Lifestyle
Why now is the best time to start your new business
It’s never too late to bring a business idea to life. In fact, your 50s, 60s and beyond might just be the perfect time to start something new.
By Carolyn Tate
Do you have a mind brimming with entrepreneurial ideas, but think it could be too late to start a new business? Or maybe you’ve dabbled before, but you think those days are behind you now.
We all know the stories of moguls like Bill Gates, who started Microsoft at 21, Steve Jobs who co-founded Apple when he was 22, and Sir Richard Branson, who started Virgin when he was 20 years old. But for every kid who took a punt and enjoyed big success, there are plenty of older business minds that brought their lifetime of skills and experience to the table and made something great too.
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It’s been done before
Harland Sanders was 62 when he opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, Arianna Huffington founded the Huffington Post when she was 54, and Charles Flint founded IBM at age 61.
But you don’t have to aim for world domination to start a successful business. Maybe you’d like to open a cosy book cafe in your local area, fix up old bikes and give them a new lease of life, or perhaps you have an innovative app idea and you’re looking for a piece of the global tech pie.
The data is on your side
No matter what your business idea, research shows you’ve got a better chance of succeeding now than you did in your 20s and 30s. And the likelihood of success as a founder increases with age until you get to the age of around 60 – and after that it only drops slightly, back to where it was around the age of 45 to 50.
In Australia, mature-aged entrepreneurs – in this instance, that’s anyone over the age of 50 – are the fastest growing cohort of business owners, running about a third of all businesses under 3 years old.
In fact, there are about 380,000 businesses in Australia that are being run by mature-aged entrepreneurs, turning about $12 billion a year.
Why you’re more likely to succeed
While statistics are nice, it’s also helpful to understand what you’ve got that your 22-year-old counterpart doesn’t have.
Alex Maritz, Professor of Entrepreneurship at La Trobe University, studied over 1000 mature entrepreneurs, and says it comes down to 3 things: human capital, social capital and financial capital.
“Our findings indicate older entrepreneurs have accumulated business and life experience, knowledge and skills, social networks and resources that better equip them for success,” he wrote for The Conversation. “They tend to have better social skills, and are better able to regulate their emotions, than those younger.
“They do have a lower risk tolerance than younger entrepreneurs, but that is offset by other factors, such as confidence in their abilities and experience. Their fear of failure is thus less than their younger counterparts.”
Ready to go?
If you’re feeling inspired, and ready to launch that business idea that’s been in your daydreams for a while now, there are 3 things that will help you to succeed (besides your age and life experience), according to Kumar Mehta at Forbes.
“Age is not a barrier if you are considering leaving your job to become an entrepreneur,” he writes. “But you need to be ready to become a founder, and your odds of success are the greatest if you meet the following criteria that most founders share.”
- Know your domain. Most successful entrepreneurs have worked in the industry before starting their own business. Knowing your domain inside and out is a huge advantage because you have a deep understanding of your industry.
- You have been successful at your job. If you’ve already done well in your job working for someone else, you are statistically more likely to succeed in business. This doesn’t mean you have to have been CEO of your organisation, just that you’ve done your job well, and potentially been recognised and rewarded for it.
- You are intrinsically motivated. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who are motivated by something outside of simply making money or impressing their neighbours. If you’re passionate about solving the problem your business addresses, you’re in a good position.
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If you can tick these 3 boxes, and you’re ready to learn and put in the work, now could be the best time to start your dream business… It's never too late.
Feature image: iStock/LordHenriVoton
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