Many times I am asked how I have started and grown my businesses. I talk! I absolutely love what I do and when asked what I do, I am off and running. My enthusiasm and passion about the importance of women over 55 draws people. From casual meetings I have learned best practices, met new advocates, gotten great suggestions, and made wonderful contacts and referrals. This is the same skill we honed in high school, college, first job and on the playground with other mothers. Talk about what you do and love. Remember Marsha Sinetar’s book “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow”. It’s just as true in launching your business — you never know who your conversation partner knows that will have important information you need! it’s fun to see where the threads of connection lead.
Reading this week’s Crains Chicago I was reminded that when many of us were younger there weren’t the same opportunities for a woman who wanted to be something other than a teacher, nurse or housewife. Many of us learned about business, leadership, strategy, and money from books. Marsha Serlin talks about her devotion to self-help and self-education books. I was delighted to see someone else who considers herself “addicted” to these books and magazines. I find the challenge is to carve out non-guilty time to read them. Like many others, I often think that if I am not at my computer, talking to colleagues or clients, or networking that I should be. It may be the best use of some of my time each day is to feed my brain. The results are usually unexpected and well worth my time!
Following up on an earlier post…I think we have finally come up with a good name for us After55-ers — the reinventors. I like the accuracy — reinventing ourselves is what women do at this lifestage –and it speaks to our creativity in all areas and it is POSITIVE. Market research tells us that women define themselves less by age than by lifestage. Now it is not important if our hair is still naturally brunette, if our waistlines might not be as trim as when we were thirty, or if we wear cute little glasses to read the fine print — okay, any print! We are definitely reinventors. I wonder what would be the ingredients in a Reinventor Martini! Whatever they might be, the drink would be delicious.
I am really surprised at the statistics about the number of After 55s that are using social networking. It turns out we are the second largest group on these sites — and the 12-18 year olds, who I would have thought were the prime users, are the smallest group! I wonder who all these people are. Nearly everyone I know who is After 55 says that they have never been on the sites, don’t understand what they are for, and don’t have time for them. It is hugely important to keep our eyes on technology to make the most of it for our businesses. After reading the article with this statistic, I have made it my business to learn about pinging and sites that raise search engine visibility. If you don’t already know about these check in with your tech advisor or let me know. I’m on my way to expert status!!
The statistics are pouring in about the After 55 market’s high degree of usage of internet. Much to everyone’s surprise, the usage rate is the highest of any subset demographic in terms of amount of time on the web. Another set of statistics report the huge increase in social networking across all strata of users. I am not yet convinced that these two statistics fit neatly together. So far, my unscientific research indicates that the After 55 entrepreneurs are not a significant percentage of sites such as YouTube and Second Life. I am facinated by the popularity of social networking sites. Even more so, Second Life where you can make a fantasy life for yourself and market your products, try out products in the market place, make new friends, go on adventures and on and on. I am wondering if these sites have any interest for the After 55 woman. Do we have time to go to these sites? Have we grasped their essential appeal for our marketplace? Or are we still standing at the dock and the ship left several months ago? What do you think?
Several weeks ago Crain’s Chicago Business published a cover story about Faye Pantazelos gaining sole control of the bank she had founded after a two year battle with dissident investors. This makes New Century Bank the only woman owned bank in Chicago. What a feather in her cap! Congratulations Faye!!
The bad news is that the story about this achievement repeatedly refers to Ms. Pantazelo’s weight and to her unmarried status. What on earth do those pieces of information have to do with her accomplishment? In the same article, the weight and marital status of the profiled dissident investor, male, are never mentioned. I can see from his picture that he is far from svelte, but no mention is made of how his weight, diet, or eating habits have affected his career. It seems that the article’s author isn’t comfortable with a successful woman — and the top business publication in Chicago is supporting his discomfort. Interestingly, Crain’s has just published an issue featuring Women to Watch. Is this talking out of both sides of their mouth?
The Wall Street Journal article of April 20, 2007 about the Gen Yers has certainly opened the flood gates! It seems this generation’s tag line is “The Most Praised” and that is having a BIG effect on the business community. These kids are so used to being praised, stroked and petted that without frequent affirmation of their specialness they find it hard to function effectively. In fact, it seems to be a condition of their employment satisfaction! However, studies also show that this generation is also miserable. Pretty soon they don’t know whose comments to really trust. I think it is time we again take younger people figuratively by the hand and help them to true adulthood. We can help them develop their internal standards of professionalism and pride of accomplishment — skills that will enrich all areas of their lives. Then we can focus on running our businesses and saving money by reassigning our Celebration Specialists to more profitable tasks!
I have been thinking a lot about the name of this blog. Imagine my surprise when I recently read women entrepreneurs 35-45 identified as “mature”. What are the 45-55 year olds? What are we? Geezers?
Last week I attended the AARP Women’s Leadership Circle Summit and asked a room full of beyond “mature” entrepreneurs for suggestions for the title of this blog. Here are their suggestions: Experience Counts, Aloft, Trailblazers, Unstoppable, Women Who Lead the Way. The excitement about having a positive column and blog about us ran high. Remember that AARP had to change the name of their magazine Modern Maturity because it didn’t resonate with a large segment of their market. It still doesn’t with the After 55 businesswoman. I wonder why the 35-45 year olds aren’t rallying for a change of classification…maybe After 55 is the new hot place to be. After all, we’re at the top of our game!
