What Should You Do Before Starting a Business Later in Life?

According to US News & World Report, “Retirement is different now than it was just 10 years ago.”

The number one reason is because of extended life expectancy. Your parents and grandparents might’ve had 10-15 years after retirement. Now you can expect 20-30 years.

With retirement possibly lasting several decades that means your expenses need to cover a longer period and, more importantly, it gives you more opportunity to pursue things you haven’t been able to in the past.

This is why retirees and those who are looking towards retirement are starting their own businesses.

It gives them the flexibility to earn extra spending money and it allows them to do those things they always wanted to do such as taking the entire family on vacation or donating to their favorite charitable cause.

Interested in starting a new venture in retirement?

I mean, why not?

It’s a great way to bridge the gap from your career to retirement. Additionally, it’s also a great way for you to expand your mind as you age. Helping both from the financial and mental aspects.

Having a business has many payoffs for you – figuratively and literally.

Here’s the deal though:

On this journey there are going to be obstacles in your way and you won’t know what they are or when they’ll come up.

With that being said, prior to thinking about the type of business you want to run, the name you want to give it and the color pattern to use for your logo, there are essential things for you to consider. These things will help you to maintain your head level and eye on your goals when the obstacles emerge.

You want to do this so you can have fun on this journey because if you’re starting a business at this phase of your life why do it if you’re not having fun?!
What are these things for you to do before starting a business?

I thought you’d never ask

What should you do before starting a business?

To help answer this question, and to save you hours of time Googling, I reached out to some retirement coaches to get their input. I asked them what questions they would ask their clients who were looking to start a business.
The result is a series of articles, which are summed up below.

Let’s get into it. Shall we?

Here’s One Question To Help You Know What Type of Business to Start in Retirement

If you’re completely lost where to start and not clear the type of business that even makes sense for you, there is one key question you can ask yourself.

When you answer this question, the type of business starts to become more clear.

“What do they want to get out of the business?”

This is what Kevin Lyles, Head of Education at Rock Retirement Club shared with me.

“That will lead to how I could counsel them because there are many possible answers,” he said.

This question is important for several reasons.

For most of your adult life, your career has taken up a huge chunk of your time.

Now as you’re transitioning to this next stage, it plays an entirely new role.

This is significant because the type of business you choose should be in alignment with your bigger vision of how you want to spend your time.

Your vision dictates how you want to consider the type of business you start. It also emphasizes why Kevin’s question is so important to answer.

You now have more control over how you spend your time instead of your career dictating it.

How to Silence Your Inner Critic When Starting Your Business

Have you heard that voice inside your head that talks you out of doing things?

The one that will give you excuse after excuse why you can’t do something.

“You’re 55 years old, you can’t do that,” it says.

“What will happen if you fail?” it asks.

“You can’t possibly learn how to do that,” it tells you.

Well that voice has a name.

It’s called a limiting belief and you can quiet it down once and for all.

To help better understand limiting beliefs and how to work past them, I spoke to Reed Dewey of Whats-Next.org.

“Sometimes limiting beliefs and assumptions get in the way of fully living life,” said Reed.

Read that quote again. At any stage of your life, is that how you want to live? Do you want to get in your own way of success?

Reed then shared with me how ironic it is that in time of transition is when we need the strength and power to move forward. That’s when we sabotage and cut ourselves off.

One example of a limiting belief he shared is, “I’m not good with technology. I can’t start an online business.”

He shared a three-part process to overcome your limiting beliefs:

1. Clearly seeing the limiting belief and how it stands in your way
2. Once you’ve identified the importance of overcoming the limiting belief, you can start to come up with ways to overcome
3. Get to action

You can

How to Create a Vision For Your Business That Excites You

It’s been reported that 53% of small business owners rank their happiness at 9 or more.

To help put you in that 53%, I spoke to Ruth Tongen, a Certified Professional Retirement Coach.

“It starts with the vision of where you’re headed and why you want to go there,” she said.

She laid out her three-part plan to assist in creating that vision.

The first part is your priorities. These are then broken down into structure, connection and purpose and meaning.

Those are used to create the starting point she helps people to build upon.

The second part is your values. This exercise consists of writing down all your values and narrowing them down to 3-5.

This narrowed list helps you to organize your life and list accordingly.

The third part is your passions. For this she recommends creating a list of things that you absolutely love to do. Again narrowing it down to 3-5.

“Your values and passions may end up being the same things,” explained Ruth.

She describes this as the “sweet spot” when your values and passions dance with each other.

In closing

These are just a few things for you to do before you start your business. They will help to get you in the mindset to set you up for success on this journey.