Starting Your Own Business After 50

The Mom Entrepreneur offers tips, advice, and resources for balancing motherhood and running a company.

Okay, keep it down. You're saying that you're practically over with soccer games, band, gymnastics and scouts and the stresses that accompany them?

Well, folks, as part of the Sandwich Generation, we are experiencing INCREASING emotional, financial, legal and physical stresses because:

1. Many of us waited to have children--1 out of every 8 middle-aged Americans are faced not only with raising them but also with caring for a parent (PEW Research Center). Another 7 - 10 million assist parents from afar.

In spite of juggling all of these responsibilities, quite a few people 50+ have contacted me about their desire to create and own a business.

Check out The Mom Entrepreneur to find out how I did it.

And take advantage of free advice.

How To Help Aging Communities

Cecily O'Connor recently completed a National Press Foundation fellowship on retirement issues in the 21st century and now reports for Spot.Us, a very cool and unique community-funded investigative reporting agency where the public (meaning you and I) could commission this service to investigate overlooked stories.

In her 3-part series, O'Connor covers "When The Longevity Revolution Hits Your Town" and compares challenges and solutions facing five diverse Northern California cities, San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Vallejo, which, she asserts, represent the spectrum of communities across the United States.  

"Age-friendly" programs, transportation, housing, healthcare, employment and crime are just a few of the topics discussed in this thoroughly-engaging examination of increasing senior ranks.

Professors, sociologists, city manager and officers of aging organizations discuss the dilemma communities face in order to build sustainable solutions into city planning.  And the problem is further fueled not only by diminishing, sometimes bankrupt, public funds but also declining home values.

Find out how other communities are handling these issues and think about how you can help your town deal with these foreseeable concerns.

Staying Connected With Grandchildren

Stay connected with your grandchildren. But how, you ask? Marty Norman suggests you email, plant gardens, send tape-recorded stories, create a story with their name, provide them with a laminated list of your phone numbers and much more. You can even find her suggested gift ideas including a Vtech Kidizoom Multimedia Digital Camera (Camouflage)

This is one lady who aims to impact the lives of her grandchildren. Luckily (for us) she shares her advice in Generation G: Advice for Savvy Grandmothers Who Will Never Go Gray

You don't have to burden your brain to create ideas for developing wholesome relationships with the kiddies. Marty does it for you!

50Something gets help from her 20Something friends

I love blogging and I couldn't do with out a little help from my friends (20-Something year olds.) When my wild web women team gives advice - I listen! Recently, they recommended that I read Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging I would have never thought after all of my years as a librarian, that I would be so in love with the blogosphere world! Stay tuned because once I am done RWDC (reading while devouring chocolate) - I am going to give you a rocking book review.

And if you want to RWDC with me - you can buy the book and we will read it together!

50+ Women Connect With Other Discerning Women

Smart women know that many heads are better than one.  Just ask the women who frequent Vibrant Nation.  They know that they can ask questions and get answers.  They can get recommendations and save their time for more pressing things like love & sex, travel, technology & internet, work & money. And they know that connecting with other women like themselves is only a click away.  

This is really a "must have" site.   It's here where I:

1. Learned how to design for a "not so big" home

2. Found a primer for women entrepreneurs

3. Read a review about Slumdog Millionaire

4. Pondered how I can have better conversations with my adult son

5. Located 3 sites where I can satisfy my yearn for pretty things without hurting the environment

6. Scored a great recipe for chocolate turtles

7. Could join in a conversation about sex for post-menopausal women

8. Added favorite cooking gadgets to my wish-list

9. Tweaked my wardrobe with new fashion ideas

10. Got recommendations for books to enhance my spiritual life

Vibrant Nation is a rare find.  Like my own website, it is packed with useful information.  

One Source That Helps With Housing Options

Seniors For Living does a fine job of providing useful definitions, tips, tools, and articles about different housing options for the aging.  

Here you can learn and differentiate: 

Assisted Living

Independent Living

Alzheimer's Care

Continuing Care

Retirement Living

Home Care

Should you conclude, however, that there are few housing options in your area, do not despair. Seniorsforliving appears to mention only a fraction of the actual numbers. Whether this is because the website owners have not yet accumulated the information or whether they promote only licensed facilities that advertise with them, I don't know. 

Be aware that certain websites appear to promote certain products and services at the expense of better ones.  Before making decisions as life-altering as housing, do your homework.    

 

Boomers And Seniors Looking For Work

The author of the upcoming book told me that Car-man took a bigger leap than I.  He catapulted backwards by choice from founder and president of a professional corporation to a car salesman. I merely hopped from being a librarian to creating a website.  I see her point.  I've just switched locales but Car-man not only moved into a completely different field, he also had to adjust from:

1. Generous compensation and time-off to commission only and one week "paid" vacation 

2. Giving orders to taking orders

3. Status and prestige to, well, you know...

4. Large, corner office to desk by the window

More and more of our friends and acquaintances are finding themselves thrown back into the job pool.   The blows to ego and personal finance are depressing and frightening especially if you're over 50.   

Check out Workforce50 where employers who are committed to hiring baby boomers and older workers advertise their jobs.  RetiredBrains welcomes those looking for jobs, volunteer opportunities, educational resources and retirement information.  Search for a part-time job, a temporary job or project assignment or a full-time job.  Since I don't have personal experience with either site, let me know what you think.

Car-man, thanks for making the trade-off so that we can live in a nicer place and be closer to our grandkids.  You're my hero.