Bly - Start your own home business after 50: how to survive, thrive, and earn the income you deserve!

A DVANCE P RAISE FOR

S TART Y OUR O WN H OME B USINESS A FTER 50

Start Your Own Home Business After 50 addresses the special needs, problems, and challenges of the over-50 entrepreneur who is looking to build an existing business or start a new one. Its guidance can help you create a successful home business that can generate an ongoing retirement annuity for decades.

Robert Ringer, bestselling author of Winning Through Intimidation and Looking Out for Number One

If youre over 50 and you want to work from home, be your own boss, and control your own destiny, you must read this book. I have never read a book that so clearly provides a step-by-step road map to redefine your life and financial success and security. Its the single best resource I have ever seen on the topic.

Eric Yaverbaum, bestselling author of six books including Leadership Secrets of the Worlds Most Successful CEOs and PR For Dummies

If its time to take your post-50 career into your own hands, Start Your Own Home Business After 50 is an essential. It will give you realistic options for supporting yourself into retirement. Bob Bly knows from personal experience how to make the most of age and experience to succeed as an entrepreneur over 50. In this book, he lays out the options and points you in the right direction.

Ilise Benun, Marketing-Mentor.com, author of seven books and co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference

Start Your Own Home Business After 50

Copyright 2013 by Robert W. Bly. All rights reserved.

Published by Quill Driver Books

An imprint of Linden Publishing

2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721

(559) 233-6633 / (800) 345-4447

QuillDriverBooks.com

Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of

Linden Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-61035-131-7

eISBN 978-1-61035-146-1

135798642

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bly, Robert W.

Start your own home business after 50 : how to survive, thrive, and earn the income you deserve! / by Robert W. Bly.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61035-131-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-61035-146-1 (e-book)

1. Home-based businesses--Management. 2. New business enterprises--Management. 3. Older people--Employment. I. Title.

HD62.38.B59 2013

658.11--dc23

2013000994

This book is for everyone over 50 who has started or is planning to start their own business.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I d like to thank Kent Sorsky and Stephen Mettee for having faith in me and in this book. Thanks also to Nuritt Mittlefeldt for her invaluable research assistance. Im also grateful to Frank Wilkinson, Amy Sprecher, and Tracy Minella for editorial contributions.

Introduction

Y ou and I have never met, but if you are age 50 or over, I think I can guess a few things about you.

First, your primary financial goal at this point in lifeaside from paying for your kids college, if you havent done so yetis either (a) saving enough money between now and your retirement to retire comfortably or, if you are already retired, (b) making your money last for as long as you live.

Second, now that you are over 50, you are at a stage of your life where you are less interested in doing what others tell you to do and more interested in doing what you want to do, when and where you want to do it. You likely do not want to answer to a boss anymore, especially someone a lot younger than you.

Third, your degree of comfort with computers and technology, though possibly greater than mine, is most likely not equal to the average teenagers comfort with, and grasp of, todays technology. This point was driven home to me in a TV commercial for insurance from AARP. Teenagers today listen to music on iPods; the AARP commercial offered as a gift for responding an AM/FM radioold technology, as my 18-year-old son would call it.

Fourth, you are somewhat overwhelmed by the Internet. Every day you hear about some new gimmick for making money on the web. One day its tweeting. The next day you open a business magazine to an article saying every entrepreneur must have an RSS feed, a blog, online videos, or a Facebook page. You know nothing about any of them, and truth be told, none of them has much appeal to you.

Fifth, if you are over 50 and thinking of a new career, you are not alone. Every 7.5 seconds, another baby boomer in the United States reaches age 50, and they intend to keep working. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the number of workers age 55 and over is projected to grow almost 47 percent by 2016.

Starting your own home-based business can help you with the first two problems described above, and, with Start Your Own Home Business After 50 to guide you, the third and fourth problems wont in any way hinder your dream of starting your own business.

In fact, after reading Start Your Own Home Business After 50, you will be able to accomplish the following:

Survive and thrive in a prolonged recession.

Decide whether starting a home-based business right now is for youand understand why working at home is so advantageous for over-50 entrepreneurs.

Find a home business opportunity that can deliver the income and lifestyle you desire in your preretirement or retirement years.

Generate an income stream or cash reserve from your new home business to replace what you may have lost in any of the recent stock market meltdowns or from no longer having a salary.

Determine the target market (the types of customers) you want to reach.

Create or source products and services that your target market needs, wants, and will buy.

Effectively market and promote your product or service to attract new buyers.

Generate repeat orders, referrals, and recurring revenues from existing customers.

Set up and operate your new business from the comfort of your own home or apartment.

Comply with laws, regulations, and codes governing the practice of your type of business.

Generate enough income to quit your regular job and retire from the 9-to-5 corporate world for goodor earn enough money to supplement Social Security and other retirement income.

Live off the income from your new business and leave your retirement nest egg entirely intact.

Double your business by using the Internet to spread the word about your products and services and attract customers online.

Increase your productivity and efficiency with the right hardware and software without having to become a techie.

Create a business that does well enough to provide for you even during a recession or other economic or industry downturn.

Set up a virtual company where assistants, vendors, and business partners all work off-premises and are connected to you by phone, fax, and Internet.

A research study I conducted on the over-50 generation (www.Marketing2Goms.com) found that older people place a priority on doing what they want to do vs. what someone tells them to do. Thats no surprise. When you are a kid, you do what your parents and teachers tell you to do. As an adult, you are told what to do by your boss. By the time you are 50, you have been doing what others have told you to do for half a century. Youre sick and tired of it. You want to be in control. If you have a full-time job, however, you arent in control because other people tell you what to do and when to do it.

With your own home business, you call the shots. You are the boss. You make the decisions. You set your own hours. You choose who you will work with and how youll spend your time, and you keep the bulk of the profits from the revenues you produce. Plus, with a laptop and wireless Internet connection, you can work where and when you want. No more being chained to a desk; you can run your business from your RV as you travel the country. You can sell products or perform services youre passionate about and earn an income that even an executive, doctor, or airline pilot might envy.