More Adults Over 50 Starting Their Own Businesses

Nina Horowitz-Greberman, 56, is CEO of her own social media strategy group in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. She says, “Yes, 100 percent, I do that every day. I based this business on the skills I used in my old jobs."

Don Lafferty, 59, is CEO and cofounder of Comfort Media in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. His is a niche boutique that helps heating and air-conditioning manufacturers improve their digital outreach strategies. He was once a sales executive, a good one. But he was good at something else, too: writing, “a skill,” as he says, “I always had."

In 2005, he wrote an article about using the then-popular platform MySpace for business. “Before I knew it, all these businesses were after me to help them design digital strategies on MySpace,” he says. Not too much later, he was cofounding Comfort Media.

Or you could make your fantasy your business, like Valerie Valente, 57, who opened the Journey Inn Bed and Breakfast in Hyde Park, New York, when she was 51, after a long career as a publishing executive. “I've had this yen my entire life,” she says. “I'm an early riser, and cooking is my passion — along with serving customers.”

She liked publishing, but, as she says, “to be candid, I liked being the boss and hated being the employee. So when the publishing industry started to shrink, I saw the handwriting on the wall. Something just said, ‘It's time.’ “

Challenges and opportunities

To be sure, there are difficulties, the same ones entrepreneurs in all age groups report: getting started, funding, the sudden lack of a support system. “When you work in corporate America,” Mock says, “you have an infrastructure and maybe a sales force behind you. When you leave, suddenly you don't have that anymore.”

"And ageism is a reality,” Weinstock says, “that can hurt people's confidence starting out.”

Jill Scherer Murray, 56, knows how that feels.

She is founder of Let Go For It LLC in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She began the company after 25 years in the corporate world. Her future began with her 2016 TEDx talk titled “The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go,” with more than 1.7 million views so far. That led to a website, a business and a book coming out in 2020. She advises companies and individuals on identifying impediments to forward growth, “to let go of whatever-it-is,” in her words, “for a better life and better results."

Yet even Murray has had her moments of doubt. “At 54, you ask yourself, ‘If this doesn't work, will I be able to get something as good?’ “ She overcame that hesitancy, she says, “by accepting that this was what I really, most deeply wanted, to do. Something more meaningful."

"These businesses [started by older adults] tend to last longer,” says Mock, “because these seniors are now doing what they want to do.”

They're also generally having a ball. Fully 75 percent of all respondents in the Guidant Financial/LendingClub survey reported an 8-to-10 satisfaction level on a scale of 10. That's on a business level – but even more on the personal level.

"It's been everything I hoped for,” says Valente, the bed-and-breakfast owner. “We get to know our customers, who keep coming back. We've gotten to know the business community here, and we enjoy feeling a part of the wider community."

"Oh, my God, I just love it,” says Horowitz-Greberman. “First, it gets me out of the house and keeps me busy. Even more, I love dealing with locals, I get to know people, I enjoy them. I like people looking me in the eye and talking to me."

"It has all been very personally rewarding,” Murray says. “I hear from people in India, Finland, Brazil, and the feedback has been amazing."

"A self-started business,” Lafferty says, “is designed to be rewarding. If it wasn't, you wouldn't do it.”

"Being in the 50s is such an interesting time,” Murray says. “If you get to this age, you're open to the surprises of life. With this new direction, I'm learning so much that's new. I had a burning desire to serve, and I'm doing it. I have a new sense of urgency."