After55:

My business coach Barry Zweibel asked me an interesting  question in three parts that is worth passing on to you:

What would you do if someone invested $10,000 in your business? How would you spend it?

$100,000?  $1,000,000?

At first I thought it was a cute set of questions, but as I started to consider the possibilities I saw that what I was doing was writing a different kind of business plan.  We After 55s are many times used to doing everything ourselves.  These questions stretch us in more ways than one.  Go, Barry!

I just was connected to Sharon Pinder of The Pinder Group.  She’s one of us–started her last two businesses After 55, in addition to teaching an online course for University of Maryland University College on “Women as Entrepreneurs.”  She is a clear thinker with lots of experience, and I asked her to give me three points she teaches her students about being entrepreneurs.  Here they are–if you want to learn more about Sharon or her course, click the links!

1. Access to opportunity: Is age, gender or race a factor? How can you maximize those factors to your benefit?
2. Access to capital:  Make sure your business is well-capitalized and know where you will get the capital.
3. Be knowledgeable about being an entrepreneur: Know what it takes to start, build and grow a business.  Work FOR your business, not IN it!

Good points, Sharon!  Too many times we just start on a whim because we have read about some super-successful person who did . . . probably if we scratched the surface, we would find a different story. There are no born entrepreneurs–there are successful entrepreneurs who have succeeded because of Sharon’s pointers.

According to Careerbuilder, “60 percent of workers over age 60 believe they’ll need to delay retirement because of money they’ve lost during the economic downturn, with 73 percent of those saying they’ll need to work an additional six years to recoup what they’ve lost.”

These are really big numbers!  Because we are all here on Entrepreneur.com, we know that one of the ways this 60 percent of workers are meeting this challenge is by starting their own businesses and reinventing their future.  That is exactly what this blog, my sister column After55 on WomenEntrepreneur and my website, Silver Vixens, will be focusing on in the coming weeks.  Stay in touch and keep in touch.

At lunch yesterday, IP attorney Barbara Luther mentioned that she had just learned about a loan program available to members and former members of the military and their families to help them start businesses. It’s patriotloans.org. Needless to say, I thought of you. This is not in any way an endorsement (think of all the usual caveats) by either Barbara or me, but it’s definitely worth your time to go explore.  Happy hunting.

I’ve been thinking a lot about goal setting in the past few days. What has me intrigued is whether it’s somewhat different for those of us who are “After 55.” We are at a very different place in our lives–our timeline for achieving success is shorter.  I am talking about the taboo of aging.

Starting a business now will require more time and resources than it would have three years ago. The critical questions we must ask ourselves are: Do I have–or want to expend–the energy it will take to give this idea wings? How much of my personal resources am I willing to risk to give this idea a chance to flourish? Every entrepreneur has to answer these questions whenever she starts her business. The difference for us is that if the business doesn’t meet our expectations, our potential recovery period is shorter and the downside could have much more severe ramifications.

On the other hand, research indicates that only 37 percent of retirees want to simply sit back and relax. Being a business owner is the most direct way for an After 55 to soften the blows of the current economic whipsaw. One of the biggest requirements of running a business is dealing with reality. Does your business idea meet your financial requirement–present and future?  Until you can answer this question affirmatively and honestly, keep researching, planning and building up your reserves.

Yup. All the news is even worse than last week. Gloom and doom. You’ve tried breathing but, to tell the truth, you’re bored by the negative drone of the talking heads.

What to do? How about taking some time to put yourself in your customers’ shoes? What do they need that you can provide? How can you provide it in a customer-centered, profitable manner (though perhaps not the previous profit margins)? Can you change your pricing to be more customer-centered? Let me give you an example.

A friend was telling me about her established handyman business. Her assumption was that because of the economy, people might put off major projects but would always need a handyman to fix things as they broke. The business is in a very affluent area with a decent percentage of people over 55. My friends require a minimum of two hours’ work to book an appointment because the cost of gas was hovering at $4 a gallon.  No marketing plan except word of mouth from satisfied customers and a witty “Honey Do” line on a cute business card.  This is pretty standard thought–need>respond>completion>referrals>success.  Hopefully a 50-50 chance of making it through the next two years.  But, what if:

1. Rather than require a two-hour minimum, they change it to half an hour with a charge included to cover transportation costs, and subsequent half-hour increments were lower-priced?
2. When booking the appointment, asking if any of neighbors have mentioned needing handyman services?  If so, and if my friends can book an appointment the same day, customer No. 1 will receive a reduction in the first-half-hour fee.
3. Using the reverse directory, my friends call the neighbors within three houses in all directions and tell them the day they will be working in the neighborhood and ask if there is anything the new prospect needs help with–of course, listing three or four possibilities to jog the potential customer’s memory?
4. They register or put up a well-done, informative flier (listing qualifications and insurance coverage, for comfort) in all the local senior centers and places seniors gather in the area?
5. They use the same flyer and put it up in health club?
6. They come up with a list of 10 new places they could contact?

And on and on. Get the idea? At a time like this, there is comfort in motion–just make sure it’s forward.

Easy for me to say because I am not in your shoes. Let’s cut to the chase–I don’t have any brilliant insights into how to weather this unbelievable time of economic upheaval. If that is what you were hoping for, you can skip to the next thing you want to read. If you are experiencing fallout from the credit freeze and it is affecting your ability to pay your employees or your payables, my heart goes out to you.

Now that we have commiserated, are there any opportunities here? Is this the time to think about reorganizing your business? Is there an employee you have been thinking about cutting or redeploying? This is a good time to review all of your products and make sure each one has a place in your lineup. Can you produce any of your products more efficiently or at a lower cost? If not, can you enhance their value?

If your bank account is in good condition, is there an opportunity to acquire another business at an attractive price? Can you negotiate a better price for supplies?

Those who are able to look beyond the huge message of doom will frequently weather the storm in even better shape. I hope you are among them!

This week I went back to reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. He was struck that almost all the executives he interviewed used the same phrase, observing that “Just in the last couple of years” they had been able to do things they had never dreamed possible before or that they were being forced to do things they had never dreamed necessary before. Of course, this got me to thinking about our lives, too. We all remember the birthday decorations for “50″ as being over the hill or graveyard stuff. Maybe some of us even bought into it that the best part of our lives was over when we got that mailer from AARP. Now that we are “after 55,” we know the truth. Life has never been better nor offered us more opportunity.

Let’s talk about it. What have you done or been forced to do over the past couple of years for your business (Let’s not get into personal life stuff because we could probably all write volumes.) that would meet Tom Friedman’s criteria? What did you learn? I can’t wait to read your responses.

By now everyone knows I am a reading junkie. One business magazine I particularly like and read cover to cover is PINK magazine. In this month’s e-mail newsletter, the following item appeared: “It is really frustrating that after years of hard work and vigilance, we cannot let up. Though we think we have gotten legislation passed to help level the playing field, we then find out it has been ignored. Now we read that they are planning to make it harder for us to compete again. Please read on and click through to lodge your protest. Now the younger women will know what we have fought for so long.

“PINK Slip Update–and a Call to Action

“The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), former recipient of our notorious PINK Slip, has yet to comply with a 7-year-old law that would reserve 5 percent of government contracts for women-owned businesses. Although women-owned firms account for 41 percent of all privately held firms in the U.S., they currently receive only 3.3 percent of these contracts. ‘The difference in federal spending between 5 percent and 3.3 percent was $7.5 billion based on 2006 numbers,’ points out Linda Denny, president and CEO of Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the nation’s largest third-party certifier of women-owned businesses.

“The SBA has now proposed a rule to Congress that would only allow federal agencies to implement the program for women-owned businesses in four out of more than 2,300 business categories. ‘This rule would make it virtually impossible for any woman business owner to take advantage of the 5 percent set-aside, completely invalidating the intent of Congress,’ says Barbara Kasoff, president and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).”

“To get involved:

1. Click here to contact the SBA and ask it to rescind the proposed rule. Deadline: February 25. (WIPP asks that you forward a copy of your response to Anna at alubiner@wipp.org.)

2. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher has written a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter asking members of the House to join her in asking the SBA to work with Congress to redraft the proposed rule. Let your representative know how you feel and cc WIPP.”

Within the last week I have learned about Make Mine a Million $ Business from two sources, and am I glad I did. M3 (to those of us in the know) is a program of countmein.org, founded by Nell Merlino. She is also the founder of Take Your Daughter to Work Day. This woman moves mountains.

M3 is for women whose businesses are established, but who are ready to commit to taking them to the million-dollar level. As you explore the website, look at all the ways you can learn and benefit. I was particularly pleased that several awardees are “of a certain age,” and that means you can benefit! The next event is in Phoenix on March 4, and it will be co-hosted by Valerie Morris, the financial columnist for SilverVixens.com.

I, too, thought this sounded nearly too good to be true, but the program is backed by such rock-solid companies as American Express, Dell, FedEx, Cisco and Marriott. I will be at the Phoenix event: Be sure to say hello.

A woman from Oregon has posed a question about resources for women over 60 who would like to start a business, particularly in a rural area. The questioner particularly mentioned grants and small business programs.

I asked Leslie North, a CPA in the Chicagoland area about areas to explore for women over 60 looking for startup funding. Leslie smiled and reminded me of the old adage that if you are a starting a business and need money the banks aren’t interested, but if you have a successful business and don’t need money, banks are VERY interested! The old Catch-22.

That doesn’t mean the answer is no, it means it is time to get to work and be creative. The first stop should be your local Small Business Administration (SBA). Even if you are in a rural area, there is an SBA office (even explore their website) in the closest sizable town. Your local Chamber of Commerce could be an excellent resource. Your librarian. Isn’t it remarkable that we still think of our librarians as limited to checking out books? Librarians are highly skilled researchers — give them a try. Have you approached women’s organizations such as American Business Women’s Association (ABWA), Business and Professional Women (BPW), National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)? Have your talked to your own CPA, attorney, or banker?

Yes, Virginia, there are people who want to help you get your business off the ground, but you must work hard and be creative to find them!