June 24, 2011

With all the press coverage devoted to Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Foursquare founders Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley lately, you'd think that young entrepreneurs are the only successful entrepreneurs.

But the latest research suggests otherwise.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, people over the age of 35 made up 80 percent of the total entrepreneurship activity in 2009. That same year, the Kauffman Foundation conducted a survey of 549 startups operating in "high-growth" industries—including aerospace, defense, health care, and computer and electronics—and found that people over 55 are nearly twice as likely to launch startups in these industries.

There are several reasons for this. First, older entrepreneurs have more life and work experience. In some cases, they have decades of industry expertise—and a better understanding of what it truly takes to compete, and succeed, in the business world.  Second, they also have much broader and vaster networks. Even if an older entrepreneur is seeking to start a business in an entirely different industry, they have deep connections from all walks of life—for example, a brother-in-law could be the perfect COO. Third, those over 50 have acquired more wealth, a better credit history (which helps with securing loans), and are smarter with their finances.

It's true that the older you get, the more risk-averse you become, but the Great Recession has changed that. Many older workers who lost their jobs have decided it was finally time to launch the business they've been talking about for years.

As for why older entrepreneurs don't get as much press coverage?

Stefan Theil of Newsweek puts it this way: "Part of the reason that companies started by older workers don't get much recognition is because they don't generally produce hot Web apps or other easily understood products. Instead, they tend to involve more complex technologies like biotech, energy, or IT hardware. They also tend to sell products and services to other businesses, which consumers rarely see but which do most of the heavy lifting in powering innovation and economic growth."

If you're part of the Baby Boomer generation, and you've always dreamed about starting a business, remember that Zuckerberg and the rest of America's young tech entrepreneurs are anomalies. You've got wisdom and experience on your side.

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Join the conversation ( 3 )

• Barbara O'Leary 10 months ago

  

  True that older people have much more experience and also most are not our there for the new God called money! They just love to work, meet people, keep busy. They have tons of work ethics too. I know because I rand my own business. As a matter of face, I have run three businesses at once when younger.

• Knowledge NoteBook 10 months ago

  

  Interesting. And it would be wonderful to hear a few success stories across multiple industries.From personal perspective, selling to the 20 year-old is a tough job no matter how simple a product is and how much value it would bring them (key problem = excessive short attention span, for a new piece of software, they also expect to know it in 15 seconds and draw a conclusion about it. Here we go, you be the judge, http://www.knowledgenotebook.com/Thanks.

  • Barbara O'Leary 10 months ago

    

    So true. Younger generations expect instant success and they do not have much patience. I have run businesses sucessfully over the years and never had to ask for help, look for success because it automatically came to me and my husband. We didn't need to borrow!!!!! And it was a success because we were a team. You have to trust each other and love each other to do this. Otherwise there is trouble. We never took bribes and there were plenty out there. You can run an honest business and make it.