After55:

Gaetan Benson has a wonderful day job, but she has been making jewelry for years.  Often she would sell her necklace right off her neck.  For a part-time entrepreneur, Etsy.com is a wonderful way to have her creations seen by a much larger audience, and have the delight of creating new pieces and branching out.

Gaetan started with jewelry and soon added her incredibly adorable baby hats. She’s now adding beautiful knit cowls!  She is having a ball, learning new skills and adding customers–all in her spare time. Could life be any better?  Probably not.

It seems I am seeing a lot about creativity lately.  Perhaps it is because of the economic mess.  We have all been encouraged to be “creative” about how we can do business for less, get our message out and meet market needs.  Some have asked what it takes to be truly creative and have gone in search of enlightenment through books, internet and lectures.  I think it takes very few “things” to be creative: curiosity and questions.

Curiosity opens our minds to new ideas and people.  Just because I own a web-based business for women over 55 doesn’t mean that is what I read about exclusively.  I read about fashion, decorating, architecture, travel, technology, cars, inventions, business, fiction AND almost all the books my grandchildren read so I will know what they are thinking about.  From this love affair with the written word I have “met” many of the fascinating women on my site, many of the fascinating women I have written about in my After 55 column or in these blog entries and have had more darn fun connecting with people at gatherings and being able to keep up my end of the conversation.  You know that these conversations lead to . . . who knows where?

Questions expand horizons.  Take a look at every part of your business and ask, “Why do I do it this way?  Is there a different/better way? What would be best for my client?”  If you take this step seriously, you may find some surprising answers.  You may not want to continue a product or process.  You may find a much better way of being useful to your client. You may discover a new profit center.

Being creative doesn’t require anything more than a curious mind, good questions, and pencil and paper.  Oh, the places you will go! — Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

Months and months ago I wrote about the importance of getting out of our work space.  This has been on my mind lately because I seem to be spending hours in front of my laptop by choice, not necessarily by necessity, so I think it’s a good time to revisit the topic.  As the days are getting shorter and here, outside of Chicago, the temperature is starting to drop, it can be a much bigger challenge to get out of the house.  The lure of a warm house, cozy bed, handy cup of coffee or tea is very strong, but the potential benefits of going out, meeting new people and hearing different voices and ideas are simply incalculable.

Just last week, I went to a noon lunch and learn featuring a local movie critic.  I am not a movie fanatic like my husband, but I simply needed to get out of the house.  Wow!  It turned out that it was hosted by the library, and I made two new community contacts there. The informal talk wasn’t about movies. It was about the changing face of movie reviews and how he is responding by taking his work to the internet and his own website, the place of YouTube and his challenges in connecting with his followers.  Now this was far more interesting to me than I expected and I got some new ideas, contacts and a delicious lunch at a restaurant I had never visited.  When I say, “Get out!” I truly have your best interests in mind; I’m not being crabby.

In the best of times, being an After 55 entrepreneur has its challenges. We sometimes forget to set aside time to replenish our well of positive information and encouragement. There are excellent newsletters on every topic, and we don’t want to spend our precious time plowing through our inbox. Yet here are two newsletters I read pretty thoroughly each week. Sales Caffeine by Jeffery Gitomer and Tips for Extraordinary Living by Phil Humbert

See if they appeal to you–and let me know which ones you read . . . I’m always looking for good, positive information!

“What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown–watch the raindrops coming down the window pane?”
–Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

It is true that many of us who grew up in the ’50s have a very different view of the world. If we have lived the lives many of us were “trained” for, we are anxious about stepping out and starting the business we have always carried in our head. If Jackie Kennedy Onassis could become a respected book editor in her 50s, what could you do if you took the first step toward becoming an entrepreneur? If you are anxious, make it a baby step!

“We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do.”
– Martha Grimes, author (you have read Martha Grimes mysteries, haven’t you?)

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m a collector of quotes. One of the things I find interesting about these “collectibles” is how few of them are ascribed to women. In fact, one quote said that it was their assumption that Anonymous was really a woman! This isn’t as much of a digression as it looks.

One of the very best things about being an After 55 entrepreneur is that it challenges us to learn new skills (think computer, social networking, Quickbooks) and gives us something new to work toward. Many of us Women of a Certain Age have already lived very full lives and find ourselves looking around and asking, “Now what?” If you have a solid business concept and plan, entrepreneurship will provide you with unlimited challenges (that is not a negative word or euphemism for problems) that will keep you feeling vital and vibrant. You may even develop an entirely new appreciation for who you are and what you can do.

Now to quote a man, Dr. Seuss: “Oh, the places you will go!”

This week my husband and I spent three days in Denver, a city neither of us had spent any appreciable time exploring before.  Naturally I had my laptop in tow, but I made it a point to do only what must be done so this could count as a vacation.  We toured art museums, the quilt exhibit at the state capitol, took a ride on the light rail system, and met new friends.  Why am I boring you with a mini-travelogue?  Because I learned a lot and was reminded of even more — I bet this will happen to you too if you leave your familiar surroundings for even a few hours.

1. The awesome service at the Oxford House reminded me that excellent service provided with personality draws rave reviews and referralse.  I have already recommended the hotel to three people and written a rave review on their behalf.
2. Being open to meeting others enriches your daily experience.  We got to talking to the couple seated next to us at brunch on Monday (killer restaurant #1: Snooze!) and learned of a great place for dinner (killer restaurant #2: Fruition) and learned of two excellent film festivals we didn’t know about.
3. Expanded horizons.  At the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver we saw an exhibit on wind turbines that has expanded my interest in renewable energy and that will undoubtedly enrich my website SilverVixens. Because of the installation of another exhibit we learned of a totally different way of displaying art — even if we never use it, our perception was changed.
4. I read different things. I am an admitted magazine junkie.  This week I had time to read Real Simple thoroughly and there was an article about unitasking — forget multitasking!  The author was writing about something I have been thinking alot about lately…but that’s for next week!

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 have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”
– Martha Washington

This was brought home to me just this week.  My daughter and her family just moved into their new condominium two days ago.  It is beautiful and the realization of a dream.  To say they are excited is an understatement.  A neighbor dropped by yesterday to say hello and pick up some pans from a dinner she provided the night before.

This person was the first to move into the building and had nothing but complaints and disappointments to air.

How do you look at your business right now? Are you accentuating the positive? Are you sliding into the common  vernacular and putting on a world-weary face and tone of voice? Remember that your attitude can make the difference. What is yours?

I was talking with Gillie Haynes, speech coach extraordinaire, the other day.  As business owners, we are constantly “presenting” our company, products and ourselves, yet public speaking is ranked very, very high on the list of stress-producing activities.  As someone who loves to talk, I don’t quite understand it, but Gillie sure does.  I asked her to give me three points about public speaking that would be of instant help to all of us.  Here they are:

1. Trust Yourself. It’s important to be confident in your area of expertise. You should feel extremely comfortable talking about your specific area.

2. Do Not Over-Think It. In your presentation, share the information you would want to receive without the extras that sometimes take away from the real message.

3. Have a Great Time. Begin with the intent to truly enjoy sharing information and ideas that you are passionate about and expect that your audience will be just as excited to receive the information.

Good points, aren’t they?  If that isn’t enough to get you comfortable in front of your chamber of commerce, contact Gillie at gilliehaynes@aol.com and find out what it will take to raise your star power.

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.

Gail Golden of Gail Golden Consulting, a good friend of mine, says this about networking: “Networking is not about going out and asking favors, it is about going out and doing favors.  Going out and asking favors is panhandling.”  Wow!  Isn’t that true?  How many times have you been at a networking event and met someone who could only talk about themselves and try to figure out how you two could work together to their advantage?  Probably several times.

Wise salespeople know that selling is about finding a need and filling it. Networking is about finding a need and offering to help find a solution. People will always be glad to see you coming, you will build up enormous good will, you will learn a lot from a lot of people, and you will have more fun!  Networking isn’t working–it’s meeting new potential friends and increasing your knowledge base–sometimes with yummy muchies, too!  Go forth and network!