Have you been thinking about starting a business, but think you’ve missed your window of opportunity? Think again. Being older is not a bad thing. In fact, it can be one of the best things you have on your side.
My husband and I started our home inventory business when we were in our early 50s. It was a long decision-making process. We talked about wanting to do our own thing for decades. But life seemed to get in the way. We felt we needed security because we had children to support. Then the salaries reached a point that made it difficult to walk away from jobs, even though we weren’t happy.
Looking back at those years, I see now that the timing hadn’t been right. We were not ready even though we kept the dream alive. Priorities weren’t where they needed to be. We were having too much fun and had too little discipline. We lived on “if only” and “someday” and “maybe” as well as some “I wishes”. Not once, when we were younger, did we sit down to make the dream a true goal, complete with a plan of action.
The dream became a reality at the right time. A job loss created the opportunity for us to move from our dream world to the reality of being entrepreneurs. And age had a lot to do with it. First, our children were married so we had no commitments – no one else depending on us. No obligation! That is huge!
Our years of corporate life brought a great deal of insight because we had a lot of experience watching how others ran a business, how they made decisions, how they treated customers and how they treated the competition. We relied on that experience when we created our business.
Another key factor in being older is that we are slower. By that I mean we aren’t as busy as when we were younger. We don’t have kids to run to practice or sporting events or parties or school functions. We don’t feel a need to go out a few nights a week. We see value in concentrating on growing our business instead and appreciate the quiet times that we create with intention to reflect, consider changes and make plans.
Also, in the role of being a customer for many decades, we knew how we wanted to be treated. These years of experiencing the good and the bad customer service practices helped us establish our mode of operation.
Experience, maturity and a sense of stability all comes with age. And with age comes the opportunity to pursue all the dreams, turning them into goals. The freedom that being “older” brings is a freedom to be what you want to be, and not care what others think of your crazy ideas.
This sense of self allowed us to create a second business, which is a turnkey business package to help others start their own home inventory service. We have the experience, knowledge and confidence to teach others. Our age has given us the necessary skills to provide training and mentoring.
Staying young in thought can outweigh any number that defines your physical years. As C.S. Lewis said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Cindy Hartman is President of Hartman Inventory, a woman-owned business that provides business and home inventory services. She and her husband Mike also own Hartman Inventory Systems, a complete turnkey home inventory business package for those who want to establish their own inventory company. She is also an owner of Business Continuity Planning Specialists, which was created with the small business owners' needs and budgets in mind. Cindy writes a blog and is also a freelance writer on topics of disaster preparedness and recovery, small business, product reviews, marketing and networking.
She also serves on the Advisory Board of the International MasterMind Group with Success Coaches Institute where she shares her knowledge and experience on topics of business ownership, entrepreneurship, having a positive attitude and the law of attraction.