Helping Boomers and Gen-Xers Design Success!!

May 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Tomorrow (May 15, 2012) I am shutting down two blogs that have been a part of The Doulos Group for the past two years. I am not shutting them down because they are unimportant of because they are no longer relevant. I am shutting them down in order to focus my attention on the things in life and business that I am most passionate about.

Those things are simply:

  1. I am going to help people design a life-style that blends life and business to fulfill their dreams.
  2. I am going to focus my efforts on helping my clients through the process of discovery, design, and delivery of their passion within their definition of success.
  3. I am going to focus my efforts on Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers who are looking for a way to reinvent retirement.

With these simple rules in place I hope that everyone who comes to visit will find something worth while, something that makes sense, and something that helps them design success!

Come back often and let’s get this party started!!!

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Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers, Designing Success, Gen-Xers, The Dream Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Community Involvement

May 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As a business owner, you have the opportunity to make a real impact in society through your community involvement. This involvement can be as simple as supporting your area Junior Achievement program, to taking on a clothing/food drive for those in need, to the active and visible support of an area non-profit.

Being an active part of the community declares that your end goal in business is more than just profit. It also shows your clients/customers your heart and causes a level of loyalty that goes beyond the value of your product/services. I makes you a leader in the community as well as an expert in your field.

As you build this reputation of caring (as long as it is genuine) your business is sure to grow because of your reputation of giving and your willingness to make the community important to your business.

How do you get involved? What do you think companies ought to do for their communities?

 

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Filed Under: Designing Success, Small Business Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Look Before You Leap

April 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As a lifestyle design coach, a mid-point Boomer (born in 1955) and just a generally nice guy (:->), my best advice for any Boomer looking for a “retirement business” is to look before you leap!

One of the most popular business options for Boomers is in the field of “home-based” businesses. These businesses are appealing because of they are simple to start (it usually requires filling out an “application” and paying a “start-up fee.”) And they are relatively simple to run. (They usually include a website to order products and/or recruit new distributors)

On the downside, many of these businesses have a distributor force whose only business acumen is that they filled out the application and paid the start-up fee. They are excited about the “flagship” product and how much money they are going to make, but don’t know much more about true business success. Many made the decision to “join the business” based solely on emotion and without much, if any, real investigation of the company its products or its long-term business viability.

Companies come and go in this industry at a staggering pace. What looks like a “can’t miss” opportunity dissolves to nothing from one day to the next. Companies make promises they cannot keep, change the compensation plan, cheapen the products/service, and exercise their option to stop paying distributor compensation on a regular basis.

In the end, real people get hurt and the industry takes another hit for being “scams,” “get rich quick schemes,” “pyramids,” etc. When in fact, most companies using this method of business are real and legitimate businesses, with great products, and good people at their helms.

So, as I said at the beginning, Look Before You Leap!! Any legitimate company will welcome your investigation of their products/services, their business model, their compensation plan, and their plan for long-term sustainability. This model of doing business is a good one, but it must fit your lifestyle to be successful for you. Any business takes time and effort. Don’t be fooled by fast talk, high pressure, and/or special deals. Look Before You Leap!!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have been, and am now involved in this industry as a part of my overall business model.)

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurialism, Retirement Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Betting on the Boomers

April 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I follow Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, on Twitter(@askgerber). In his recent tweets he has been promoting the YEC’s new campaign “Fix Young America” which he hopes will bring young entrepreneurs together to help to fix the broken economy.

Now, I for one am all for every generation working together to fix the struggling American economy, but if I was a betting man, I’d be betting on the Boomers. You see for most Boomers the 800 pound elephant in the room is that we simply don’t have enough money to “retire” like many of our parents did. And this fact is going to spark a new era of micro-business activity among the largest generation on the planet. So, its time we get back to work!

Work …. yes, but traditional jobs …. never! Our generation is the generation of color television, cable, personal computing, and Starbucks. We are the children that Disney built his empire selling to and still the largest age based market in the US as well as many other economies. We were the great innovators that put men on the moon, created the internet, and created the strongest economy the world has ever known.

With all our experience and wisdom, its our turn to step up again, to turn our “retirement years” into something more than endless days of golf or tennis, We need to determine that we are going reignite our innovative juices and create again an economy that meets the needs for our “chapter two” and leaves a strong legacy for Scott and those in the Young Entrepreneur Council.

Here are some things I think we can do to bring the economy back to full strength:

  1. Look to our lifetime of experience to find, build, and promote new businesses that will put customers first and will effect our communities in a positive way.
  2. Look for ways to embrace our age group in the businesses we create. Remember, we are still the largest generation, and besides, who understands us better than we do?
  3. Look for ways to pass our wisdom on to succeeding generations. Many of us learned the principles of self-reliance and hard work by working with along side our parents or grandparents. We need to pass that ethic on and teach while we build businesses.

Scott and the members of the YEC are doing a great thing by looking for ways to fix the American economy by looking to the current and upcoming generations, but as for me, I’m betting on the Boomers!

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Filed Under: Retirement, Second Career Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Return to Responsible Business

April 3, 2012 by 2 Comments

I was listening to a local talk radio guy yesterday and he was talking about growing up in an America far different with the one we are living in today. It was a time when you could buy a brand new car off the showroom floor around $2,000 or so and the gas to make it run was only about .25/gallon. The average cost to heat/cool and light homes in that era was about $40/month.

As I listened to his remembrances of those days, I smiled because those were the days of my upbringing as well.

But, as I continued to think about those days, I thought to myself (alright it was out loud), what else was it that made those times so good? In the area of business the thing that stands out in my memory was that local business owners were responsive and responsible to their customers. It was a simpler time before answering machines and “press one for service, two for sales, three to be hung up on ….”

If you called during business hours you could talk to the owner, or at least the manager of most businesses. If you had a complaint about a product or the service you received, you took it to the boss. Nearly every business owner knew that it was a privilege to have their customers and that keeping them was more important than trying to find new ones.

Today, things have changed. Not so much for the better I think. We live in a new era of greed, a new era of less than successful customer service, a new era of customer disloyalty.

In my view its time for a return. A return to simpler times and better care taken. Businesses owners whose concern is people will get my business and I will be responsible to my client base. We may not get new cars priced at $2,000, gas at .25/gallon, or home utility bills back down to $40/month, but I believe responsible businesses and their owners can bring us back to a more responsive time.

What do you think? What changes need to be made to make this happen?

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Filed Under: Local Business Success, Small Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

If Not a Job then What?

April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Question mark

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week I wrote an article asking the question, Do You Really Want a Job? Nearly all of those who responded said “NO” they would prefer to not count on the uncertainties of a job in this current economic climate. This necessarily leads to the next logical question, “If Not a Job then What?”

I mean the obvious answer to “what” is a business. However, that is a awfully broad answer and one that needs a bit of consideration before you just jump in and start!

To begin with, since somewhere around 80% of people say that they hate their jobs. Around the same number of working Americans saying that they are looking for a different job. So, trying to start a business in your current field might not be a great idea. Having a business you hate doing is way worse than having a job you hate!

Here are a few practical steps to help you answer the question and find the right business for you:

  1. What is it that you absolutely love to do? Loving what you do certainly makes “building your business” a much more pleasant thing to do.
  2. Who are your potential customers? In other words, are there enough people who both need and want what you have to sell to make your business a success?
  3. What kind of business do you want to be? Home-based, mobile office, or brick and mortar? “Franchise-styled,” direct sales, or service oriented. Choosing the right kind of business both in location and type can be the difference between success and failure.
  4. How will your new business effect your life plans. Many people jump into a business trying to escape the efforts of a job only to find that a business requires more of them than they a willing to give or worse yet they give it more than it deserves and the rest of their life falls apart around the business.
  5. How much time and resources do you have to develop your business? It is rarely a good idea to quit your day job until you are reasonably certain your new venture has the capacity to replace your current income.

I personally agree with the majority of the comments that the advantages of a business far outweigh those of a job, but I also understand that reasonable steps must be taken to assure the success of your start-up business. Be careful, be creative, and be successful!

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Filed Under: Small Business, The Dream Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

What do you want to do?

March 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
"Boomers on Wheels" at the CREHST ( ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes I think that I am going crazy!!! I read a lot of books, articles, and magazines about Boomers and what’s best for them in their “retirement years.” I watch the “experts” all gussied up on the television talk shows and review training videos that try to convince Boomers that “life isn’t over” and “they can still do lots of things” as they transition into retirement.

Now wait just a minute! I am not dead, nor on the verge of collapse just because I’ve had a few more birthdays that most! My mind, as well as my back still work, and I don’t want to be “put out to pasture” just because someone determined that a date on a calendar said it was time! And neither should you …

The question you should be asking yourself is not, “What do the experts say I should do?” but rather, “What do you want to do?” While it is true that many of us reach this time in our lives when our children are gone and we have more time to consider our own, but that doesn’t mean we should be considered “less productive” or “less valuable” than we have been before. As a matter of fact, my opinion is just the opposite. I think we can use this second chapter in our lives to do magnificent, brilliant, and incredibly valuable things, that have to this point been “back burner thoughts.”

The question is, “What do you want to do?” Don’t listen to the voices who tell you to stop living and start sitting. Don’t let the younger generations tell you that “you had your time, now its ours.” Keep you head up, keep dreaming, and make the second chapter of your life a truly awesome experience!

 

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Filed Under: Retirement Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Do You Really Want a Job?

March 26, 2012 by 9 Comments

According to a Forbes magazine article, “Cloud computing will potentially generate at least 14 million new jobs across the globe within the next three years.” While I readily admit that these numbers are impressive (albeit speculative), my question is, “Do you really want a job?”

Being an entrepreneur at heart, the thought of having to trust someone else for the direction of my life and the quality of that life, just doesn’t appeal to me. I would much rather test the waters myself and look for a self-reliant way of living out my life purpose than to trust the speculations of someone who might well let me go at any time for the benefit of a friend, relative, or someone the thinks might make him more money than I can.

I sat with a man one day last summer who was in just such a situation. He was, as I recall, either the number one or two salesman in his company. The owner came in one day and simply said, “we are cutting back and you are out.” The man I was having coffee with said he left that day with no job, and no paycheck. (By the way he had to call for a ride because the company took his company car keys as well!)

I have personally come to the conclusion that the kind of pressure that a job creates is way more damaging to me than that of creating a dream business that allows me to live out my life’s purpose every day.

What do you think? Is there a better option?

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Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What’s Simple Isn’t Always Easy

March 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In my last post I wrote about mirco-business start-ups and how they were the wave of the future. As is the case with most posts I had some good comments and some push back. I wanted to take a couple minutes this morning to respond to the push back which centered around the idea that starting a micro-business was not as easy as I made it sound.

A Picture of an Staples, Inc. easy button

Image via Wikipedia

Three things came to mind as I read that comment:

  1. There is a difference between simple and easy. In my mind something that is simple is something that is not complicated. Take for instance the putting stroke in golf. It is a very simple motion, back and forth with the putter face square at impact. But, if you have ever tried it for yourself you know that putting for a birdie with the pressure of winning a round is a lot harder than the simplicity of the stroke would indicate. The fact is that what’s simple isn’t always easy. The carefully thought out steps to establish a micro-business is not complicated, but the application of that simple process is not always easy.
  2. Anything of value in life requires both effort and commitment. Personal health comes from proper diet coupled with exercise (neither are easily accomplished). Creating a successful business requires planning and execution (again not easily accomplished). However, as with personal health, the effort needed and the commitment required are worthy of the outcome. So it is with starting a business. The outcome of being in business for yourself and living your passion is worthy of the effort and commitment it takes to get there.
  3. Business creators thrive on the challenge. I for one will readily admit that I am a terrible employee. My life desires have always tended to the creative and most employers don’t really like their employees being creative. Those employers already have a business culture and don’t particularly care for someone coming into it and trying to change things. The challenge of starting a business and creating a culture that matches who you are is what makes the efforts worth the struggles. Entrepreneurs thrive on overcoming obstacles and turning their dreams into working businesses.

Now I understand the struggles that come with micro-business ownership, but I personally would choose any other life. It is part of what gets me up in the morning and what keeps me up late into the night (sometimes at least). It’s what makes me tick. That said, I know that what’s simple isn’t always easy!

 

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Filed Under: Local Business Success, Small Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Micro-business Start-ups

March 5, 2012 by 4 Comments

One of the biggest questions I get asked is “Can a person with very little money in their pocket really create and grow a successful business?”

The answer to the question is a very simple one – YES!!!

You see, according to the US Census bureau 60% of businesses start with less than $5,000 in start-up capital. There are some very specific things that micro-business start-ups must do in order to beat the odds and become a solid business that meets the needs of its clients while providing the income necessary for you, its owner.

  1. Make sure that you spend every dollar with a purpose and with a plan. With the financial limitations that micro-business start-ups are under you need to make sure that every dollar spent makes your business stronger and more capable of providing the best product/service to your customers.
  2. Become a master of the creative and innovative. It doesn’t cost anything to think and the most successful businesses are the ones whose creativity and innovation stand out from the crowd. Be that business!
  3. Always keep your passion and vision in mind. Micro-business start-ups have a tendency to look for multiple sources of income rather than remembering why they started their business in the first place and relying on their passion and vision. Don’t do that. Stay with your passion, the money will come as you develop your passion.

Micro-businesses are the wave of the future. More and more people are going to find their way into the business world through this door. If you are looking at this possibility make sure you take your time, get prepared, and let your vision/passion guide the direction of your business!

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Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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