The Surprisingly Mature Entreprenuer

If you think the typical entrepreneur is a twenty-something who left school to pursue their dream of a social networking website for pets, you're wrong -- at least about the "twenty-something" part.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's Index of Entrepreneurial Activity shows that the age group with the highest index of entrepreneurial activity are 55 - 64 year olds. And that's been true for almost a decade (Ages 65+ and 20-34 were lowest).

While a substantial portion of the 55 - 64 year old entrepreneurship is people moving to consulting-type arrangements within an industry they are already familiar with, others are launching truly new ventures. Unless they've started businesses before, people in either group face many questions when striking out on their own.

In an attempt to answer some of them, the Wall Street Journal* asked Barry Merkin, a professor of entreprenuership at Northwestern's Kellogg school, to recommend resources that would help a 50+ year old entrepreneur get going. Some of his recommendations were:

• Evaluate your capabilities with tools from the Small Business Admininstration and powerhomebiz.com.
• Figure out how much cash you'll need with the starting cost calculator and the cash flow statement.
• Know how much to put at risk with the AARP retirement calculator.
• Read "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" - Thomas Friedman explains our interconnected world: "Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world."

There are also links to sites providing advice on business plans, businesses for sale, angel investor networks, and technology if you can get past the WSJ's subscriber wall.

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* link here, but I think it's subscribers only

This post is part of LifeTwo's Midlife Career Change FAQ covering all aspects of changing careers in middle age.