Anita Campbellwriting on Small Business Trends:
Ray Kroc started McDonald’s at age 52 after years as a salesman. Colonel Harland Sanders franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) at age 65.
“You’re never too old” is the message in an Akron Beacon Journal article by business reporter Brian Charlton. The article points out that more and more seasoned executives are starting their own businesses.
The traditional thinking is that entrepreneurship is the domain of the young. Yet, the rate of entrepreneurship is greater among older individuals than you might guess.
According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 40% of U.S. entrepeneurs are over 50. The 50 years-and-up age group actually has a higher percentage of self-employed workers than the population at large. Of workers 50 years and older, about 16.4% are self-employed, whereas only 10.2% of the workforce as a whole is self-employed. (See AARP report here.)
via The Entrepreneurial Mind where Jeff Cornwall adds: “The biggest challenge these executives face is to understand that they are not forming a small, ‘big business’. Most of these folks find that to survive in the entrepreneurial realm they must unlearn many things they know from their big business experiences, and more importantly develop many new habits.”