When we become third age people it is vital to keep the mind firing on all cylinders if we are to be all we can be – and if this mental activity can be converted into profitable pursuits, so much the better. My book Your Retirement Masterplan (How To Books ISBN 1857039874) is devoted to the myriad elements that combine to make for a rewarding and fulfilling third age experience. This new book focuses exclusively on just one of these elements:

The evolvement of a money-making plan to add to the meagre income on which the majority of retirees struggle to subsist

We have choices:

• 1.We can conform to what the misguided still believe retirement is all about: doing nothing, wallowing in boredom, eating half the day, sleeping the other half, aging rapidly, and throwing off the mortal coil prematurely.
• 2.We can drift along and fritter away time and whatever income or savings we have at our disposal.
• 3.We can (if we have oodles of spare cash) indulge ad nauseam in perpetual vacationing.

or ...

• 4.We can apply ourselves to ensuring that our native abilities are kept alive, active, and sufficiently energised to augment the quality of life.
• 5.We can stretch our abilities to make some extra cash in retirement.

And for some, the final option isn’t so much a choice as a necessity.

HOW DO WE GO ABOUT CREATING PROFITABLE ACTIVITY?

• Is it so restrictive that only a small number can succeed?
• Is it so demanding that only able-bodied retirees can make a go of it?
• Is it so difficult that only the super-intelligent stand a chance?

No, no, and no again – anyone can do it. If, for example, you are disabled or handicapped to some degree and would find it impossible to engage in a physical money-making activity you can still participate in ‘online’ enterprise – for which alternative route you will find many options in this book.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE RETIREE

You have reached or are approaching your 60th/65th year and are eligible for retirement. Or maybe you’re only 50 and opted out early.

• Do you punch the air with a tightly clenched fist now that you have finally escaped from the workplace?
• Or do you ask yourself, ‘What do I do now?’

For many retirees, lounging around the house or lying in the sun in a deck chair is not a prerequisite for third age enjoyment and fulfilment. While the world is undoubtedly aging and the number of elderly people is increasing, the current crop of senior citizens is in better health and lead longer, more active lives than their parents did. They want action, not eternal relaxation; excitement, not enforced leisure; accomplishment, not resignation.

Conventional retirement is just too dreary, and many remain emotionally unprepared to throw the working life concept entirely to the wind. Some could also make good use of opportunities to increase basic income.

So, in lieu of conventional retirement, a significant number of third age people are turning to entrepreneurship as an alternative. With valuable commercial skills acquired through years of practical experience, many of these retirees give serious consideration to launching their own businesses. They believe they still have what it takes and are highly motivated to succeed on their own.

HIGHLIGHTING THE ADVANTAGES

25-year-olds starting a business face different challenges from 50/60-something year-olds. It is not the same and there are distinct advantages open to relatively older entrepreneurs.

Prosperity and affluence

Retirement and the advancing years frequently indicate that the children of the family are all grown up and finished with education; the mortgage has been paid off; discretionary funds are at a higher level than ever before and, all in all, financial outgoings have considerably eased off. Economists reckon that the current crop of retiring baby boomers are economically more secure and enjoy higher income levels than past generations. This is not so for every retiree, but for some. If you are one of the lucky ones, then engaging in entrepreneurship may be your best option, but even if you have neither prosperity nor affluence to fall back on, the route is still open as you will discover as you course through the pages of this book.

Minimal financial risks

Older people are not as impatient or impetuous as the younger generation. With ample time on their hands, senior citizens can take as long as required to assess ideas, scrutinise the commercial concept, analyse market opportunities, develop saleable products, test novel market services, and prepare a feasible plan of enactment. They may even introduce business contacts from the past into the venture to add complementary expertise. As a result, they can significantly minimise financial risks.

Wealth of experience

One of the core benefits of participating in active retirement is the ability to draw freely on accumulated experience, and so it makes good sense to create an enterprise in an area related in some respect to your previous occupation. If you served in the Armed Forces you might consider setting up a venture as a supplier of military equipment and/or services under the auspices of a licence provided by the Ministry of Defence. If like me you worked at the sharp end of the marketing services industry you could write a how-to book based on your expertise or produce a series of instructional e-books to sell online. In point of fact, no matter what you did for a living, there are openings available to you in retirement for profitable activity in a field connected with your aggregated know-how.

In the chapters to follow you will come across dozens of such ideas, one of which might propel you in a profitable direction.

EVALUATING THE DRAWBACKS

As with any course of action in life there are drawbacks to engaging in entrepreneurship at a late age and it would be negligent to ignore their significance.

Your state of health

Health is a vital issue that you will need to address if you opt to forego a sedentary life in retirement. Entrepreneurship is a rigorous activity, not only physically but mentally. You will want to be certain that your health can cope with the demands and challenges of starting and running a business in the traditional sense. However, on a more optimistic note, these pressures can be eased dramatically if you choose the ‘online’ route to private enterprise (on which topic more, much more, later).

Your physical readiness

Even though you may be in good health, starting your own business can prove extremely arduous; an ‘offline’ start-up needs careful nurturing that may necessitate working long hours – particularly at the outset. Moreover, you will be subjected to stress as you lead your enterprise through all levels of profitability and growth. Are you up to the physical demands of running a traditional offline business operation?

Your capacity for risk-taking

Are you prepared to gamble? Risk-taking may sometimes entail losing money. Many retirees starting up in an offline business have neither the financial security of an annuity nor access to personal financial resources to sustain them until the profits start to kick in. With the little money you have at your disposal, are you prepared to risk it in a commercial venture with uncertain monetary outcome? Unlike the 25-year-old who flounders and sinks in the inexact pool of commerce, a 60-year-old will have few opportunities to obtain gainful employment and start saving all over again for a replacement retirement nest egg. The third age is already staring you in the face. If you don’t have assets to fall back on if you fail, then you ought to think twice about starting up on your own in the offline world. Or at least, use only a small part of your savings. Committing your entire resources to a business in retirement is not only too great a risk to take, it is sheer folly.

Your capacity and willingness to learn new skills

As a third age entrepreneur you must be capable of grasping and understanding new methods of doing things. Technology is changing the way business is done. You may not want to learn the new technology but you need to understand what it can do for you. You also need to know how to deal with younger people who will in the main be the people with whom you will be negotiating and cutting deals. Learning these new skills is absolutely vital if you opt to pursue profitable retirement activity online.

Although I participate in both options (often in tandem) you may have gained an early impression that my preferred route to profitable activity in retirement is online as opposed to offline. However, some retirees would disagree with me, and so we will cover both spectrums of opportunity in this book.

SO WHAT’S ON OFFER FOR THE ENTERPRISING RETIREE?

In Chapters 2 to 13 we will examine the available options; offline and online; from wood carving and embroidery to creating a multi-page website fully enabled for e-commerce or a modest one-page site designed to pull in orders; what you must learn to make an opportunity work for you; how to do it in practice; how to create income streams to add to your retirement earnings – and how to get a lot of fun out of managing your chosen enterprise.

Bear in mind that the majority of the suggestions reviewed are for part-time ventures that you can use as an add-on to your overall spectrum of retirement interests. They are not intended to take over your life or have you prepare a bulging business plan for funding purposes. Most of them (especially the online options) can be started and operated on a shoestring budget.

Let’s go ... it’s not as difficult as you may think.