HOW old is too old when it comes to starting your own business? Your fifties?
Your sixties? Or even your seventies?
Rayment Kirby started his own business making cameras from traditional designs
when he was in his sixties. He is now 75. A former freelance photographer,
he decided to teach himself how to build a camera when his house burnt down
and he lost all his equipment in the fire.
He now makes a range of modernised versions of traditional camera designs by
hand, in the workshop at his house in Heath-field, East Sussex. He sells
them for up to £1,500 at Christie’s, the auction house, and via his
web-site, Raymentkirbycameras.co.uk.
He said: “When I made my first cameras people said they were interesting and
suggested I put them on the market. So I took it from there. I put together
an elementary press pack which I sent round to various magazines with some
pictures, and this generated some interest.”
Kirby does not see any drawbacks to starting a business at his age. “I don’t
think there are any disadvantages, and the benefits are that it gives me
something to get my teeth into,” he said.
“I’m not the sort of person who wants to retire. I must have a project. Having
something like this is very important in life because it makes you want to
get up in the morning.”
He added: “My father, who was a chartered accountant, looked forward to
retiring for years and years but he died within a few years of retiring
because there was nothing further for him to do.”
Not everyone agrees with Kirby, however, and he admits that his wife thinks he
is mad to be running his own business at his age. “She says why don’t you
just sit back and enjoy life? But the extra money is useful and I don’t want
to turn into a vegetable, sitting in a deckchair waiting for the sun to go
down.”
Kirby is not alone in wanting to run his own business at an advanced age.
Frances Kay, editor of the latest edition of The Good NonRetirement Guide,
published by Kogan Page, and herself 58, said a growing number of older
people were deciding to take the plunge.
“If you look at the proportion of the population who are starting a small
business, there are a lot of older people about,” she said.
“They are doing it because at a certain stage in life they want autonomy and
they don’t necessarily want to be working in an organisation for someone who
is half their age.
“People are living longer and are healthier so you probably have 25 years
between 55 and 80 when you can get a heck of a lot done. There is a lot you
can achieve and it can be hugely satisfying.”
Kay said there were several advantages to starting a business later in life:
“You can take it a bit more leisurely and you have the confidence because if
you have been working for 30 or so years you will have picked up a lot of
knowledge and skill over that time.
“The overfifties have a lot of inbuilt expertise that perhaps people don’t
realise they have.”
Kay offers this advice to any older person who is tempted to become an
entrepreneur: “The golden rule is that it has to be something you enjoy,
something you always wanted to do.”
Neilson Kite decided to be a late-life entrepreneur when he came to the end of
a project working for someone else at the age of 54.
He said: “I had been a director of a couple of software companies and I
decided I could help and advise other businesses, having done quite a lot of
that in my previous existence.”
So he started up his own business from his home near Cheltenham, converting
the garage into an office. Twelve years on, his company, called Tomorrow’s
Business, runs training courses, workshops and delivers one-to-one coaching.
Now aged 65, Kite thinks age makes no difference to one’s ability to run a
successful company - indeed, being older can be a considerable advantage.
“You have the confidence that experience brings so you don't fear any
situation,” he said.
“You can make sure that people don’t make the mistakes you made, and you also
have freedom of action and you can take on the things that you enjoy doing.
I can’t think of any disadvantages at all. You could argue that it is a risk
setting up on your own, but it is a risk working for any company.”
Colin Weatherspoon, chief executive of Cobweb Information, a research house
that provides information for start-ups and business advisers, said there
was a pattern to the types of firms begun by more mature business people.
“Older people tend to start up businesses that are less risky,” he said. “They
are not high-growth businesses or trendy businesses. They are what they
know, what they are good at, what they are experienced at. Older people
start businesses in which they can use the experience they have acquired.”
He added: “Consultant-type businesses are a popular choice.
Social enterprises and charities are also common - anything that involves
advice. You are not going to be seeing somebody aged 50 taking up a
fast-food franchise.”
Weatherspoon said that the opportunities for older people to start up
businesses based on giving advice and providing knowledge - such as
financial consultancy, writing and editing, teaching and tutoring - were
growing. “There is a market out there for experience,” he said.
HELP TO GET UNDER WAY
THERE is a wide range of help for the overfifties who want to start a
business. Prime (the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise) helps those
over 50 into self-employment in England and Northern Ireland.
Prime Cymru
provides support in Wales.
New Deal 50 Plus is part of the government’s New Deal initiative and helps
people to find employment or training or to start their own business. It is
available to people who have been receiving benefits for six months and can
be obtained through Jobcentre Plus
.
SEVERAL online communities also provide information, advice and support for
the overfifties thinking of starting up a business. These include: The
Olderpreneur is a network forum for those over 50 who want to start, or
are already running, their own business. Seniority
UK is a forum for people aged over 50 to share experiences and
knowledge. The Direct Gov internet portal has a section dedicated to the
overfifties at over50.gov.uk , which
provides information on becoming self-employed. Saga
provides online information about starting a business in its Money section.
Having researched and written a book on 'retirees' starting their own business, 'Retire Bizzi', (case studies of 101 'retirees'), I found that many retirees didn't want to establish a huge business, many just wanting to keep on doing something and established profitable hobbies, home based businesses and small business.
Most importantly, they all had a passion for what they were doing, had researched and started off slowly and had not risked their savings to establish the business.
Jill Weeks, Melbourne, Australia
Starting a business at any age is difficult, at 50+ it is even more challenging! Any advice on this issue should carry a "Government Wealth Warning". The current government are only just getting to grips with the facts and realities of over 20 years of ageist discrimination across the workplace. Probabley because of this out of balance displacement of a large skilled and experienced sector of workers, who will probably never get the opportunity of a "proper" job again, the over 50s are being enticed and cajoled into going self empoyed: there is advice but little effective support or funding. AND certainly no safety net. There is no room or time to make mistakes at 50+, caution rules.
Exciting times for some if they have the funds to create a sustainable business even if it is just for the fun of it! However for those over 50 that need to WORK to survive this type of self employment iniative can be no solution with out financial support.
John Chatfield, OldBrumby Lincs, England