Never Too Late to Startup: How Mid-Life Entrepreneurs Create Wealth, Freedom, & Purpose

219 Pages·2016·2.02 MB·English

by  Rob Kornblum

NEVER TOO LATE TO STARTUP
How Mid-Life Entrepreneurs Create Wealth, Freedom
& Purpose
ROB KORNBLUM
CONTENTS
Copyright
Download the Bonuses Free!
Introduction
1. Why You Need to Be an Entrepreneur
2. Why Do You Want to Start a Company?
3. Before You Leap
4. What You Bring to the Table
5. The Best Time Is Now
6. What’s Your Idea?
7. Hiring Your Team & Building Your Culture
8. Launching Your New Business
9. Marketing Your Startup
10. Funding Your Business
11. Legal Issues for Mid-Life Founders
12. Family & Startup Life
13. Getting Unstuck
14. Taking Stock & Next Steps
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
COPYRIGHT © 2016 ROB KORNBLUM
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61961-421-5
DOWNLOAD THE BONUSES FREE!
Thank you for buying the book.
I have assembled a significant amount of free resources to help you on your
entrepreneurial journey. Please visit
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bonus resources below.
One Page Business Plan template—get started with the ideal short form
plan, ideal for new companies; complete it in hours
Marketing template—how to position any company, product, or blog
Worksheet for building your ideal culture and values
Resources—links to many of the tools and resources that mid-life
entrepreneurs use to launch their companies and simplify their lives
Pitch Deck template—built by a former venture capitalist
Blueprint for creating a basic financial plan
Ninety day action plan to get started on your business
And more…
INTRODUCTION
This Book Is for You
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and
we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
— MICHELANGELO
Joe Williams was frustrated. Last year, he sat down at his computer to go over
his finances. His 401(k) account was up; that was the good news. The bad news
was that it still hadn’t recovered from its decline in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Joe
lost his job as a project manager for a large oil company. It took him five months
to find a new job, during which time his savings took a beating.
Joe’s new job pays well, though not quite as well as his old job. His wife works
part time, but her hours were just cut back, which puts a real dent in their
income. On top of that, Joe’s health insurance premiums are going to increase by
more than 10 percent next year.
He can pay his bills, but his retirement and college savings plans are way behind.
He shakes his head thinking about college for his two daughters. They’re smart
and could probably be accepted to elite private universities, but how would he
pay for it?
Joe has been considering an idea for a new business startup. As a professional
project manager, he has always struggled to find easy-to-use management tools.
He’s tried them all, and he has solid ideas for better solutions. He’s been mulling
it over for almost six years. He’s an avid watcher of Shark Tank, the reality TV
series in which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch a panel of potential investors called
“sharks.” He also subscribes to Inc. magazine.
Joe is seriously considering going into business for himself, but he’s still not
sure. Could he really pull it off, starting a company at age forty three? Aren’t
startups for young kids right out of college?
STARTING UP IN MID-LIFE
I wrote this book for people who’ve been working for awhile and want to start
their own businesses, people I call “mid-life” entrepreneurs. If you’re in your
late thirties, forties, or perhaps into your fifties, and you’ve been thinking about
starting your own company, Never Too Late to Startup is for you.
This book came about to fill a need.
I’d been running my own startup located in an incubator when I noticed that
most of my peer CEOs were in their twenties, significantly younger than I. I was
struck by how differently they did everything, from the hours they worked to
how they approached team-building, raising money, and working with
customers. I started blogging about it and discovered a whole world of mid-life
entrepreneurs out there who needed to know more about how to start a business
later in life.
What they needed and wanted was a real-world field guide geared specifically
for mid-life entrepreneurs.
In these pages you’ll meet successful mid-life CEOs and company founders
who’ve done exactly what you’re about to do. Their startup stories apply at
every level of career, particularly mid-career and even later as today’s retirees
increasingly venture out on their own.
Mid-life entrepreneurs already have a few decades of work and life experience.
Like you, they have significant professional skills, typically a large and valuable
network, and the motivation to build something for themselves and their
families.
Your own hard-earned professional experience and skills are huge benefits when
applied to building a new business. Skills such as hiring, organization, planning,
communication, selling, and negotiating all improve with time and age. They are
invaluable advantages as you start your first company in mid-life or mid-career.
WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?
Becoming a mid-life entrepreneur poses some unique and significant challenges.
Mid-life founders don’t just need the right business idea; they need to find the
time in an already full life to assess, execute, and manage all the details of their
new company.
Contrary to popular media clichés, no one comes out of the womb a born
entrepreneur. Sure, some people are more comfortable with risk than others.
Some kids are more inclined to ski the double black diamonds. But much in life
is learned and earned along the way.
So, where are you right now?
You’re in your forties (or something like that) and you feel you’re finally ready
to start a company. You had good reasons to not do it sooner. You were building
a career, learning your trade, making money, climbing the corporate ladder, or
just living your life.
It doesn’t matter why you didn’t start a company in your twenties. What matters
is that you’re ready now. You have the ideas, the maturity, the skills, the
motivation, and maybe some savings. You’ve built up a tolerance for risk, and
you’re ready to learn new things.
The entrepreneurs you’ll meet in Never Too Late to Startup could pretty much
be you. They weren’t born yesterday and they brought established skills and
experience to the table. They weren’t huge risk takers. In my interviews with
them, they expressed measured and thoughtful approaches to launching new
products, hiring people, and spending money.
TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE, CHANGE THE
WORLD
You are about to embark on a journey in which you take control of your work.
You’ll control what you work on, who you work with, what hours you work,
where you work, and what impact you’re going to have on the world.
It might seem far-fetched—the idea that you can impact the world with your new
business. But it’s really not.
Maybe you’re looking to build a technology company that will change the way
people communicate or work, or a game that millions of people will use. Or
maybe you’re going into business as a consultant or blogger so you can spread
your knowledge and skills.
As your business succeeds and grows, you’ll be impacting more people. The first
time you hire a new employee, you’ll feel it in your gut—that sense of
responsibility for someone else’s financial well-being. You’ll want your business
to succeed and grow that much more. And trust me, it’ll feel entirely different
than hiring staff in a corporate job on someone else’s dime and company name.
As you follow the stories of entrepreneurs on these pages and learn the ins and
outs of starting your own business, you’ll see why I believe that entrepreneurs
are made, not born. There is no entrepreneur gene, only tried and true ways to
get there. All you need is a guide, which is why I wrote Never Too Late to
Startup.
I believe that people get better at starting companies, coming up with ideas,
launching products, and hiring people the more they do it. Starting a business
involves distinct skills and attitudes, just like everything else in life. You just
have to exercise the right muscles to operate at your best.
You’re about to transform your life, and maybe the world. On these pages you’ll
be finding out that not only is it Never Too Late to Startup, but the best time is
now.