Starting With Who You Are

Many would-be "after 55" entrepreneurs want to start a business after leaving a career. As many do in this phase of their lives, they ask, "What's next?" If the answer is to start a business, many times the next question is, "What kind of business should I start?"

There are lots of guidelines, but one of the most effective is: Start with who you are.

By the time we reach 55 we know what we know; we know what comes easily and we know what we love to do--if we only had the time. If we explore these three clues separately, they will give us some very good ideas about where to look for the next phase of our professional lives.

Let's face it. We have a huge body of knowledge. Many of us have had jobs or careers for more than 30 years. We know a lot about the work we have done. We know the basics of being a good employee--showing up on time, meeting deadlines, meeting goals and working with others.

We have gained a lot of industry knowledge. The cyclical nature of business is an example. For women who have worked in retail, the busy season has just ended. Retailers look to turn their profit in the fourth quarter. Postal workers know that December is going to be busy. Teachers know which weeks are going to be the most challenging--right before vacations, for instance.

Understanding the general ebb and flow of business is not necessarily complex. Many times it is a matter of experience. Make a list of the business basics you have acquired thus far in your life.

Self-knowledge also has taught us what we find easy and fascinating. Thank goodness there are the people at the Apple store who can explain my laptop to me. I am so grateful that there are women who know where to find the Fiesta dishes I love to collect. The thrill of the hunt is not for me. I have no gift for bargaining or ferreting out a good deal, but I know how to set a great table using someone else's idea of fun. What do friends and family tell you you're good at? Is it organizing, crafts, baking, driving or planning a trip?

This last category is like giving yourself a gift. If you could spend hours doing your favorite thing, what would it be? Helping others, shopping, talking with friends, being with family or traveling? If you're planning to start a business, it should be doing something you love.

Barbara Staib of Safe Home Products put these clues together and started a terrific business.

In 1998, Staib was a burned-out social worker living outside of Iowa City, Iowa. After 25 years of agency work helping troubled families, she had simply had enough. Not a woman to retire, she began thinking about her strengths and passions. Her passion was still helping people, and one of her many strengths was her "terminal curiosity" about how things work and the best way to do something.

Staib was always the family member who handled the car repairs, oversaw building projects and recommended useful products. She loved learning about different products to help answer others' questions.

Two other pieces of her past life also came into play:

• When she was a child, she helped her family in their retail store in Pennsylvania and knew firsthand about customer service.  
• She saw her social work graduate studies as a primer in problem solving.

Everything she gravitated toward involved helping people solve a problem. When she left social work, it was her kids who pointed out the intersection of experience and passion.

Her first product was a mop that solved the problem of how to get her "acres of ceramic tile" clean. When she found a mop that worked, she was off and running. Soon family and friends all wanted one, and she became a distributor.

Today her company has more than 5,000 products, and she is a trusted resource for both customers and suppliers. Staib and her staff actually read the manuals to see whether they understand them and whether the product works as promised. She has helped companies improve their products by providing real-world feedback.

If you had asked Staib in 1999 whether she thought that in less than 10 years she would have a multimillion-dollar business with thousands of products, that she would work with websites and that she would have customers all over the world, she would have laughed.