit your personality along with your skill-sets and interests.
Other Issues The above considerations rank at, or near, the top for issues you need to address regarding the best business for retired people.
However there are more.
For instance, what sales and marketing issues will you conduct yourself? Will you need to hire people for some of the most important activities, or will you do them yourself.
What is your image of yourself? Really, I'm serious.
Many people cannot see themselves in certain business that may be very profitable, but don't fit with their self-image.
Would you rather work inside, or in an outdoor environment; how about at home vs.
away from home? And, there's more.
Address as many as you can.
Source...