Baby boomer entrepreneurship is a hot topic these days, with lots of recent discussion, studies and information on the trend. Three of the more interesting are:
- Seniors as Entrepreneurs in Business Week. Key quote:
A combination of economic volatility as well as the growing number of baby boomers with time, energy, and money on their hands has redefined the starting age for new startups and has led to a surge in senior citizen entrepreneurs.
- A recently released Kauffman Foundation Study - nicely summarized by the study author in an article in The American - that suggests that baby boomers will create a boom in entrepreneurship. Key quote:
Several facts have emerged from Kauffman Foundation research that indicate the United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of an aging population but because of it... These factors include the shifting age distribution of the country, the continued decline of lifetime employment, the experience and tacit knowledge such employees carry with them, and the effects of the 2008-2009 recession on established sectors of the economy.
- Entre-Boomers Rule by Jeff Cornwall on The Entrepreneurial Mind blog, who points out:
We also need to understand that most of the ventures that Entre-Boomers are creating will be small and organic. They will be bootstrapped by both choice and necessity.
We've been tracking the trend towards increased baby boomer entrepreneurship since Professor Cornwall and others helped us identify it several years ago. We included it as a key trend in our Changing Faces of Small Business forecast report and follow it closely.
We agree with the current view and continue to forecast baby boomers will increasingly start small businesses. Many will do this by choice, but for others financial need and limited job options will be the driver.
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