Don’t you believe it! The world loves to scare us: I have seen a caption doing the rounds on Facebook that said an “Entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down”. No! Per my dictionary an Entrepreneur is “a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit”, which is just as well as I couldn’t build an aeroplane, even if I was still on the ground!
We like to read stories of college students setting up high-tech businesses that grow and make them multi-millionaires. The reality for most business owners is something different.
Some of Aysgarth’s most popular tweets have been those that reported news stories about older Entrepreneurs. One popular Tweet we issued was based on the BBC news story that said that 38% of business founders were over 40.
And according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) when the large increase in the self-employed between 2008 and 2012 was looked at 84% of them were aged 50 or over. So the answer to my title question is a resounding no!
Interestingly the ONS think that 38% of the self-employed are aged between 35 and 49 with a further 34% aged 50 to 64 years old.
So if you have always wanted to be your own boss and you have a great idea or have seen a gap in the market or you simply think you can provide a better service than your current employer then I recommend you count the cost and seriously think about starting your own business. Read some of our blogs that cover start-up issues and when you are ready get in touch so we can help you as you start out on this exciting new venture!
