May 2, 2007

Business is Booming for Seniors... Transform the Things You
Hate into Goals You’ll Love to Achieve... Take Advantage of
Spring Cleaning for Your Discount Hunting... and More.

** Business is Booming for Seniors
By Adrian Newman, Founder of e-Wealth Daily

The population is aging, and senior citizens still want and need to work. Whether it's to simply keep busy or because their finances aren't what they could be, seniors have as many options for starting a business as the rest of the population does.

In fact, one of the most famous entrepreneurial success stories involved a 65-year-old, a secret family recipe for frying chicken, and a $100 social security check. "Colonel" Harland Sanders turned that small check into a multi-million-dollar business that is still very successful today.

According to studies, the number of self-employed individuals who are 55 and older has increased by 18% from 2.5 million in 1994 to 3 million in 2003. These senior entrepreneurs now represent 28.5% of all self-employed workers.

So if you want to become a "seniorpreneur," you're not alone.

Here are some interesting facts that I got from a web site called Folksonline.com:

That last figure is the most important to keep in mind because, as a senior, you'll have one third of the population to contend with who are around the same age as you are.

This is a key advantage when marketing a new business because human nature dictates that we feel more comfortable dealing with other people whom we have a lot in common with.

If you, as a senior, market a product aimed at seniors, you are probably more likely to make a sale than if you were a younger person marketing a product to seniors.

Here's a list of web sites that you can visit for ideas and opportunities for becoming a senior in business or for starting a business aimed at seniors:

When you were a kid, you probably only pursued the things you loved — and, at the same time, the things you hated never stopped you.

You didn’t stop playing little league baseball because you hated sitting on the bench every now and then. You cheered on the other players and loved the celebration after the team won   — and you practiced hard and went back the next week because you were excited to get your chance to shine at bat.

As you got older, however, somewhere along the way, you started avoiding the things in your life that you hated, rather than meeting them head on.

Instead of getting excited about next week’s big game, you couldn’t get last week’s strikeout out of your head and stopped swinging every time you came to the plate.

You forgot that you just loved the game — and your fear of striking out overshadowed the potential of hitting a grand-slam home run. So, instead of swinging at the strikes that were coming in right over the plate, you stood there, immobilized.

The bottom line is: You’ll never hit a home run if you don’t swing for the fences.

In the past, my own fears of “striking out” prevented me from taking the big swing at projects outside of my expertise. 

In time, I was able to transform my hate of missing out on the bigger and better contracts into a personal drive that made me step up to the plate and swing my bat at every opportunity — and, you know what, once that fear was removed from the equation, I started hitting more home runs in my business career than I ever had before.

If you’ve been watching the ball pass you by for too long, now is the time for you to set up to the plate and take the big swing without fear of the results.

But, please don’t make this common mistake: Looking for the perfect pitch before you swing. By the time you see it, you’ll get called out and the game will be over — and your dreams will have ended with the last man out. You just keep swinging — the perfect pitch will come your way. 

** Take Advantage of Spring Cleaning for Your Discount Hunting
By Michael Newman, the "Money Finder"

I know a few very dedicated bargain hunters. And each one of them has one or two stories reliving the greatest discounts they ever found. Their stories tend to sound a lot like fishing tales — the fish gets bigger and bigger over the years as the story is retold. In the bargain hunting stories, the savings become more and more unbelievable.

To these bargain hunters, getting a great deal on something they want and need seems better than making money.

In fact, a good deal on something you need and have to buy for your personal or business use is almost like making extra money. This is because you have already calculated that you need to spend money on that item, but if you can save a lot on those purchases, you’ll have extra money left over for anything you want.

With spring well under way on the East Coast, there is an eager buzz in the air for summer, and this means there is a rush to clear winter inventory from many businesses’ shelves.

Retailers will be clearing out their winter and spring inventories to make way for new summer arrivals. This can mean businesses have overstock on items that might have only minor cosmetic changes separating them from the new arrivals — they’re still perfectly usable.

Also, business for retailers typically slows down in the summer months, and this can mean even better promotions to attract customers... making this a good time to stock up on essentials for your home and office needs.

The best thing to do is always carry with you a list of items you are going to need on an ongoing basis because you never know when you may find your next incredible bargain.

Additionally, the nicer weather will attract more people to flea markets on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and this means more vendors will be setting up shop. For you, the increased traffic and competition can mean better prices.

No matter where you are going, always remember to bring some extra cash with you when you are hunting for deals. Private sellers may be more open to even greater discounts when they don’t have to worry about the fees charged for using credit card machines. And, by paying in cash, you’ll be able to track your expenses right away rather than waiting for your monthly statements.

A word of warning about buy-now/pay-later plans. Many of these no-payment plans last as long as a year or even more, so it’s easy to forget about saving your money for when that bill finally arrives. So, if money is going to be tight for a long time, try to avoid these payment plans.