Boomer Business Success – Keeping it Simple!
Keep It Simple! Keys For Baby Boomer Success.
September 22, 2011 babyboomentrepreneurs.com
I had the pleasure of sitting in a meeting today with one of my clients. She was doing a presentation to a group of people in the area of her specialty. What she does is unimportant, but what I saw in her inspired me to write this article and challenge we Boomers looking to grow our businesses to keep it simple.
Keeping it simple means:
- Don’t over think things. I remember hearing about Occam’s razor. This is a scientific principle that indicates that, “when faced with competing hypotheses that are equal in other respects, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.” In other words the easiest answer is most often the best answer.
- Find a niche and master it. Being an expert in your chosen niche makes you more valuable to your clients/customers than if you are simply good at a lot of things. Most people can be good, but only experts are sought after.
- Learn the honestly care for your customers/clients. When you have an honest concern for those who buy your products and services, you will treat them with the utmost respect and they will make you their sole supplier!
There you have it! Boomer business success, by just keeping it simple!
For Many Boomers, There May Be No Retirement
Many in the baby boom generation are finding
themselves in a position they never expected
to be in at retirement age: still working or in need of a job.
For babyboomers, the laundry list of reasons just keeps growing.
Already battered nest eggs took another beating this month with the market's wild swings. With interest rates essentially at zero since 2008, income from Treasurys and certificates of deposit is pretty paltry. On top of that, housing prices are still in the doldrums, leaving homeowners with much less equity to tap.
Boomers Connect with Family With Tech and Social Media
OMG! My Grandparents R My BFF!
By MOLLY BAKER
On a recent Sunday evening, each of my kids was engaged with some electronic gadget or another. I was about to call for a moratorium on screen time and a return to family time.
Unbeknown to me, they were already enjoying family time.
My 9-year-old in our Philadelphia home was playing an online Scrabble game with his grandmother on her iPad two time zones away in Denver.
My 11-year-old was video-chatting with his grandfather in Florida on Skype, a program I didn't even know we had.
And my 14-year-old was checking in with his "friends" on Facebook. And whom does he count among his 300-plus friends? His great-grandmother in Minneapolis.
Certainly, it's nothing new that kids are plugging in and staying connected. But what is new is that it may be a grandparent on the other end of that virtual tin can—and that technology is bridging the vast age and distance gap that has long divided the generations. "A group of us was having dinner, and one woman had to tell her husband to put his iPod Touch away. He was emailing his grandchildren," says Mary Henderer, a Wilmington, Del., grandmother of four.
It's a perfect storm of demographics and technology.
As a group, grandparents and grandchildren have plenty in common. They have free time, disposable income for gadgets and gizmos, and a keen interest in staying in touch with people.
As for technology, smartphones, tablet computers and digital cameras have made sharing fun instead of frustrating. And the affordability and speed of broadband Internet have made possible activities like video-chatting and streaming home movies.
The new era is in stark contrast to what took place in recent decades.
"When the baby boomers went to college and moved away, we lost an entire generation of connection between grandparents and grandchildren. They saw each other once or twice a year, and there was a real disconnect," says Andrew Carle, professor and director of the Program in Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
"Now with technology, we are regenerating those bonds. People say technology is so impersonal, but we are watching it being used to reconnect one of the most personal and important relationships of the species."
Prof. Carle adds, "I watch my own kids talking to their grandparents 1,000 miles away, and I love it," he says. "They may take it for granted, but I only saw my grandfather once a year. Nothing will replace a hug, but this is as close as it gets."
Building Blocks
Granted, on the surface, many of the messages that fly back and forth are as trivial as the messages that kids send to one another. But trivial communication are often the building blocks of many close relationships.
Bridging the Gap
Chart data showing how technology is used across generations.
Eleven-year-old Emily Hykes of Orange County, Calif., likes to make singing and dancing videos for her grandmother, whom she calls Honey, to watch in St. Paul, Minn. But her favorite way of communicating with her grandmother is using her iPod Touch to text or email.
"Honey, I hear it's below zero there. I'm sitting on the beach. Love, Emily."
"Emily, I'm sitting on the beach in Florida. Back at ya. Honey," her grandmother, Carolyn McKasy, texts back.
Emily's mother, Kristi Hykes, who is caught between the two generations of texters, says her mother and daughter's electronic correspondence largely consists of jokes about the weather and photos of their favorite sushi meals. "It might just be a few sentences back and forth, but at least a couple of times a week they are in touch with each other," says Ms. Hykes. "My kids are much closer to my parents because of technology."
Virtual Christmas
The family even used their computer's built-in camera, the Internet and Skype software this past December to celebrate a virtual Christmas with the extended family in Minnesota. The grandparents wanted to give their seven grandchildren a Christmas gift at the same time—a water trampoline at their lake cabin.
A generation ago, grandparents and grandchildren living apart had Thanksgiving, birthday cards and a Sunday night phone call—after 8 p.m., when long-distance rates went down.
"There used to be a scarcity of communication, and it was very precious," says Thomas Kamber, founder of O.A.T.S., or Older Adults Technology Services, a nonprofit training and support center in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Nowadays, communication is so ubiquitous it's free. Older people are catching on to that, and they want to be a part of it."
Mary Madden, senior research specialist with the Pew Research Center, says: "The most powerful force convincing them to take the plunge…is their families. Especially when it comes to their grandchildren, they do not want to be left out of the loop."
Tabb Farinholt, 73, who lives in Gloucester, Va., joined Facebook about two years ago when a friend from her book club told her about it. "She said, 'You need to do this because you'll learn so much about your grandchildren.' "
Those were the magic words. She has been enjoying looking at pictures and posts of her six grandchildren ever since. Sure, most of it is inane, and she's even considered stopping. But then she thinks of the photos she might miss seeing.
"It does make you feel closer to them—just to see their picture or a few words by them," she says. "They are certainly not thinking, 'How can I be close to my grandparents?' And I wouldn't expect them to. But Facebook is kind of nice to keep up with them a little bit."
Leveling Effect
Over the past few years, Facebook has morphed from a closed site for college students to an online playground where barriers of age, distance, background and technological expertise have been leveled. It has become a rare space where generations can meet on neutral turf to share and interact. Currently, users must be 13 years old to open a Facebook account, resulting in the young and old tiptoeing into the space at the same time.
Says the Pew center's Ms. Madden: "Seniors who have recently retired, teens and young adults just beginning their lives are all going through very significant changes. And this social networking and communicating can be a very powerful force in helping them move forward."
She also says that grandparents can play a unique role on Facebook. Plenty of kids block or limit the access their parents have, but they give free rein to the extended family—enabling grandparents to perform duties of light surveillance.
Just ask Bart Farinholt of Richmond, Va.
Recently, the 20-year-old sophomore at Denison University posted a Halloween photo of himself gesturing inappropriately (in character) on his Facebook page. Not long after, he received an email from his grandmother: "Obscene gestures on Facebook. Just so sophomoric." And she had underlined every word.
"If my mom told me to change it, I might have argued with her," he says. "But it was different because it was my grandmother. So I changed it. It's actually nice to have her checking on me and giving me advice."
It's So Easy
Such frequent and casual communication is actually changing the relationship between these two generations—and so far, all for the better.
With his grandmother as easy to reach as a roommate or teammate, Mr. Farinholt was compelled to ask her to help with a study-abroad application. Yes, even after the Halloween incident.
"He emailed me his essay to read. And of course, it was due the next day," Tabb Farinholt says. "But I didn't say anything because I was so thrilled to be asked. I was a high-school English teacher, but this was the first time any of my grandchildren asked me to edit anything they've written."
Dick Anderson, 77, of Bradenton, Fla., fields requests for help, as well. He emails and Skypes regularly with his four grandchildren in Virginia and Minnesota. Recently, he's been engaged in an online discussion on Facebook with his oldest grandchild about investing.
"He was curious and wanted to learn more. He had lots of financial questions for me," says Mr. Anderson. "Sometimes it's on Facebook. Sometimes it's texting. Either way, I'm here for him."
Toys for All Ages
Certainly the teaching goes both ways—especially when it comes to technology. The vast improvements in personal computers and phones over the past few years make the new toys the perfect middle ground for the generations to share their curiosity and expertise.
For the Feiner girls of Ridgewood, N.J., teaching their grandfather, Harold Schwartz, 79, of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, is a family affair.
"We teach him how to do things on his new computer," says 9-year-old Amelia Feiner. "And he gives us a dollar and takes us to the candy store to buy caramels."
For the past few years, the girls' grandparents have taken an annual cruise lasting several months. They see plenty of ports, but they don't see their granddaughters. So during those months it's back to emails. Lots of them.
Last year, when 11-year-old Ella Feiner was in fourth grade, she and her classmates joined her grandparents for a virtual cruise around the world. They posted a laminated map of the world on the wall and marked every stop the cruise ship made.
"Every other day my grandparents would send two emails, one for me and one for my class. They like to tell us about their ports or send quizzes and geography games," says Ella. "If I forgot, my classmates would say, 'Did we get a message?' "
Ella keeps an email folder for missives from her grandparents, appropriately named "Cruise Emails."
"My girls have a whole separate relationship with my parents that just skips right over me," says Ella's mom, Shoshana Feiner. Which is perhaps a key component to the success of such interactions. Email, text and Facebook are done on kid time or grandparent time, and they require no intervention or supervision from the parents in between.
'Being Friends'
In her day, Ms. Feiner grew up down the street from her grandmother and saw her several times a week. "But if my grandmother was over, that meant she was baby-sitting. She was in charge," Ms. Feiner says. "Their style of communicating today is much more fun. Communicating from afar is about being friends. There's no discipline involved."
No discipline, and sometimes just a single word.
When Mary Henderer in Delaware broke her wrist snow-blowing this winter, she sent an email updating her family on her swift healing after a doctor's visit. Her two grown sons responded with good wishes and lots of questions. Her 15-year-old grandson replied, "Yay!!"
Says Ms. Henderer: "That was the one that mattered to me."
Boomer: Seasoned but slighted by the job market
The older baby boomer job seeker say it feels like an age of ‘no boomer need apply’
A former apartment manager said young interviewers seemed intimidated by her. An electrical contractor with 30 years’ experience revealed to the group that he was replaced by a 21-year-old.
Many of them felt slighted by prospective employers.
A number of boomer job seekers are finding that their age is working against them during this painfully slow recovery. People age 55 and older are unemployed for a year on average —
more than two months longer than younger workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some employers are scared away by the higher pay and health care costs that can come with hiring older workers, as well as the perception that the boomer demographic may not be motivated to learn new skills.
Michael Small, a 50-year-old Kittery, Maine, resident who has been looking for a full-time information technology job for six years, imagines prospective employers thinking: “He’s an old dog. I can’t teach him new tricks.’’
The US economy added far more jobs than expected last month, according to data released yesterday by the Labor Department, but there are still more than 13 million people out of work.
The unemployment rate for workers over age 55 is lower than the overall national average, partly due to the number of people in that baby boomer age bracket who decide to retire, but those forced out of work before their planned retirement, and who don’t have enough to live on, are putting added strain on the government and the economy.
From 2007 to 2009, the number of 63-year-olds filing early for Social Security jumped by nearly 20 percent, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Among 62-year-olds, the first of the baby boomers, it was up 42 percent. Not only are those people collecting less money, they’re also not paying taxes on employment income and are more likely to apply for other government aid, said director Andrew Sum.
age 65; in 2010, that number had risen to 34 percent.
Peter Honig, 53, lost his job as vice president of engineering three years ago when the New Hampshire security systems company he was working for folded. During a year-long job search in which he failed to land a single interview, Honig was at an alumni event where he realized that every person over the age of 50 — about a dozen in all — were unemployed. Read the rest of this entry »
Can Belly Fat In Women Be Linked To Discrimination?
Discrimination of all kinds may be linked to visceral, or abdominal, fat.
In a recent study, 402 middle-age women from Chicago were asked about their personal experiences with discrimination in the past year, and were then given CT scans to determine their levels of visceral fat.
Visceral fat forms around the internal organs, and may not show up on the surface as an expanded waistline. However, it has been linked to hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes.
Tené Lewis of Yale University School of Medicine studied the relationship between discrimination and abdominal fat in white and African-American women. She said that, surprisingly, the association seemed to be linked to the individual’s perceived experiences of discrimination in general, and not to their race or whether they appeared overweight, since visceral fat is not apparent.
Subjects were asked whether they had experienced insults or a lack of courtesy or respect based on discrimination. Lewis and her colleagues found that on average, the more discrimination a woman reported, the more visceral fat she had.
February issue of American Journal of Epidemiology.
