February 15-22, 2020 was National Entrepreneurship Week, and, whoops, we missed an opportunity to recognize the entrepreneurs among us in the community. I resolve to plan better for next year and have already marked my calendar, so I won’t miss it again.
Among our 2020 New Year’s resolutions for businesses was a category called planning, which you may recall included not only planning the business day and week, but also setting goals for the future and then making plans to attain those goals.
As you visit the shops, eateries, business offices and service locations in our communities here in Newberry County, take note of who the business owners are. You will find that for many of them this work was not their first job, not even their first career.
Although lots of folks have always had their own business, there is a real trend for “second-act entrepreneurship,” and the Kauffman Foundation finds that about 26 percent of these second-act players are 55-to-64-year-olds. So how did these entrepreneurs, and even younger ones, manage to leave their established careers and start new ones? They planned for it, of course. Here are a few points to consider if you, too, would like to start a second act.
First, choose to do something you love. If you have a hobby, whether it is sewing, or making pickles, or woodworking, or tinkering in the garage with old lawnmowers, you may be able to make a career out of that love. Where once your hobby was an escape from the drudgery of your job, making your hobby your business could be the very move that causes you to love your job every day.
Second, figure out how to mitigate the risks of leaving the old job. Research what you want to do next. Can you really sell your service or the products that you make, and where and how and to whom would you sell them? Take classes or workshops to learn about owning and running a business. How much money would it take to get started and how much would you need to have saved to bridge the gap from old job to new job? Could you borrow money? Can you start out as a side gig?
Third, be flexible and prepared, because in life, “things change.” The new career may be so successful that it becomes more demanding than the old one. What then? Your health could fail, your adult kid could move back home, all sorts of things could happen. Be prepared to adjust your course if necessary and acknowledge that change is not failure, it is just an adjustment to new conditions.
And fourth and finally, don’t try to “go it alone.” Let your community be your business partner. Join the business associations that can support you. Support your fellow businesses by shopping local. Be generous in supporting community activities with service and contributions. Don’t be too proud to ask for help. Most communities have a wealth of resources such as a SBDC office, mentors through SCORE or the local Chamber of Commerce, or a Technical College. And successful business-people are often eager to help a newcomer to succeed – your success is good for everyone. Plan for it.