JEFF WILLIAMS, CEO OF BIZSTARTERS.COM -

The Ultimate Boomer Business

Success Guide20 proven insider tips from my 25 years as a

successful boomer business owner

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Examine the numbers

Chapter 2 Request opinions

Chapter 3 Scroll your network

Chapter 4 Be comfortable

Chapter 5 Learn how to swap

Chapter 6 Create multiple streams of income

Chapter 7 Learn places to share

Chapter 8 Use the power of referral

Chapter 9 Give back

Chapter 10 Borrow the best

Chapter 11 Use free trials

Chapter 12 Start each year with a plan

Chapter 13 Stay in touch

Chapter 14 Keep a schedule

Chapter 15 Work virtually

Chapter 16 Become an expert

Chapter 17 Keep learning

Chapter 18 Be ready to partner

Chapter 19 Tell your story frequently

Chapter 20 Keep the passion

2

INTRODUCTION

Introduction to the Guide

Hello and welcome to the Ultimate Boomer Business Success Guide.

For more than twenty-five years I have been in the business of sharing.

First off, my coaches and I help talented boomers like you share your

experience, talent and interests with the world via fun and profitable

entrepreneurial ventures.

Next, I continually look for the most effective ways to manage a growing

business. And I share these via my blog posts on Bizstarters.com, my

podcast series: “Business Startup for Boomers”, and through articles and

stories I share on boomer-directed websites such as NextAvenue.com.

In the Ultimate Boomer Business Success Guide I am pleased to share 20

time and money-saving tips and techniques that come from my personal

experience in starting and growing three successful companies, as well as

my work guiding hundreds of new boomer entrepreneurs.

If you are still considering whether to take the entrepreneurial leap, I hope

that you will find the confidence to take the next step from knowing that you

now have a pocketful of proven success tips.

If you are getting ready to launch your business, I trust that these tips will

accelerate your business planning process, just as they have for me over

the years.

Great success to you,

Jeff Williams

LOOK AT THE

NUMBERS

CHAPTER ONE

Look at the numbers

It can be overwhelming when thinking about all the steps you must take to

get from a good business idea to a fully functioning new business.

So, it’s not surprising that when I make public presentations that I

commonly receive this question: “Where do I start?”

When I first was asked this question I had to chew over the appropriate

answer.

Now, I’m the first to tell you that I know in my heart of hearts that most of we

boomer entrepreneurs do not primarily launch businesses because we

expect to become millionaires (although 78% of U.S. millionaires are, in

fact, business owners).

We are primarily motivated by our love of doing some very specific kind of

work…and we want to share our talent and experience with others who

have problems we can help solve, or needs we can meet.

Putting aside for a moment the spiritual aspect of becoming one’s own

boss, let me tell you about the quick numerical exercise I have found really

grounds prospective boomer entrepreneurs in the feasibility of turning their

ideas into a great businesses.

Here’s how it goes:

First, get out a blank piece of paper and pen or pencil before you proceed.

Step 1 – How much do you need to make.

Think about your family finances for a minute and estimate the minimum

personal income you feel you need to take out of your business during the

next year (don’t be extravagant here. Just use the essential dollar amount.)

Let’s say you write down $30,000.

Look at the numbers

Step 2 – Allow for business taxes.

We suggest multiplying the dollar amount in Step 1 by 1.40 to increase the

income level enough to cover typical state and federal business income

taxes.

In our example, we then find that we need $30,000 x 1.40 = $42,000.

Step 3 – Add some income for business expenses.

It costs money to make money, so we need to add some dollars to

represent business expenses.

We suggest that you select one of these two numbers.

Home-based office - $600 per month or $7,200 for the year

Outside location - $2,200 per month or $26,400 for the year.

Now, most of you will choose the first dollar amount because there are so

many, many types of businesses you can run from a home office today –

why pay rent if you absolutely don’t have to.

For our example, let’s pick option one above. Add this to your $42,000

figure in Step 2.

$42,000 + $7,200 = $49,200. (For ease of remembering, let’s round this to

$50,000).

Step 4 - Figure out your “scale of business”.

Scale is a business term made popular in tech startups, where investors

want to know how much money is needed to “reach scale” or a level of

sales where serious profit is being generated.

Look at the numbers

Now, I am using this term in a more modest manner here.

I want you to use your knowledge of the specific business you wish to start

to answer the following question as best you can: “A typical sale in my kind

of business produces __________ dollars”.

For example, if you intend to sell a craft item the answer may be $50 per

sale.

On the other hand, if you are selling consulting a typical sale may be

$10,000 per transaction.

Take your dollar amount from Step 3 and divide it by the dollar amount of a

typical sale in your kind of business.

Now, I own several companies, one of which is a consulting firm. So let me

use a dollar amount for my kind of business to illustrate our example.

Total desired income is $50,000 (I rounded up from $49,200).

I divide this by $5,000 to reflect a conservative estimate of my income per

sale.

$50,000 divided by $5,000 = 10.

This number represents that I must sell and deliver at least 10 consulting

jobs during the next year to make my income goal.

If I estimate that it takes 10 prospects to get one client, then my marketing

and sales promotion need to produce 10 x 10 = 100 prospects during my

first year.

Look at the numbers

I end this exercise by answering for myself the following question: “Based

on who I know and what I know right now, does it seem reasonable that I

can find 100 prospective clients in a year’s time?”

Interestingly, this dollar amount of consulting sales is very similar to the

amount I used 25 years ago when launching my consulting business. Since

I am still humming along in 2017 you may logically conclude that I indeed

answered “Yes” to myself all those many years ago.

Complete the exercise for your prospective business idea and see if you

can honestly say “Yes” to yourself.

REQUEST OPINIONS

CHAPTER TWO

Request opinions

When you are considering whether to move forward with what seems to be

a really terrific business idea, you must be careful about not making one big

mistake.

The potential mistake is: Only considering your own opinion when

evaluating your business idea.

You’re not going to be selling to yourself. What your customers want from

you may vary from what you see as the biggest selling points for your

business idea.

So, how do you determine what your potential customers want most from

what you are going to be offering?

The answer: Ask some of them!

Do a survey

Most, if not all, of the people you would like to talk to about your business

idea are comfortable answering online surveys. Websites like Amazon and

Yelp regularly ask purchasers to provide product reviews.

Good news! There is a free tool you can use to create and complete your

own online surveys – Survey Monkey.

Request opinions

This website is one of a growing number of sites that offer their basic

service for free, charging for upgrades.

Survey Monkey provides a quick tutorial on how to set up your survey on

their site and then how to communicate it to your desired respondents.

A common way to share your Survey Monkey survey is by including a link

to it in an email message sent to a list of people whose opinions you would

like to share. You just need their first names and email addresses.

Here are some sample types of questions you may want to consider for use

in your survey.

• How soon will you be ready to buy?

• How convenient does this service seem to you (give choices)?

• Would you like red (checkbox) or blue (checkbox) for this product?

The Survey Monkey website collects the answers to your survey (typical

response rate s 15-20%). You enter your password protected area of the

website to retrieve your results. You not only see the answers for each

question, you also see how many people (or businesses) answered each

question.

I suggest that you shoot for at least 100 survey respondents in order for the

results to have significance in your business planning.

This tool is also very useful in performing customer service checks with

your customers.

So, be sure to talk to members of your desired marketplace before you

jump into action with your new business.

SCROLL YOUR

NETWORK

CHAPTER THREE

Scroll your network

Once you can create a written description of exactly what products,

services or combination of both you will offer in your new business you are

ready to start organizing your business.

You will quickly discover that you have more questions than answers.

By this point in your life you have developed extensive networks of friends,

business colleagues, college buddies or gal-pals, and even folks you know

from charity or volunteer work.

To save you an impressive amount of time in hunting for services and

advice you need to set up your company, scroll through your LinkedIn

connections and your email addresses on your smartphone to see who is

lurking there.

Ask yourself: “Who knows how to deliver the service I need.” If no one

comes to mind then ask yourself: “Who might know someone who can

provide this service.”

Let me share an example from my life as an entrepreneur.

I knew before I launched my first business that sooner or later I would need

the help of an accountant.

My wife and I were using H&R Block to prepare our tax return at the time.

When I called our local office to see if they could provide accounting

services specifically aimed at small businesses, they said no (many H&R

Block offices now have a small business accounting expert on staff).

So, I asked a friend who ran a successful retail business in our town if he

had an accountant he would recommend.

Scroll your network

He did – Phyllis.

I called her and made an appointment to see her. After hearing where I was

in my business growth, Phyllis told me that I wasn’t quite ready for her

services yet, but that I should install QuickBooks accounting software and

start using it regularly and call her in six months.

By relying on a recommendation from my network I went from using a

handwritten bookkeeping ledger book to the incredible power of accounting

software in just one appointment.

I eventually used my network of contacts to find my first business attorney,

a great graphic designer, and three business coaches who later became my

sub-contractors when I was running a large training program.

You know you have a lot of connections after all of your years in the

corporate world. Now’s the time to use your lists for something more than

sending Christmas greetings!

BE COMFORTABLE

CHAPTER FOUR

Be comfortable

You’ll be spending more time in your business office than you imagine.

So you want to think carefully about the space you have allotted to store

your computer, office equipment, file cabinets, etc. And most importantly, for

you!

When I started my first business in 1991, a business owner generally did

not want to reveal that he worked from a home office. It seemed

amateurish.

Today, for most kinds of business your customers don’t care where your

business is officially located, just as long as you keep the promise you

make to them when they agreed to do business with you.

So, you’re largely free to set up your office furniture and equipment

wherever in your house seems most appropriate.

After working from an outside office suite for sixteen years, I moved my

businesses to an office in my home nine years ago.

My wife has her office in one bedroom and I have my office across the

hallway in a second bedroom

I spend 20-25 hours per week in my office, so being comfortable is

important to me.

Be comfortable

My comfort factors

Here are my comfort factors:

1. The chair.

I have bought four chairs over the past 25 years. The first I found in a used

office furniture store. The second at a house sale. And the next two I bought

from office supply stores, one from Staples and one from Office Depot. The

last time I bought a chair, it took me three months to find one that provided

enough support to both my butt and my back.

I can tell from my search, expect to pay at least $200 for a good office chair

(unless you find one at a house sale).

2. Desk

I like a lot of room on my desk (which seems to be always be crowded with

papers). So, the desk I use today I originally bought almost 25 years ago. I

knew from my corporate days exactly what kind of desk I wanted – 72” x

48” top with two support columns, each containing two or more drawers.

Now, I found my ideal desk in a 40 foot vertical pile of desks in the

warehouse of a used office equipment dealer (see if you have one in your

city). I had to bribe the warehouse guy $20 to use his forklift to bring the

desk down.

I also bought a four drawer vertical file (with a slight dent in one drawer) and

two upholstered side chairs and paid the company to deliver them to my

office.

Be comfortable

3. Light

I like to have daylight streaming into my office.

My very first office was a tiny little space with no windows in what they call

a “shared services” office building. I used to call it “the land of the

mushroom people” because it was so dark. As my company made more

money I moved up size and style of office until, voila, I ended up with the

largest office in the front of the building…with two windows!

Today, I am fortunate to have my office in a bedroom with two large

windows, so I can get a lot of daylight (and check out my neighbors too).

I have three lights in my office – a nice desk lamp emblazoned with the seal

of the University of Virginia (my alma mater); a draftsman lamp that

stretches up and down (I use this one when leading webinars); and an

overhead light (I use this one when searching for lost stuff).

4. Computer

There are two key physical features of how I use my desktop computer (I

also have a laptop for use outside of my office. No tablet yet, but close to

buying one) – I use a 21’ monitor and I added a keyboard drawer attached

to the underside of my desk to keep the keyboard low enough to be

comfortable to type fast and long.

Now, if you’re fortunate enough to own a newer home with a specially built

office or if you intend to remodel your house to create this new style office,

chances are good that you enjoy a variety of additional comfort factors.

Be comfortable

You may have built in bookcases.

You may have a mini-frig.

You may have exercise equipment.

If so, I’m envious!

The key here is don’t put setting up a comfortable office for you business at

the bottom of your list of things to do before launching your business.

Your comfort while working is key to your business’s productivity.

LEARN HOW TO SWAP

CHAPTER FIVE

Learn how to swap

I was excited. I had been in business for six months and I had just landed

my first paid presentation at the business center of a local community

college.

When I called my contact at the college to find out the details, she said “will

you be bringing your overhead projector with you?” Not wanting to sound

like I was not ready to give the outstanding presentation I had promised, I

said “yes, of course.”

One problem: I didn’t own an overhead projector!

So I cruised by my local office supply store (Office Max didn’t exist yet) to

see what a projector cost.

Oh my gosh! They wanted $125 for one! I thought: “a lot of money for

something I won’t use often.”

So, I called a marketing consulting client to see what he thought.

My client Joe offered a swap: I would run a two-hour market survey session

for him and he would lend me an overhead projector to use as long as I

needed.

I immediately said “yes”.

I didn’t really think about it at the time, but I had just completed the first

swap of my new life as a business owner.

By the early 1990’s, I started to see the whole “swap” movement become a

business, now known as “barter”. Barter clubs sprung up all over the place

to permit you to create an account where you could trade some amount of

your goods or services to other businesses which offered their goods and

services

Learn how to swap

I knew of business friends who got floors installed, walls painted, gardens

planted and exotic trips taken, all on barter.

Today, with the advent of all kinds of exchange networks online it is easier

than ever to swap something you have for something you want.

You can check out Craig’s List.

You can look at EstateSales.com.

Here is a link to a list of 36 trade and swap websites.

http://www.moneycrashers.com/best-bartering-swapping-websites

Before you make a substantial investment in either services or products,

think to yourself: “Can I swap for this?”

CREATE MULTIPLE

STREAMS OF INCOME

CHAPTER SIX

Create multiple

streams of income

A caution that I frequently give to new boomer entrepreneurs is to “stay

focused” during your first year in business.

After spending thirty years or more in the corporate world, many of us older

boomers have a mish mash of business ideas we think would be great to

bring to life – we want to be a star consultant; write a best-selling book; lead

large public workshops, etc.

All of these, and more than you can imagine right now, are possible but you

need to pick one or two main enterprises to pursue during your first year in

business, so that you concentrate your energy and resources on that work

which will fulfill you and reward you well.

But, once you have focused on one primary source of income, you then do

want to look for opportunities to add new income sources from running your

core business.

This is known as having “multiple streams of income.”

For example, my first business was a marketing consultancy. I brought an

MBA in marketing and eighteen years of highly diversified marketing

management experience to my new business. My original company was

named Creative Market Solutions (I’ve since shortened it to CMS, Inc.).

My first job was to create a marketing plan for a 5-person company, located

nearby. In the process of getting to know the CEO of the company I

discovered that he didn’t have a lot of experience running all of the aspects

you must manage in a small business. I found myself not only doing a

marketing plan but also advising him in various organizational aspects of

his company, which I had learned while organizing my company.

Create multiple

streams of income

Suddenly, I could clearly see another way for me to make

money…coaching new business owners.

I approached all the area colleges to see if any would be interested in

offering a business startup course. Several were, but each asked to see my

curriculum.

Oh boy, I didn’t have one. But in four weekends I created an eight module

course using what I had learned in MBA school and from years of working

with smaller companies as suppliers during my corporate career.

I used this course to cement deals with four area colleges and served as

the instructor for the first classes.

One evening, as I was preparing to leave after class, the adult education

director stopped by. She informed me that a colleague at a college in

Wisconsin was looking for a business startup course and asked if I would

like to have my course recommended. I immediately said: “Yes”.

I finalized the deal with the Wisconsin college but with the understanding

that I could not personally teach it but instead would be glad to train a

couple of instructors.

Now I had two new products to sell – my course materials and my “train the

trainer” class.

A few months later I met several managers from a federally-funded job

training agency at a trade show. They saw the sign on my booth and asked

if I would be interested in helping them land a government grant to offer self

employment training to downsized managers. Once again, I couldn’t say

“Yes” fast enough.

Create multiple

streams of income

The self employment course we offered won awards for its effectiveness

and continued for seven years.

I had added another stream of income – presenting grant-funded training

courses.

By the end of my second year in business I was so busy managing

entrepreneurial coaching and training that I largely stopped offering

marketing consulting.

As our population of new boomer business owners has grown, I have found

more and more need to offer ongoing business growth coaching to these

clients and other business owners. Although we often talk about marketing-

related challenges I also help with financial, legal and organizational tasks.

So, let me sum up the point of this chapter.

Your greatest success usually comes from identifying one core business

that is highly profitable, and then growing your revenue by finding additional

products and services you can sell related to the core business.

FIND PLACES

TO SHARE

CHAPTER SEVEN

Find places to share

One of the most common sources of reluctance in starting a boomer

business that I encounter is fear of having to work all alone, with no one to

help you overcome challenges and unexpected problems.

I’m a pretty social guy, and so in my first year of being in business I can

remember sometimes feeling alone and forgotten.

Fortunately, my most loyal supporter has always been my wife and I could

talk to her about a lot of the challenges that came my way.

But, there were certain things, like sharing others experience where I really

needed to talk to a fellow business owner.

My first foray in finding a place to share was attending a breakfast meeting

of my local chamber of commerce. There was a “meet and greet” before we

ate and a speaker afterward. I met seven or eight other business owners

that morning and arranged to have lunch with three of them in the next

couple of weeks.

I am happy to say that one of the guys I met that day fifteen years ago is

still my friend.

Over the years I have discovered other ways to share with my fellow

entrepreneurs.

• Special events, like entrepreneurial award ceremonies.

• Live training events at a local hotel.

• Electronic “pen pals” via email.

• Partnering on projects.

Find places to share

Today thanks to our ability to send quick messages through our

smartphones, it is easier than ever to stay in touch with those who matter

most to us. Skype phone calls let you add visual contact.

My advice: Aim to stay in touch with your top three friends on a regular

basis. And aim to add three new business friends per month, either face to

face or digitally.

GET REFERRALS

CHAPTER EIGHT

Get referrals

It takes quite a bit of time and effort to land your first group of customers.

You may need to reach out to 100 or more prospective customers before

you ink your first order or contract.

But, once you start to sell, a wonderful result of converting someone from

prospect to customer occurs – if you ask them they will often share your

name with a friend or business associate.

This is known as a “referred lead”.

Personal recommendation is particularly powerful among boomer

individuals. Many of us find key vendors to repair our cars and homes by

asking for a referral from a neighbor or friend.

An entrepreneurial friend once told me: “My dream year in business would

be to gain $100,000 in new sales all from referrals.”

I’ve yet to achieve that goal but I have come close once or twice.

Now, getting referrals requires that you ask for them. Even though your

customers are very pleased with your work they lead busy lives and once

you have delivered what you promised, they are onto the next thing on their

schedule.

Get referrals

So, here’s the drill:

• Ask your customer or client if you fulfilled their expectations. If they

suggest improvements, take them to heart.

• If you get “two thumbs up”, then ask you customer: “Do you know of

anyone who would be interested in knowing more about I can do for

them?”

• Respond quickly to any leads. Your customer may ask you if you have

spoken with the person. Don’t be embarrassed because you didn’t

reach out.

• If a referred lead converts into a customer or client, be sure to send a

thank you to the person who referred the lead to you.

GIVE BACK

CHAPTER NINE

Give back

You may have grown up in a family like mine where we were “strongly

encouraged” to be on the lookout for instances to help others.

My grandmother shared a lot of sage wisdom with me, but one of the life

guidelines she particularly emphasized was “Always look for the person

others are ignoring and go introduce yourself”.

When I started my corporate career I did my best to give back to others

whenever I could. But as my schedule grew more frantic and out of town

travel began to wear me down, I found myself just wanting to mellow out

when I was home. By the middle of my eighteen year corporate career I had

given up almost all of my charity work and resigned from several

committees at church.

I wasn’t giving back much.

But, you may be surprised to find out that once I became my own boss, I

actually now had time to return to my charity and volunteer work. Even

though I averaged 50 hours per week of work in my first few years as a new

business owner, I now benefited from one key advantage – I largely

controlled my schedule!

If there was a meeting of a church committee at 4 pm I could now attend.

If my men’s group needed a couple of Saturday mornings to work at the

local food pantry I no longer felt rushed by trying to do all of my family

chores on Saturdays.

Give back

Not long ago I attended a meeting of the board of a local charity for which I

volunteer. There were thirteen of us in attendance. Just for the fun of it I

asked all of the volunteers who ran their own businesses to raise their

hands. Eight people raised their hands. This confirmed my informal theory

that non profit organizations benefit greatly from the volunteer work of self-

employed boomers.

When you first launch your business you may not feel that you can afford to

be away much and so you may not be comfortable giving back to your

community. But, if this is an important part of you spiritual life you will find

that you have a much better chance to volunteer than you did when you

were hemmed in by your corporate job.

And I can tell you from my personal point of view, giving back to others has

been an important part of our lives as boomers. Back in the sixties and

seventies we honestly believed that we could fix some of society’s problems

(and we did and continue to do). Perhaps we got distracted for a few

decades trying to grow our families and careers, but the desire to give back

is still strong in our hearts.

As a new boomer entrepreneur, you now have the chance to share your

bounty with other, less fortunate folks.

BORROW THE BEST

CHAPTER TEN

Borrow the best

I must admit something – I borrow from other people all the time.

Now, understand I don’t steal copyrighted ideas or plagiarize the writing of

other business owners, but I do frequently learn from what others have

done.

I got the idea for my first marketing brochure twenty five years ago from a

brochure I saw at a trade show. I called the company who distributed the

brochure and I asked them if they would tell me who did their design. They

graciously provided the graphic designer’s name and phone number. I

spoke with her and ended up hiring her to do my design. This move saved

me several hours of time and got me exactly what I wanted.

Since that time I have relied upon the superior knowledge and experience

of many others to advance my career as a boomer business owner.

In the early 1990’s I hired a former startup client as my bookkeeper with the

understanding that she would not only keep my books but also teach me

the basics of how to use a new accounting software program –

QuickBooks.

One of my most daunting challenges came as I was planning how to launch

Bizstarters.com in 1999. I had been able to secure a $100,000 investment

from a private investor (often called an “angel investor”). A large part of this

money went to designing, coding and launching a very detailed website for

my new company.

Well, I knew that the investment money wouldn’t last forever and that I

would need to be able to make changes to my website myself.

While reading an article on this new technology called the Internet, I

discovered that one can use a relatively simple computer technique to

examine the code used to propel almost any website.

Borrow the best

Here’s how it goes: Go to a website you think is well designed. Click with

the right side of your mouse. A menu appears on your computer screen.

Scroll down to “page source”, click the command and you will see all of the

code that controls the page you are looking at.

It took awhile and some guidance from friends to learn which part of the

code I could safely change and which part I must definitely leave alone.

So, by borrowing from other entrepreneurs I taught myself basic html

coding and so now I can make virtually every change I desire to the

Bizstarters.com website (I have a team that designs websites for our startup

clients and they help me from time to time).

How to borrow

• When you need a new skill or technique first do a web search using a

description of what you need, like “how to do SEO for my website.” Look

for tutorials and use them to learn the basics.

• If you see another business owner doing something you’d like to do for

your business, ask them if they will tell you how they do it.

• When you are attending a business group, such as the chamber of

commerce, ask around to see if someone in the group might know

about what you want to know. Ask if you can take them to lunch to talk

about it.

USE FREE TRIALS

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Use free trials

There are all kinds of incredible claims being made today by marketers of

online business services: for example how you can use webinars to make

thousands of dollars; or how you can use your connections on LinkedIn to

draw in hundreds of prospective customers.

I don’t doubt that there are entrepreneurs achieving these outcomes. I have

landed more than $50,000 of coaching work from people who have

attended my webinars, which I learned how to do well via an online course.

But, many of these services are not inexpensive; some charge $199 per

month and up.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could try out a new service for free?

Well you can!

Many online services websites offer a free membership category, which

features basic functionality. If as you use the service you see a need for a

more advanced feature you can easily upgrade by picking a service

package and entering your credit card information.

Use free trials

Here are some of my favorite “free trial” web-based services:

LinkedIn

The basic service lets you post a complete profile of yourself and to publish

posts to people who have agreed to connect to you. The Premium

Package permits you to post full articles, send more connection invitations

and send email to other LinkedIn members.

Survey Monkey

I spoke of the service earlier in this guide. The free version permits you to

compose and share complete surveys and to tabulate the results into

various types of reports. The advanced version permits more detailed

reporting and access to groups of people to serve as respondents to your

survey.

Mail Chimp

Monkeys and chimps seem to be a favored source for business names in

the business services category. The free version of this service provides a

full range of email marketing tools. The advanced version permits more

sophisticated features such as autoresponder messages.

Fiverr

This free service permits you to post requests for work to be done on your

behalf, such as getting a logo design. You connect to a worldwide network

of service providers. When I post a job here, on average I receive seven

work proposals from which I can select a vendor. I received a very nice logo

design recently for a cost of just $15! There is no advanced version to this

service.

Use free trials

Free trials of online business services offer an affordable and very effective

way for you to hone your management skills. So, don’t be put off on using a

tool that can save you time and possibly money just because it seems to

complex to understand. Take the free trial and speed your learning.

START EACH YEAR

WITH A PLAN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Start each year with a plan

You may have read that setting a goal without a plan is just making a wish.

This is particularly true when working to grow your business.

For many of us the new year brings optimistic thoughts about all of the

wonderful things that can happen in our businesses and lives.

But, I can tell you from having run my businesses for more than twenty five

years that you can easily get pushed off course if you don’t set a plan in

writing at the beginning of each year.

So, let me share how I go about writing my annual business plan.

On New Year’s Day I spend a couple of hours (in between the football

games) thinking about where I want to go with my business for the new

year.

Here’s how I do it.

Step 1 – Set your dollar revenue goal.

Now, you may feel that a modest increase in your sales revenue over the

previous year, say 5%, is the most realistic for you.

Or, you may be highly motivated to launch a whole new source of income

and so you set a very aggressive financial goal, say an increase of

$100,000 for the year.

Start each year with a plan

Step 2 – Examine each product and/or service.

Ok, you have set your sales revenue goal for the year, say $100,000.

Unless you possess a big magic wand this will not come true in one fell

swoop – it will take a series of actions on your part.

So, open a spreadsheet in Excel and list in rows all of the ways you make

money now, such as “project consulting”, “project research” and “team

training.”

Use what you know about what may happen during the upcoming year to

make an estimate of the dollar sales revenue you feel you can likely

produce for each product and/or service you listed.

Now, I’m the first to admit that some of these numbers may be a S.W.A.G

(Super Wild Assed Guess) so early in the new year. But, do your best to

insert a reasonably realistic dollar amount.

If you wish, you can also list in the row where you describe the product of

service how many units you will need to sell in order to produce your

estimated dollar sales, such as “15, 10-hour consulting projects”.

Step 3 – Look at the calendar.

Knowing what you know about which possible sales you have on your radar

at the start of the year, the seasonality of your business, and how long on

average it takes you to close a sale for each product or service, use a

calendar form to enter for each product of service when during the year you

feel that each sale will occur.

Start each year with a plan

Step 4 – Do a monthly review.

Quite often you can quickly change your marketing tactics if you are not

receiving sales on the schedule you projected. But, first you must realize

that you are not achieving your goals on the schedule you projected.

So, set a time each month to review your sales results to date, product by

product or service by service.

There are few instances in your life as a boomer business owner where you

will feel as much satisfaction as when you set a plan at the start of the year

and then meet it or exceed during the year.

STAY IN TOUCH

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Stay in touch

Selling experts will tell you that it commonly requires that you reach out (or

“touch”) a prospective customer seven times before he or she will agree to

buy from you.

Now, I can tell you from my 40-plus-year marketing career that this is not

always true.

For example, when I worked for Sears we used to attract several hundred

thousand mothers to buy back-to-school dresses during a three-day sale

simply by placing a couple of ad inserts into daily newspapers.

And, I recently landed a new startup client after just one phone call – they

had been referred to me by someone I knew and whom they trusted.

But, it is most logical to assume that you will need to communicate at least

several times with any given prospect before they will buy from you.

So, what is the most effective way to do this?

If you try sending a series of sales-oriented messages you will likely turn off

a good number of prospects. But, you want them to buy, so what else can

you send them?

I use an informal formula of three messages that inform or educate to one

overt selling message (you’re really “selling” in very message because you

are sharing your experience and knowledge).

Stay in touch

I use the following system to stay in touch with both current customers and

prospective customers.

Step 1 – Attract people to give their email addresses to you.

I invite a lot of people to share their email address with me – I invite them

during live presentations, signing up for webinars, reading my blog posts,

seeing me quoted in magazine articles, and most frequently as the result of

requesting a free e-book from me.

Step 2 – Store the email addresses (and possibly their first names) in a list

you create in an email marketing service (I use Constant Contact).

I mentioned earlier in this guide how much I like the free email marketing

service you can get from Mail Chimp. To do all the tasks I wish to do with

email marketing requires that I purchase the upgrade from Mail Chimp. I

pay about the same amount to Constant Contact and I had been using

them for several yeas before I discovered Mail Chimp, so I stay with

Constant Contact. But for newbie boomer entrepreneurs Mail Chimp can be

a good choice for email marketing.

Step 3 – Set a schedule to send 2-3 email messages each month to your

list of email receivers.

Here’s a schedule I like:

Week 1 – Something educational.

Week 2 – Some current news item.

Week 3 – A very specific selling message.

Stay in touch

All of the email marketing services permit you to send ornamented

messages that are really eye-catching. These are known as “html email”.

There are a number of attractive features to using email marketing.

• It is quick. You can compose and send a message in less than 30

minutes.

• It is attention-getting. You can personalize each message.

• It can be easily tracked. Email marketing services tell you what

percentage of your email recipients opened the email and what

proportion took some action you requested in the body of the email

message (known as a “call to action” or CTA).

KEEP A SCHEDULE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Keep a schedule

For most boomer business owners the most powerful and effective selling

tool they posses is the ability to talk to prospective customers about their

needs and wants and then explain how they will help.

For example, I rarely land a new startup client without chatting with her fist

on the phone.

To encourage prospective customers to request phone calls you need to

make it as easy as possible for them to schedule a call.

For several years now, I have used an online service to present my desired

call calendar on the computer screen.

The service is called Acuity Scheduling.

You can see how I incorporate a link to my calendar on my website, at

www.bizstarters.com (see the small accent box near the top with the

phrase: “Book a call with Jeff”).

For my calendar, I set various times of the day on Tuesday, Wednesday

and Thursday for people to request a call with me. I can easily remove any

particular day and time by using a tool associated with my account.

A caller need only enter their name, email address and phone number in

the reservation form and hit “submit”.

The system automatically sends an email confirmation to the prospect and

a schedule notice to me.

This tool helps you avoid the dreaded entrepreneurial screw-up: booking

two appointments for the same day and time.

WORK VIRTUALLY

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Work virtually

You may have heard of businesses that are running “virtually”.

What does this mean?

Well, from my experience working virtually often means one or more of

these features:

• The business runs its administration from several physical locations,

such as I do: Chicago in spring, summer and fall and Florida in the

winter.

• The business grows its operations with none or few traditional

employees located in a specific physical location. This is also true in the

case of how I manage my businesses.

Let me share how I use virtual relationships and connections to grow my

businesses.

This is how my business looks bigger than its “physical footprint”.

1. I work from a home office, but I use sophisticated telecommunication

tools, such a automatic call forwarding, to appear like any large

organization located in a physical office building.

2. My website and email communication are designed to read as well on a

smartphone as on a desktop computer screen (called “mobile

optimization”).

3. I use an online phone call scheduling service (I talked about this earlier

in this guide).

Work virtually

I know of many businesses that bring in more than $100,000 per year run

by just a single owner as the only employee.

These boomer entrepreneurs are able to achieve this because of their

ability to quickly and affordably hire workers and professionals online, that

is “work virtually”.

BECOME AN EXPERT

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Become an expert

Even though you bring a certain uniqueness to your business because of

your personality, experience and network of contacts, the reality is that on

the surface (what a prospect may see in a quick visit to your website) your

business may look very similar to one or more other businesses selling in

the same market space in which you sell.

So, how do you go about differentiating your business from your

competitors (and remember with the Web your competitors may be all over

the place)?

The most effective path I have found over many years coaching new

boomer entrepreneurs is to establish yourself as an expert in the work you

do.

Some individuals are very well known from their corporate work experience

in a specific industry and so start off in their businesses as “an expert”.

Ken Proskie, one of my boomer startup clients is an example. Ken was an

award-winning corporate health and safety director for large scale

manufacturing companies before he launched his consulting practice. He

regularly spoke at industry meetings and was president of the Chicago

chapter of a health and safety engineers association. So, his name was

widely known in his work specialty.

But, for many of the rest of us as accomplished as we were in our corporate

careers, we don’t quite hit the level of “expert” as we transition to being our

own boss.

Almost a decade ago, I dedicated myself to becoming known as the

“number one expert in how to start a business after 50.”

Become an expert

Today, my company’s name may not roll off of the tongues of prospective

boomer entrepreneurs like Ken Proskie’s name does among managers of

the largest manufacturing plants in the U.S. but if you enter the phrase:

“start a business after 50” into Google, you’ll see my company,

Bizstarters.com, shows up as the first non-paid (known as an “organic

search result”) search result.

How to become an expert

• Write out 3-4 issues of great current interest in your work specialty.

• Set a plan to write a 500-800 word article about each topic. You can mix

these between blog and social media posts, ebooks, and full length

articles that you offer to other compatible websites.

• Search out every logical online place you can think of that would be

interested in re-publishing one or more of your articles.

• Set a schedule to submit the set of articles to the sites you identified.

One article per month per site works well.

• Consider composing a webinar or webinar series to teach the basics of

your business. I presented a well-attended three-part webinar series on

becoming a boomer entrepreneur via the alumni office at my alma

mater, the University of Virginia.

• If you’re comfortable speaking publicly, consider writing a 25 minute

speech and finding places to present it. There are a number of speaker

engagement agencies around. Check out some online.

One mark of having achieved some notability as an expert is when you

submit a story to an industry organization’s website and they quickly

request an interview with you.

KEEP LEARNING

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Keep learning

This chapter relates in a very important way to the chapter on how to

become an expert.

“Experts”, in the general understanding of the term, are people who not only

already know quite a bit about their work specialty, but also continually learn

new information and techniques.

To use an example from my chapter on becoming an expert, if you were to

ask my client Ken Proskie what the current status is on federal regulation of

hexavalent chromium (a very toxic substance) you would expect him to

speak accurately and intelligently on the subject.

So, on your journey to becoming known as an expert in your work specialty,

be careful: don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you already know

everything there is to know about your topic.

Now, I may seem a bit obsessive to you, but I long ago set a goal of

learning at least one new thing about my business each week. You may

wish to use a more relaxed pace to your ongoing education.

Keep learning

Great time-savers in staying up to date

It is a real time-saver to have new, useful information come to you. There

are several ways to do this:

• Sign up for a Google Alert This will feed articles seen in the Google

News Service for the topic you request, right into your email box. For

example, I use two Google Alerts; one for the phrase “boomer

entrepreneurs” and one for “downsizing”. I don’t receive articles every

day, but usually at least twice per week. You scan each mention and

click to open any of interest.

• Subscribe to Electronic Newsletters. Remember I talked in an earlier

chapter about staying in touch with both prospects and customers?

Online newsletters are a common way that big media websites do this

with you.

• Here are two of my favorite electronic newsletters:

• SmartBrief for Mainstreet

• Marketing Tips from Entrepreneur.com

Other ways to keep learning

• Talk to other experts in your field. Believe it or not, small business

owners are usually quite generous in sharing information if you clearly

explain who you are and what you want to know.

• Take workshops, webinars and classes. With all of the online

courseware being offered today (such as found on Udemy.com) you can

learn more about almost any topic from the comfort of your home.

BE READY

TO PARTNER

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Be ready to partner

I was recently asked during a presentation what one thing I most regretted

from my early years as a boomer entrepreneur.

I answered: “I wished that I had started entering into marketing partnerships

sooner.”

During my first few years in business I now realize that I suffered from the

“Lone Ranger Syndrome” (I know that the Lone Ranger did have a sidekick,

but I hope that you get my point). This is where an entrepreneur thinks he

or she can do all things demanded by the business, all by himself or herself.

My first partnership occurred in my third year in business when I helped a

non-profit job training agency acquire a government grant in return for

becoming the training vendor.

I had not thought of approaching this organization, because quite honestly I

didn’t know that it existed until I met some managers from the agency at a

trade show.

Over the next couple of years I enjoyed several other unexpected marketing

partnerships and my company grew faster because of them.

As time went by I realized that I needed to take the initiative more in finding

prospective marketing partnerships. For the past ten years or so I have

been in the “active searching mode” for partnerships.

Be ready to partner

Why partnerships can be so valuable

Let me share some reasons that partnerships are so attractive.

• You don’t have to do all the marketing work yourself.

• You get quick access to a much larger group of customers.

• You can benefit from the marketing reach of a larger partner

organization.

• You can make some new friends who have marketing connections you

don’t have.

How to find a partnership

Like I mentioned above, sometimes lucrative marketing partnerships seem

to float down to you from high above.

But, most of the time you have to go looking for them.

Here is a good way to do that:

• Approach owners of businesses in your field or something close.

• Ask if they participate in marketing partnerships and if so if they have a

project in mind that you can discuss with them.

• Sometimes you can find them through what you read.

TELL YOUR STORY

FREQUENTLY

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Tell your story frequently

Potential customers or clients can find a listing of features a good way to

sort out one company’s product or service versus that of a competitor.

But, what motivates the final buying decision comes down to an answer to

the age old reality of life: “What’s in it for me?”

In marketing parlance, the explanation of the advantages of buying from

your company is known as “the benefits statement.”

Now you can just recite a series of short expressions of the benefits your

company offers, but that often comes across as a bit dry and lacking in the

emotional element so necessary in selling (it’s the “steak” versus the

“sizzle” situation).

So, one of the most important parts of the written narrative you should have

created in your marketing plan is your “selling story”. This uses everyday,

“human speak” to paint a powerful mental picture of just how your product

or service helps solve a problem, fill a need, offer something that is missing,

or dramatically change someone’s life.

Now, writing a really effective selling story takes a good amount of time, and

the patience to work your way through a dozen or more renditions.

Tell your story frequently

Here are some tips on writing a compelling selling story.

Write down 3-4 words that come to mind when you describe an important

problem or strong need among you desired group of customers.

For example, for my client Ken Proskie, some phrases that communicate

strongly to potential customers are:

Avoid losing output due to an accident.

Be safe. Keep the government out of your plant.

Make sure workers use machines effectively.

Next, write down a short explanation of how you solve the problem or meet

the need. But, remember don’t get too technical. Talk as if you are speaking

face to face with your customer.

Lastly, add some verbiage that communicates why you are an expert in

what you say your business does, such as “In 2016 we won an award for

excellence in plant safety.”

Tell your story frequently

Where to tell your selling story

To be properly prepared to communicate your selling story over a period of

time, you should prepare to tell your story via these places.

Your company website

You need to start your homepage with a very descriptive headline. Follow

on with a paragraph or two explaining your benefit story.

Blog & social media posts

Consider a dozen or so topics that are important to explain the finer points

of what your company does. Write brief descriptions in the form of blog

posts. Plan to publish at least once per month. After you publish a blog post

on your website, post a short introduction to the post on our business

Facebook page with a link to your blog page.

An e-book or white paper

If you’re not familiar with the concept of an e-book, let me fill you in.

Most e-books start as an extended Microsoft Word file that often offers a

“101 course” in something or makes an even grander offer such as: “THE

Way to make $100,000 selling webinars.” Once the document is completed

in Word it is saved as a pdf file, which is easy to transfer to others via email.

You can build the content of your e-book around your main selling

message. “Top 20” style presentations are particularly attractive. You can

really boost your expert status by publishing such an e-book (and its much

faster to do than write and publish a full-length book).

Tell your story frequently

A media story

This form of promotion of your selling story used to be commonly called a

“press release”.

Today, the more successful approach is to think up a germ of an idea for a

story related to your selling story and then contact some reporters and

editors that might be interested and then pitch the story. If they are

interested, they will request a phone interview with you, from which they will

write a story (which may or may not resemble the story idea you started

with).

The fundamental principal of effective marketing is to create a compelling

selling story and tell it repeatedly over an extended period of time. You may

easily end up telling your selling story two hundred times or more in the

next year.

KEEP YOUR PASSION

CHAPTER TWENTY

Keep your passion

Some unknown entrepreneur once said: “You start your business for love

and money. You need the love to keep you going until the money starts to

come in.”

It is particularly important that we boomers start and run businesses that

are based at their cores on work we really love to do (or at least enjoy a lot).

Truth be told many of us have had times in our corporate careers

(sometimes whole careers) where we experienced very little joy in our day

to day work, propelled ahead by our need for the money.

Now is your time to turn a dream into reality. Turn your passion into profit.

Work for the fun of it but in a smart way that earns you a very nice income.

I will tell you from my twenty-five years of running my own businesses, I

never experienced in my corporate career a more powerful sense of joy in

my work than I did when I realized that I can do work I really enjoy…and get

people to pay me for doing it (and paid very well)!

Working with passion in your business radiates true enthusiasm and joy

when you interact with prospective customers. And I have seen many times

over the years that people just naturally like to buy from enthusiastic sellers.

Keep your passion

How to keep your passion

I will honestly tell you that not all aspects of running your own business are

equally fun.

In my case, I don’t really enjoy working on my business’s accounting, which

is why I have retained a bookkeeper to keep my records up to date.

And I don’t really enjoy business travel all that much anymore (I estimate

that I covered 100,000+ miles of America while in various corporate jobs)

which is why I use Skype and email to help me build out-of-town

relationships. I mostly travel for fun now.

But you must be able to competently handle all the demands that are

presented to your business.

So, how do you keep your spirit charged up while pushing through the

obstacles that every boomer business owner faces from time to time?

Here are some suggestions:

• Devote at least 30 minutes per working day to doing something you

enjoy that is not work-related. Believe it or not, I get a real mental boost

sometimes just from completing a series of family errands. I also enjoy

taking walks with my wife (who is retired), reading a book on history, or

puttering in our garden (obviously a summer activity).

• Take a course, live or online, where you can learn a new business skill

and share with other boomer entrepreneurs.

• Volunteer a few hours per week. You’ll find that your business skills will

be most helpful to your charity group, and each time you help someone

else it reminds you of the core reason you launched your business.

Keep your passion

• Continually look for opportunities to partner with other boomer business

owners. One way they can find you is from experiencing an occasion

when you are telling your selling story, perhaps in a Facebook post.

• Pat yourself on the back occasionally. I’ll admit that a few years ago I

submitted my company for an award given to local small business

owners by the publisher of our suburban business newspaper. And we

were selected as “The Best Small Business Resource”. I hung the

plaque where I can see it as I work at my desk.