Boomer Biz Zone

10 Reasons Why Runnnig a Business Is THE Way to Work Today

2011-11-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this short, very informative video slide presentation.

My 8 Week Business Launch Blueprint

2011-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Now my neighbor Fred chose to try to plan his new business all by myself and made a lot of mistakes doing it. I detailed these in my first video.

Fortunately, we spoke and I convinced Fred to start business coaching with me and over a few months I taught Fred 5 key tasks he needed to do to really get his business growing. I talked about these 5 factors in my second video.

In this third video, I share with you my 8-week business launch blueprint. You have a big advantage over Fred - you're finding out about this proven process BEFORE YOU START PLANNING YOUR BUSINESS. And so, you will not only avoid the mistakes Fred made, but you will also see your business quickly flourish once you launch.

NOTE: If the player window doesn't load automatically, click on "8 Week Blueprint" title in the right-hand column under the October posts.

5 Ways We Helped Fred Turn His Business Around

2011-10-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

After we reviewed his business start-up mistakes with Fred, he saw the wisdom of signing on as a new coaching client.

In this video, I tell you the five changes to running his business we showed Fred - that resulted in $6,000 in new income within 60 days after he started with us.

NOTE: If the player window doesn't load automatically, click on "11 Mistakes" title in the right-hand column under the October posts.

Video #1 - How to avoid 11 key business start-up mistakes

2011-09-29T21:23:00.001-07:00

By the time I found out that my friend Fred had started a business he was already struggling because he had made a number of key mistakes.

In this video, I tell you how to avoid each of these mistakes by getting some expert help.

NOTE: If the player window doesn't load automatically, click on "11 Mistakes" title in the right-hand column under the September posts

Unemployed 50+ Boomers - There's a Plan B Right in Front of You

2011-06-11T14:47:00.001-07:00

A harsh reality is becoming very apparent in the job market - if you're over age 50 and lose your job, you are likely not going to be able to return to a replacement full-time job.

According to a recent Forbes article, the few new jobs being offered by corporate employers to folks over 50 are often part-time or temporary, neither great ways to rebuild your battered retirement savings.

Last week, a commentator on National Public Radio seemed to sum it up when he said: "Many out-of-work boomers over 50 are retired from the corporate world and just don't know it yet!"

Well, let me bring you some very good news to offset the dire outlook in the job market...

There is a work "Plan B" at your fingertips!

Many corporate hiring managers today are under age 40 and to them your age is often a deterrent to hiring you.

But, guess what? When you run your own business, your customers or clients don't care how old you are - they just want to be sure you'll deliver what you promise.

Even if you're able to find some kind of full-time corporate job, you must understand that for the past decade real job wages have not grown, not even by a fraction of one percent.

So in the corporate world today you work your butt off and you still don't get ahead financially.

In contrast, when you're self-employed you largely control how fast and how far you can grow your personal income.

For example, I sit down each January and figure out what level of personal income I would like to receive for the year. Then, I make a mini-marketing plan to achieve my goal.

Over the twenty-three years I've been self-employed I've made my goal many more times than I've missed it.

In today's drastically downsized corporate world a typical senior manager (which those of you over 50 should be by this point) is probably doing 2, 3 or more jobs at the same time.

When I drive by the commuter train terminal in the downtown of my Chicago suburb at 8:00 at night, I see dozens of older individuals in business dress get off the train. They've probably been away from home for fourteen hours or more.

Being able to work on a flexible schedule is one of the major rewards you gain by running your own business. Over the past decade members of my family have suffered some serious medical problems that required that I take off a lot of time to help.

In the corporate world, I'd have run out of sick leave within a couple of months and when I continued to be absent, they would have likely fired me.

So, your "Plan B" is to seriously explore ways to turn your skill and experience into an entrepreneurial income opportunity.

Now, I know from interacting with hundreds of my 50+ peers each month that many talented people don't stick their toe into the entrepreneurial pond for one primary reason: They can't visualize how they can turn their skill and experience into a money-making enterprise.

I want to help you get over this mental hurdle.

So, I've created a free tool - the Boomer Biz Starter Kit.

The Kit will guide you to use every day work and life experience
to identify a great business idea for you and then show you
how to evaluate its financial potential.

Request your free copy today.

Great Success,

Jeff Williams

Attack Upon the Middle Class

2011-03-03T13:15:00.001-08:00

If you've read even one evening newspaper or watched just one network news broadcast recently, you've likely heard this phrase intoned: "America's middle class is under attack".

Now, I generally don't watch network news (and certainly NOT cable news) but even I know that much hyperbole is used by news readers today.

But, in the case of the above phrase, I must stay that television and newspaper commentators are for once possibly understating the reality here.

Any economic expert will cerify that that two features of our society in the past 50 years most dramactically encouraged the robust growth of a strong middle class:

1. Greatly expanded college enrollments.

2. Union membership.

For any of us with children either currently in college or recently graduated, it is appalling to realize that our "typical" college graduate today is walking away with more than $15,000 of college debt.

Faced with a decade or more of college repayment, fewer and fewer college graduates in their late twenties have the financial capability to raise the downpayment to buy even a starter house.

Why does this matter? Because home ownership has been the foundation of entering the "middle class" in America for all of the post-war period to date.

For young Americans who choose not to attend college, there has been the alternative of well paid factory work, often as part of an union workforce.

As an entrepreneurical coach and member of my local workforce development agency, I have first hand experience of what has been happening in the job market for the past decade or more - no real growth in income for non-union corporate workers.

What I have been observing is a sobering truth - workers not represented by unions have been falling behind economically for years - slowly edging their way out of the bottom end of the middle class.

Now, I'm the first to verify the assertion that some union contracts call for wage and benefit provisions that are no longer sustainable in an America that has lost millions of manufacturing and service jobs to foreign competitors.

And so I favor renegotiation of many union contracts to require greater contribution of union members to their pension and insurance plans, just like the public employees union in Wisconsin has publicly declared their willingness to do.

But, what I do not support is the effective dismantling of the right to collective bargaining.

It is only because of collective bargaining agreements that any worker in the U.S. is seeing any increase in their income.

Let me close by proposing a thought.

Most large corporate CEOs today work under generous and rigorously enforced employment contracts, often negotiated for them by corporate recruiting firms.

If a CEO works under a negotiated employment contract, that is next to impossible to change and got this arrangment via the involvement of an outside negotiator, then one can conceivably describe CEOs as working under "collective bargaining agreements".

But, do you read about any Congressman or woman suggesting that we take this right away from CEOs?

Boomer entrepreneurs - look for income opportunities close to home

2011-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011 to all my readers of the Boomer Business Owner blog.

I don't know about you, but I was very happy to see the year 2010 slide away into history!

Between family medical problems and three more of my close friends losing their jobs, last year was at time of challenge and stress.

As we enter the year 2011, if you're one of more than 10 million Americans still looking for any kind of job, it may not seem a very promising working landscape.

But, I'm pleased to share with you some encouraging news about getting back to work.

I think that you'll understand that as the owner of a business start-up coaching company, I am inclined to look at the most entrepreneurial way to find work.

I have to be honest though, prior to the Great Recession I honestly knew that at any given time maybe 1 out of 10 or so people who told me that they wanted to be their own boss actually launched a business.

For the other nine people the process of starting a business just seemed to complex and costly in the end.

We face a very different world today. Large numbers of Americans who would have previously fallen into the "I guess I don't really want to be my own boss" category are now unemployed and many of those over age 50 have been so for more than a year at this point.

What might have seemed in 2007 to be a "someday I want to be my own boss" proposition for these people is now possibly their only remaining option for restarting their personal income stream through delivering work.

Now, here's the good news...

Although it is estimated that 20% of the adult workforce is currently either unemployed or underemployed that means that 80% are still working in jobs.

And, according to the latest survey data, gathered in late 2010, people in jobs are finally feeling that the downsizing has ended and if they are still in their jobs they are likely to continue being so for the foreseeable future.

Why is this fact important to you and your working prospects?

Because the same survey also revealed that these working people are feeling enough more confident that they are starting to spend once again. Christmas 2010 retail sales were the best in seven years.

Not only are these employed Americans starting to buy the more traditional trappings of modern society such as fancy electronics and new cars, but they are also on their way back to buying what I used to describe as "an orgy of personal services".

This fall three of my immediate neighbors who for three previous years raked their leaves themselves called in landscaping services - so I see this uptick in buying confidence right on my block - close to home!

Now, here's the confounding reality regarding work right now. ..

Although major downsizings have largely stopped, few employers of any size are aggressively hiring right now - remember more than 9 million Americans have either been on furlough or reduced hours and they usually get called back first.

So, robust job growth is still a long ways off, but...

Increased consumer buying is leading to more purchases from small businesses in their local communities, and guess who owns these businesses? People like you that's who!

If you're finally ready to open your eyes to the entrepreneurial side of working, you don't need to look any further than close to your home to find attractive opportunities.

Book Review: "The Hard Times Guide To Retirement Security"

2010-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Mark Miller, my entrepreneurial friend and author of the syndicated column, "Retire Smart" has really "hit a homerun" with the sage advice offered in his new book: "The Hard Times Guide To Retirement Security", published by Bloomberg Press.

In my rola as a leading business start-up coach and adviser to 50+ Boomers, I an constantly reading...retirement blogs, magazine and newspaper articles and, of course, books., looking for the best overall retirement-related advice I can offer to our clients.

Several publishers are kind enough to send me review copies of their new titles on the subject of retirement planning, so I'm usually pretty up to date on what is being said about retirement planning from self-described "experts".

I've read five books in the last year purporting to decipher the complete retirement planning puzzle in one place, backed with reliable data and actionable "take next" steps.

Well, I've got to tell you that until I speed-read Mark's book I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing in the other books I have read recently on retirement planning.

Although Mark specializes in financial analysis and advice for those working through pre-retirement planning, he shows with his new book that he is equally adept at explaining the powerful trends and behaviors behind the consideration of "encore careers", volunteerism, and particularly my balliwick - running a business after age 50.

Often books in this category are gorged with statistics, charts and graphs, which even in full size are hard to read and understand, let alone in the smaller paperback book size.

Mark minimizes the use of such often distracting visual tools and relies upon his strength - telling real stories about real people to ilustrate each key point, tactic or trend.

For example, in Chapter 14: "Fifty Plus Entrepreneur", Mark uses the story of my start-up client, Al Brown to illustrate his motivation to become a 50+ entrepreneur and the fits and starts he has faced in bringing his now successful business to life.

Even the organization of the book's chapters reflects a clean, minimalist style - there are just three subdivisions: Money, Work and Living.

In case you haven't deduced it already in my blog post, I am highly recommending "The Hard Times Guide To Retirement Security" to each and every Boomer friend, colleague, neighbor, relative...and even strangers I run across.

You can learn a great deal more about the book and share additional, practical tips from Mark's weekly newspaper column, by visiting: www.hardtimesretirement.com.

You can buy Mark's book at Amazon.com - When you get your copy, don't forget to turn right away to Chapter 14 and share my pearls of wisdom on starting a fun and rewarding business after 50.

Great Success To You
Jeff

True Entrepreneurs or Just Desperate Job Seekers?

2010-06-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

While satisfying my daily online news fix, I came across a thoughtful article written by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for President Bill Clinton, and a commentator whose point of view I always take note of.

Mr Reich talks in his column how a recent survey by the Kaufmann Foundation (entrepreneurial development and support) indicates that new business launches in 2009 were the highest in the past 14 years, higher even than during the peak of the dot.com boom.

To what does Mr. Reich attribute this explosion in start-ups?

He describes how more and more downsized Americans, particularly those over 50, are finding a dead end in replacing their corporate jobs and so are launching small, one-person business ventures in an attempt to get some family income going once again.

He then goes on to question whether many of these newly minted small business owners are truly entrepreneurial or whether they are just self-employed people who are struggling to get some personal cash flow going once again.

I say that it doesn't make much difference what you call these new self-directed individuals.

All are reflecting a new reality in America that is characterized by each of us acting much more like what has been described as "You, Inc." where we sell our experiences and skills in the open marketing to a succession of customers instead to a single corporate employer.

This entrepreneurial phenomenon will only grow as we move forward, for many reasons.

Here are a few of them:

1. Over 3 million Americans turn age 60 each year. Many will either be downizized or pushed into retirement by the time they hit 60...but most are nowhere near ready to "hang up their spurs".

2. Corporations are permanently building into their personnel plans the use of temporary and contract workers, at all levels not just administrative. When you work on this basis you are legally an "independent contractor" which is a form of being entrepreneurial.

3. The past ten years have been a real grind for corporate managers, who've faced multiple reductions in force, earned no real gain in wages and often made to feel of little value after 50. Suffering from job burnout, more and more older Boomers want to a new way to work - with more flexibility of schedule, more daily fun and less limit on their income growth. The only way I know for most of us to achieve all three is to run our own businesses.