Gary S. Goodman - The Forty Plus Entrepreneur: How to Start a Successful Business in Your 40s, 50s and Beyond: How to Start a Successful Business in Your 40s, 50s and Beyond

The 40+
Entrepreneur

The 40+
Entrepreneur

How To Start Your Own Successful Business In Your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Published 2018 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

THE 40+ ENTREPRENEUR. Copyright 2018 by Dr. Gary S. Goodman.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

FIRST EDITION 2018

Front Cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2082-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction

A t age 90, Jack Smiley wasnt thrilled with the community in which he retired so he built his own. Today, it provides him with a net income of $40,000 each month.

Famously, KFCs 65 year-old Kentucky Colonel Harland Sanders supplemented a paltry social security check by franchising his unique recipe for fried poultry.

Past 50, McDonalds Ray Kroc made a similar trek in multiplying by many thousands a few popular, golden-arched hamburger stands from San Bernardino, California.

Contrary to popular mythology, entrepreneurship is NOT spearheaded mostly by baby-faced, technology-savvy, post-adolescents whose brands include Facebook and Apple.

According to a recent study fully 80% of ALL businesses are started-up by people over 35.

Amy Groth of the Business Insider cites these reasons that fortune favors the mature:

First, older entrepreneurs have more life and work experience. In some cases, they have decades of industry expertiseand a better understanding of what it truly takes to compete, and succeed, in the business world. Second, they also have much broader and vaster networks. Even if an older entrepreneur is seeking to start a business in an entirely different industry, they have deep connections from all walks of lifefor example, a brother-in-law could be the perfect COO. Third, those over 50 have acquired more wealth, a better credit history (which helps with securing loans), and are smarter with their finances.

In this book youll learn:

1. 50 Great Reasons to Become a 40+ Entrepreneur

2. To Overcome False Beliefs and Self-Sabotage: That the Only Person Holding You Back Can Be You; The Giraffe Syndrome: Why The First Step Is The Scariest; Busting Age Myths: Youre Too Young, Youre Too Old: What Happened To Youre Just Right? Nobody Will Work With Me At My Age! My Best Years Are Behind Me It Takes $ To Make $ I Dont Have The Energy I Used To Have

3. To Tap The 7 Sources of Entrepreneurial Success. These Include:

1. The Unexpected

2. The Incongruity

3. Innovation based on process

4. Changes in industry or market structure.

5. Demographics

6. Changes in perception, mood and meaning.

7. New Knowledge

4. The Number One Skill Needed In All Entrepreneurship: Selling; And How There Are Few Problems Youll Encounter that More Sales Wont Cure

5. The Best Businesses To Start After 40: Specifically, Should You Start An Original Business From Scratch, or Should You Purchase A Franchise?

6. Whether You Should Turn Your Business& Life Experience Into A Profitable Venture By Becoming A Consultant

7. How To Summon Boundless Energy By Understanding Martial Arts Secrets of Maturing Warriors

8. How To Evaluate Any Business Opportunity Based On A Fresh & Incisive Understanding of Your Lifes Values

9. To Do Some Action Planning To Help You To Transition Into Your Own Successful Business

Im Dr. Gary S. Goodman.

Ive started and managed several successful business ventures and Im regarded as an international expert in entrepreneurship, sales, customer service, negotiation, training and consulting.

I teach in the business and entrepreneurship extension programs at both U.C. Berkeley and UCLA and my consulting client list includes many Fortune 1000 and start-up companies.

And I am a best-selling book and audio author whose titles include: Six-Figure Consulting: How To Have A Great Second Career; The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable and Crystal Clear Communication: How To Explain Anything Clearly In Speech & Writing.

I hold five earned degrees including the Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California; the J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles; and the Advanced Executive MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, where I studied entrepreneurship and management directly with Professor Drucker over two and one-half years. Im a licensed attorney and my degrees were earned after I was a full-time member of the workforce.

Im also a Black Belt in and have taught Chinese Kenpo Karate, and my hobbies include bodysurfing, skiing at Lake Tahoe, and doing as many age-defying things as possible.

Let me say a word or two about the 40+ entrepreneurs that have made it. Theyre great role models, but you dont have to be a Colonel Sanders or a Ray Kroc to join them and to bask in success such as theirs.

In fact, you can have zero business experience and come from a political system that has been outright antagonistic towards capitalism, and still succeed, providing you recognize opportunity when it whispers in your ear, as Tanya did.

Fundamentally, entrepreneurship is simple, and its really about the same thing, whether youre in Helsinki or Helena, Montana.

At its essence, entrepreneurship is about finding a need and filling it, noticing or creating demand, and then satisfying it.

But like most innovations, products of entrepreneurship seem logical and even necessary only after they have come to the fore.

I want to share with you a tale of emerging entrepreneurship. In a sense it is incredibly unlikely, but if you understand some background youll see how it was the most natural thing.

Tanya is an American of Russian extraction. She moved to California about fifteen years ago, after Perestroika, the movement that changed her native country after the Iron Curtain fell.

A mother of five children, spanning 8-28 years old, she has been vitally involved in her familial duties, paying special attention to the education of her kids.

She has an abundance of energy and a love of learning that seems to burst from every pore.

This earnestness has gotten her into a little trouble with public school teachers who have had mixed feelings about her contributions to classroom life.

Why arent they doing this? and Why arent they doing that? she would lament privately, to her friends, other moms with half her energy and a tenth of her commitment.