National Small Business Week - April 21-25: Older business owners

24 04 2008

National Small Business Week - April 21-25: Older business owners

Posted by: in Your Business

This is National Small Business Week. In honor of this important week for small business owners, here’s how Baby Boomers rank as small business owners.

Some interesting stats on “older” business owners show that we are the people who are driving the workforce. This disproves the myth that we’re retiring to just sit around.

Entrepreneurship among seniors is growing. In 2002, the rate of self-employment for the workforce was 10.2 percent (13.8 million workers), but the rate for workers aged 50 was 16.4 percent (5.6 million workers). Even though those age 50 made up 25 percent of the workforce, they comprised 40 of the self-employed. Solo business formation in the future will be driven by people who take early retirement or whose jobs just disappear.

(Source: AARP/Rand Corp. “Self-employment and the 50 Population”)

So if you’re a victim of age discrimination, begin your own business.

Tags: baby boomers, National Small Business Week, SCORE, small business