26 September 2011

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers: Part I

All of a sudden every other news article about Baby Boomers is focused on business and entrepreneurs.  A handful:

Advice for baby boomers who want to start businesses
By RON CONSOLINO, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
imageQ: I'm an early baby boomer and am thinking about leaving my corporate job to open a small business of my own. Do you have any advice?
A: You are not alone. Many of America's 77 million baby boomers contemplating retirement are finding that slowing down is the last thing they want to do.

Rise of the Boompreneur
By Casey Dowd
imageBoomer: Why are baby boomers starting businesses?
Izard: The economic conditions today certainly have triggered many baby boomers to want to go back to work and often they want to work in their own business; they don't want to work for someone else.

Small Business Survey Reveals Baby Boomers Account for 84 Percent of New Businesses
“To be able to use my 401(k) to invest in myself and to start my own business made everything possible. This was the best business decision I have made in my career.”

An Aging Population Means New Jobs
imageKerry Hannon, Contributor
This demographic shift is already creating a wave of new fields and opportunities for workers of all ages. It’s just a tease of what’s to come.

South Florida is stage for new generation of entrepreneurs: Baby boomers
Peter Fogel and Anna Collins, who are baby boomers, (born between 1946-1964), have found their niche: an Internet radio show in which they talk about themselves and everyone else their age, laugh a lot and make money doing it.

AARP Launches New Innovation@50+ Scholarships for DEMO Conference
New scholarships to help two entrepreneurs pitch the next great idea for Americans 50+ at nation’s premiere start-up launch conference.

An excellent introductory video about this emerging business market (although it concentrates on technology only – just about every industry can benefit from targeting Baby Boomers):

MIT AgeLab: Emerging Business Markets in Aging with Dr. Joseph Coughlin

About three minutes in, Maureen Mohyde says something that sounds very familiar.  From my book © 2005, 2007:

"Advertising to Baby Boomers" Targets Clients and Entrepreneurs
imageIn his book "Advertising to Baby Boomers," Chuck Nyren takes on the excuses that many advertising agencies give for not targeting the baby boom audience, and urges companies wanting to attract this formidable market of 76 million people to rethink their approaches.

For the next few posts (over the next week or so), I’ll concentrate on some common mistakes entrepreneurs have made when advertising and marketing to Baby Boomers.  Most will be real-life examples.