The 50 + Housing Forum is planning a national conference to explore what baby boomers expect their retirement years to be. It is clear that they don't want the retirement years to look like those of past generations. Further, it does not look like retirement could be the same as past generations even if they wanted it to be.

I share this with you so you can stay aware of the new issues that are starting to be discussed about the changing lives of baby boomers.

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

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50+ HOUSING FORUM

The 50+ Housing Forum Presents The Silver Tsunami: A New Wave in Senior Living

More than 10,000 Baby Boomers are now turning 65 everyday – a trend that will continue for almost the next two decades.

These newly-minted "active adults" aren't sure exactly what their retirement years are going to look like, but they know one thing for sure—they don’t want the kind of retirement their parents and grandparents had.

The group that led the social revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s is looking at us to revolutionize how America retires. They have the health, the means and the vision to want more… and the voice to ask for innovation from the homebuilding industry.

Friday, June 24

10:15am–11:00am The Numbers Don't Lie First, we’ll take a look at the demographics of the Silver Tsunami. The numbers of Baby Boomers and Silent Generation Americans are dramatic—what are we doing to meet their changing needs? This session will discuss a new view of Universal Design, redefines Aging-in-Place and opens up a conversation on the psychographics of the new older adult. We’ll also talk about how these projects get financed, whether through traditional or HUD methods, and the types of projects that applies to each financing option. Moderator: Jeffrey DeMure, AIA, President, Jeffrey DeMure + Associates Architects Planners, Inc. Brooke Warrick, President, American LIVES Heidi Begeot, Client Loan Relationship Manager, CW Capital

11:00am–11:45am New Solutions to New Challenges Part 1 The average American lives almost 30 years longer than his counterpart did a hundred years ago. This session looks at all of the diverse options for housing, from single family homes and active adult communities to assisted living and the new types of skilled nursing. Experts from homebuilding, healthcare and aging services providers will discuss how collaboration can create new levels of success, by providing amenities that matter and rethinking how communities can respond to many age segments. Moderator: Jeffrey DeMure, AIA, President, Jeffrey DeMure + Associates Architects Planners, Inc. Eric Snider, President, Lifestory Research Sheryl Palmer, CEO, Taylor Morrison

11:45am–12:45pm Lunch break with time to visit the exhibit floor

12:45pm–1:45pm New Solutions to New Challenges Part 2 Moderator: Gary Solomonson, Vice President Sales, Marketing & New Development, The Goodman Group Charles Bloom, Vice President of Marketing, Marquis Companies Erin Clay, Director of Research & Planning, Eskaton Jerry Walker, President, HCMA Consulting

1:45pm–3:30pm Writing the New Rulebook: Tools You Can Use Let’s talk to an architect, a planner and an interior designer about their views for this market. Presenting separately and as a team, they’ll be proving you with the kinds of tools and ideas that can help you shape your business model and understand the new models for older adult living. Moderator: Colleen Edwards, President, EMC Creative Melissa Rolenc, Senior Lead Interior Designer, Direct Supply Aptura Navy Banvard, AIA, Founding Principal, Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh, AIA Randy Sater, President, StoneBridge Properties Read more at www.pcbc.com

Research shows that baby boomers and many others are looking to being entrepreneurs for their next careers. For some it is by choice. For others it is involuntary.

This article looks at those who are having the involuntary experience. It is well worth a look.

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

Amplify’d from gooznews.com

Involuntary Self-Employment on The Rise

March 8, 2011 By GoozNews

The following appeared today in The Fiscal Times:

Nick Linebaugh, 65, is an involuntary entrepreneur. Two years after losing steady work with a home remodeling firm, he continues scouring the far-flung suburbs of Washington, D.C. for carpentry jobs, picking up an average of 20 hours of work a week. Though self-employment generates sufficient income to keep him off the unemployment rolls, it is not enough to support his two daughters’ educational aspirations, one of whom is already in college and the other a year away. Since the recession forced him to draw down his 401(k) retirement savings to maintain his family’s standard of living, he plans to continue self-employment while looking for full-time work after he starts collecting Social Security later this year. “I anticipate no retirement,” he said. “Fortunately, I’m still physically fit and I enjoy most of it, so it’s not too bad.” Linebaugh is one of a growing number of involuntary entrepreneurs working alone to pay the bills. A new survey from the Kauffman Foundation shows that entrepreneurs earning money through self-employment has grown over the past two years at its fastest pace in the 15 years since the data’s been tracked. Since nearly half the Baby Boom generation is living without pensions or has minimal retirement savings – the latest survey from the Employee Benefits Research Institute shows 42 percent of workers 45 and older have less than $25,000 in retirement assets – it’s likely this swollen army of self-employed workers will become a permanent fixture of the U.S. workforce. At the same time, the start-up of new firms that employ someone other than the sole proprietor is at a 15-year low, according to the survey. “The increase in entrepreneurship is mostly in people struggling to find work,” said Robert Fairlie, a professor of economics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who compiled the foundation’s latest report from government survey data. “This is a risky time to be starting a business where you’re hiring employees.” Source of Most New Jobs? The Obama administration is touting entrepreneurship as one way to help pull the U.S. out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. It recently launched Startup America , headed by Steve Case, who helped build AOL into the temporary kingpin of the Internet in the 1990s, and Carl Schramm of the Kauffman Foundation, to spur on formation of new small businesses, which proponents of the strategy claim are the source of most new jobs. But the latest government data indicates that most people traveling the start-up road are doing so out of necessity – not because they have a great idea or have been moved by the entrepreneurial spirit. The economic landscape is littered with consultants, freelancers and one-person contractors earning less on their own than they made as full-time employees before the 2008 financial collapse. The number of part-time self-employed rose from 33 percent to 41 percent of all self-employed workers between 2007 and 2009, with virtually all of that increase from people reporting they were working part-time because they couldn’t find enough work, according to Steven Hipple, a labor economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A rush to launch true new business start-ups, which usually takes place once an economic recovery takes off, has yet to materialize . The Kauffman Foundation survey showed the rate of firm formation dropped 23 percent between 2007 and 2010. Just one in 1,000 American adults started a business last year, down from 1.3 per 1,000 in 2003, which was the first year of recovery after the last recession. There are as many explanations for the start-up dearth as there are economists and experts who track the trends. They range from lack of access to capital to declining home values to borrow against to a lack of economic security like pensions or guaranteed health care that could cushion the fall should a small business start-up fail, as most do. But most observers say the far more important factor is sluggish economic growth in the wake of a financial crisis that has encouraged both households and businesses to spend a lot of their free cash on liquidating debt, not on goods and services. “It’s just too tough out there right now,” said Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research, a small business consulting firm in Silicon Valley, and co-author of the SmallBizLabs blog. “People aren’t seeing the demand.”

One marker of the entrepreneurial downturn is the continuing sluggishness in venture capital funding for fast-growing small businesses and start-ups. The latest report from PricewaterhouseCoopers for the National Venture Capital Association showed venture capitalists invested just $5.0 billion in 765 deals in the fourth quarter of last year, which was less than the $5.4 billion invested in 864 deals in 2009 and down significantly from the $7.8 billion poured into 1,076 deals in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Drilling down into the data reveals a major shift in entrepreneurial activity. While clean energy firms and media and entertainment start-ups are finally seeing a rebound, venture capital funding for biotechnology and medical device firms is in freefall, off 30 to 40 percent from a year ago, which itself was significantly below its pre-recession peaks.

“It can take at least ten years for something to get through clinical trials and win regulatory approval,” said Emily Mendell, vice president for strategic affairs at the NVCA. “A lot of VC firms are rethinking whether they want to invest in this area.”

The Silicon Valley view, which focuses more on clean energy, software and social media, is decidedly more upbeat. “Oddly, it’s kind of a frothy time in the Valley,” said Emergent Research’s King. “The social web is unbelievable and start-ups related to financial services and clean tech are in bidding wars for engineering talent.”

While more than a quarter of the Small Business Administration’s loan guarantees are awarded to start-up firms, the sector isn’t independently tracked by the government. But the average size of small business loans is up sharply, suggesting that larger, already established firms are more likely to take advantage of the program now rather than start-ups.

The agency guaranteed about 1,100 loans for $473 million last week compared to a weekly average during the year before the recession of nearly 1,800 loans for $361 million. “We were seeing a lot smaller businesses in those days,” a spokesman said.

Economic insecurity cuts both ways when it comes to going out on one’s own or starting a new firm. On the one hand, many established private companies have cut benefits, raised health care premiums and eliminated defined benefit pension plans, which reward longevity. That makes it easier for workers to take a chance out on their own since the allure of returning to the “good benefits” that came with a full-time job no longer exist. But some analysts say the security of having a guaranteed pension in late mid-career encouraged entrepreneurship in the past, since that is when a person has the skills and energy to explore entrepreneurship. The disappearance of that economic security may be contributing to the dearth of new businesses.

“Having that sense that there’s something to fall back on allows one to take risk,” said Ken Goldstein, a labor economist at The Conference Board, a business research outfit in New York best known for its monthly consumer confidence survey. “At least half of all people who try to start a new business for the first time fail, and 60 percent of those who fail try again.”

Yet most of the current shortfall in entrepreneurship is probably connected to the nature of this downturn. The collapse of the real estate market and construction, which in the last decade accounted for 40 percent of all business start-ups, slammed a wrecking ball into that industry’s entrepreneurial side. That means there will be continued tough times for craftsmen like Linebaugh who take the forced entrepreneurship route.

“Maybe before you could grab a hammer and nails and make a job for yourself,” said Ellen Rissman, a senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. “Now, that’s much less true.” Read more at gooznews.com

There is a boomer bias...the assumption that because you are a baby boomer you are not up to date. Unfortunately, for many of us the stereotype is not only perception but reality.

Along comes Phyllis Mufson, my pal on Twitter, to help us overcome the perception and to create a new reality. Phyllis offers 7 ways to get yourself technically up-to-date and to demonstrate that for the world to see.

Please see what great advice Phyllis has for you and me.

Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

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On this page: Phyllis Mufson offers 7 ways for you to beat the assumption that, as a Boomer, you are out-of-date technically.

Beating Boomer Bias: You're Not Technically Up-to-Date

I hate to start with the bad news, but, if you are a Baby Boomer, many employers will assume you are not technically up-to-date.

You can combat this negative perception that you are behind the times by following the step-by-step plan outlined in this two-part article. I’ll show you how to quickly develop an online presence (in this part), and, in Part 2, I'll show you how to prove your currency through your resume and in job interviews. You will also learn how to update your skills to state-of-the-art in Part 2.

Why do you need an online presence?

If you haven’t looked for a new position in awhile, you’ll find that job search methods have changed. One of the major changes is that the job search has largely moved online. Many positions are listed online, but even more important to you, 90% or more of recruiters, hiring managers and company leaders are searching for candidates and checking their qualifications and reputations online. When recruiters and hiring managers have open positions they search LinkedIn and other social sites to fill them. When they received a resume from you, a highly experienced baby boomer, and they are interested, they will research you online. And what do you think they’ll assume if they don’t find you? If they can't find you online, they'll assume that you haven’t kept up with the times. If you want to be found, and if you want to be considered up-to-date, you must have an online presence. Don’t be like 60-year-old Joe Joe lost his position as a marketing manager at a mid-sized company. A capable man with a resume full of achievement, Joe was not being interviewed for jobs he knew he was qualified for. He was certain he was being discriminated against because of his age. However; when I looked him up online before our first appointment, I found an incomplete LinkedIn profile with only seven connections. As he began raising his visibility online, he began getting responses to his inquiries. And after updating some skills and making adjustments in how he interviewed (as described in Part 2 of this article), he landed a new job. Here are the steps to take: Step 1: Google yourself. Check if and where you show up and also if you have any "digital dirt." 70% of employers state they have rejected candidates because of negative impressions they received of the candidates online. So you must vacuum up that "digital dirt." If you find information on social sites that is negative, or simply too personal, change your profile settings to "private." Push any harmful data about yourself further and further back in your search results by generating positive professional content using the methods below. Most people will not search past the third page on Google. If there are mentions of you but they don’t show up on the first Google page because your name is Jane Smith (or any common name) or Johnny Unitas (and you are not the football player), add your middle name or initial to all of your communications, on or off-line. Step 2: Set up a 100% complete LinkedIn Profile. If your profile is complete LinkedIn estimates that you are 40 times more likely to be found by recruiters and potential employers. LinkedIn states that you include the following to have a complete profile: a current position, two past positions, education, profile summary, specialties, at least three recommendations, and a profile photo. LinkedIn has great articles to answer your questions about creating your profile, and check out their guide for new users. But here are a few tips: Don’t hesitate to include a photo, thinking people will reject you because you are older. Instead focus on conveying the relevance of your experience to today’s challenges. If you are unemployed, list your current position as “Seeking an opportunity as…" Doing the above is the minimum requirement. Here are a few additional ideas to add clout to your profile and show employers you are up to date in your field. Join LinkedIn groups in your industry and participate in questions and answers to demonstrate your expertise. Use your ‘Status Updates’ (a section in your LinkedIn Home Page where you can post information and share it with others) to show your relevance. Here you can write about when you attend a conference or professional event, take a class, read a new industry publication, etc. Add your resume to your LinkedIn profile. Step 3: Set up your Google Profile Now that you’ve done the hard part of creating a LinkedIn profile, you can use the same information in another online venue, Google Profile. Once you’ve completed these steps you’ve covered the basics. Congratulations! The following are suggestions that will immediately signal to employers that you are keeping up with developments in your field. Step 4: Write comments (signing your full name) on respected blogs in your field. If you’re not sure what people in your industry are reading, search on Alltop. Use the alphabetical directory on the top search bar to find blogs in your field, and consider forming your own MyAlltop which will give you a custom URL where you can show off your savvy by your choice of industry publications. Step 5: Write Amazon.com reviews of books in your field. Again, use your full name. Step 6: If you like to write start a blog. If starting a blog is too much of a commitment write articles and post as a ‘guest blogger’ or in article directories like EzineArticles.com. If these suggestions appear overwhelming, start with a single step, or part of a step, and then go on from there – and feel free to begin in any order. Which brings me to a final, very easy and exciting step. Step 7: Set up a Google Alert on your name. With your Google Alerts, you’ll get email notification every time you are mentioned online. It is exciting to see your name on the Internet – and if you follow the steps outlined above you will be mentioned. Bottom Line Watch your presence grow and know that employers will perceive you as relevant and up-to-date. You’ll find this feedback very motivating.  You may not change how employers view older workers as a group, but you can certainly change how they view you. For More Information Job-Hunt's LinkedIn for Job Search expert Laura Smith-Proulx has written articles that will help you in developing your LinkedIn profile further and other tips for using LinkedIn for your job search.  For additional help with Google Alerts, see Job-Hunt's articles on Setting Up Google Alerts and 5 Ways to Leverage Google Alerts for Your Job Search.  For more help with your online reputation, see Online Reputation Management. © Copyright, 2011, Phyllis Mufson. Used with permission. ------------------------------ About This Author: Phyllis Mufson is a career / business consultant and a certified life coach with over 25 years of experience. She has helped hundreds of clients successfully navigate career transitions. You can learn more about Phyllis and her practice at http://PhyllisMufson.coachesconsole.com and follow Phyllis on Twitter @PhyllisMufson. Read more at www.job-hunt.org

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2011/02_youn...

Who will be the leaders replacing the transitioning Baby Boomers? What are they thinking?

The Brookings Institute has some interesting ideas. Take a look at their recent survey.

Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)

Now, dear baby boomer, why would you want to know how to become a completely average entrepreneur? The answer is so you know how to avoid what the average entrepreneur does to become average.

In business development, much of our learning is about what people instinctively do because they have not taken time to sit down and think about what they ARE doing. This article will give you three wonderful examples of what makes average entrepreneurs AVERAGE.

Granted, the examples are from some relatively large companies, the principles are equally true for your new start up. In fact, with much shallower pockets to protect in the early stage of your business, these three thing could harm you even faster.

Please check it out.

Shallie Bey
Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs
http://www.Squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs

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Three Ways To Be A Completely Average Entrepreneur

Steve Parker, Jr., Asking Smarter Questions | Feb. 11, 2011, 2:11 PM

Yep, you read that right. Don’t question a thing. I’m about to tell you that what you’re doing, what you think is so great, is only average. So, sit back in your big leather chair, gaze out your corner office window and say to yourself, “That’s right, I’m a winner! I’m king of the world. I’m the big cheese,” because I’m about to prove you wrong and send your chair spinning.

Sure, you created a brand, you service customers, you make a profit; by all accounts you’ve made it right? Wrong. You’re there for right now but it’s up to how you communicate that will keep you there in the future. How are you going to stay there if you rest on what you did yesterday?

Every single day businesses make fundamental errors in judgment when it comes to customer service, providing said service and communicating clearly and constructively with their customers and vendors.

What follows are three examples of how to be just average:

1. Believing that using technology makes you better. In fact, this does not make you better; it just makes it more visible that you are average.

Case in point: I flew to the Bahamas last week on vacation and had purchased my tickets on Expedia. Upon my return to the USA I arrived at the airport and found out I didn’t have a reservation (even though I had clearly paid for one with receipt in-hand to prove it). I came to find out Expedia sold me a route on Continental Airlines that no longer exists (and hadn’t for months). Thus, I didn’t really have a solid reservation (neither did my wife and two small kids). Not fun! Continental figured it out and got me home (thanks, Continental), but then Expedia did exactly what I mentioned above. They used technology (in this case Twitter) to make visible just how average they are.

Shortened Transcript of my Conversation with Expedia: @sparkerjr: “Thx @expedia for screwing up my flight home from the Bahamas with 2 kids, you made the end not fun.” @expedia: sorry to hear that please DM us with your itinerary# and descrip of what happened. @sparkerjr: my trip was from MHH to WPB to CLT to CHS. Airline didn’t have record of my flights. Itinerary #0ABCXYZ0. @expedia: thanks for the information, we’ll pass along to customer care. @sparkerjr: when should I expect a response? @expedia: we will let you know if we get an update regarding your case. And that’s where it ended. You may say, well they responded to you, Steve, you should be happy. True, they responded, as they should. I paid for customer service when I bought my tickets through Expedia. But they have not communicated to me anything of value in my customer service experience. My expectation was clear in my last message, “When should I expect a response?” Their last message failed me. The elephant in the room is the word “IF”—“IF we get an update.” They left me wondering if average was their best.

You hear in social media circles all the time to ‘be a listening brand’ and I’ll agree – Expedia is listening, but they are not clearly communicating. What’s more important is to communicate clearly with your customers and meet their expectations especially when their inquiries are basic and reasonable. A simple “in 24, 48 hrs or 2 weeks” would have sufficed. Instead Expedia chose to be average.

IF we get an update = average.

2. Thinking your customers are happy. The reality is that in this day of information access there is someone who will very likely treat your customers better, service them faster and possibly cheaper – or your customer may be someone like me and simply be willing to pay a little more to get better service.

Case in point: My company spent approximately $9 million dollars on our American Express cards last year. AMEX treats us really well, but they don’t rely on thinking we will simply be around next year. They involve us in educational events, they call us and they email us to check in on needs – every month. Meanwhile, the bank we had used for the past seven years (a bank that wanted us to use Visa all the time) in which we have many more millions deposited at any given moment and have invested in a number of CD’s, etc…rarely, if ever, called us and rarely, if ever, checked except with a problem.

Guess who recently got replaced? It’s not that we wanted to change, we were just left without options. We didn’t have that feeling of satisfaction (they never communicated with us anything of value). We needed a bank focused on our needs. A bank willing to go beyond just holding our money and using us as a source of it. We didn’t expect the world, we just wanted a partner that cared and would communicate that they wanted to improve upon our business needs. (see Partnerships: It’s About Building Relationships article on ASQ)

Don’t assume your customers are happy – know that they’re happy. How do you know? You ask! You communicate and you let them know they are important by listening to their concerns and needs. That doesn’t mean you provide for ALL those needs, but you let them know which needs you can fulfill. It’s important to communicate.

Special Note: Studies have shown time and time again that the cost to acquire a new customer are 5 – 10X the amount to retain a current one.Seriously, stop and re-read that last sentence. It is that important.

3. Failing to realize you’re treating your customers like second class citizens.  Many businesses treat their best customers like second class citizens without even realizing it.  Offering 50% off the first order for “new customers” is a slap in the face to your best and most loyal customers. Offering $100 cash back or a free flight to a new customer while charging your best and most frequent customers full rate without any bonus is merit-less.

In fact, and this is humorous because I know you too have experienced the same, here’s a common scenario: You’re a customer of a business but you receive an email, snail mail or call from that business asking you to become a customer and if you do they will give you X. “Ummm, I’m already a customer, can I still get X?” you ask. Their answer, “No.” Of course not, you’re not a “new customer.” This is a huge failure because…

a) The brand has just created a relationship with the new customer based on a gimmick and, b) They’ve managed to also alienate their best customer. How does this make any sense even in the most bizarre world? I’m a big fan of Seth Godin and in one of his latest blog posts he wrote: “If you define “best customer” as the customer who pays you the most, then I guess it’s not surprising that the reflex instinct is to charge them more. After all, they’re happy to pay. But what if you define “best customer” as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals and who sticks with you through thick and thin? That customer, I think, is worth far more than what she might pay you in any one transaction. In fact, if you think of that customer as your best marketer instead, it might change everything.” Well said Seth, as always. Thank you for the contribution. Clearly, none of us want our businesses to be average, but if you want to be better you have to begin Asking Smarter Questions and challenge what you believe to be right – don’t simply trust everything on instinct, challenge things and get a partner to help you create that challenge. It is not easy to tackle all these issues at once. But to eat an elephant, you have to do it one bite at a time. I’d appreciate your feedback and response below, or via Twitter @sparkerjr. Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups | Get Alerts for these topics » Read more at www.businessinsider.com

Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs, can you craft an eight word mission statement? If you can, you may be on the way to new levels of clarity about your business. And with clarity comes success. Give it a try!

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

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The Eight-Word Mission Statement 9:12 AM Friday October 22, 2010 by Eric Hellweg  | Comments (51View)

Day one of the PopTech conference in Camden, Maine was a polyglot delight. Presentations covered topics as far afield as the establishment of jaguar preserves to the neurological patterns that occur when humans encounter non-expected data. Fascinating stuff. My colleague Associate Editor Sarah Green and I have been Tweeting the conference in process. You can follow our real-time reports at twitter.com/skgreen and twitter.com/ehellweg, respectively.

One of the many presenters who spoke on a topic of real interest to the HBR community was Kevin Starr, the executive director of the Mulago Foundation. Mulago channels investments to socially minded businesses. It looks for opportunities to invest in "lasting change that goes to scale." The social sector is a young sector, and as such, is awash with many different ideas, companies, and approaches. There's also a strong amount of investment in the sector, and like any burgeoning field, there's a range of quality when it comes to the approaches to and efficacy of the various companies.

Mulago has a compelling approach to help it winnow out the pitches and approaches of lesser quality, and it revolves around the mission statement and a very simple way to stay focused on a single issue. Most companies, regardless of their sectors, have a mission statement. And most are awash in jargon and marble-mouthed pronouncements. Worse still, these gobbledy-gook statements are often forgotten by, misremembered, or flatly ignored by frontline employees.

To combat this, Starr insists that companies he funds can express their mission statement in under eight words. They also must follow this format: "Verb, target, outcome." Some examples: "Save endangered species from extinction" and "Improve African children's health."

The mission statement is a key part of Mulago's approach, but it's not the only part. Once the mission statement is established, Starr insists that companies that get investment "measure the right thing" and "measure it well."

Mulago's approach is refreshingly sparse, and really helps to clarify the thinking. It's a great "forcing function" as well. As Starr spoke, you could almost see PopTech attendees workshopping their mission statements, trying to get them down to under eight words in this format. It can be quite hard to do.

How long is your company's current mission statement? Do you think you could get it down to under eight words using the "verb, target, outcome" format? It's a good exercise to consider running, if only to start real conversations at your company about what you're doing, to/for whom, and toward what outcome. Fascinating approach.

Eric Hellweg is the editor of hbr.org. Read more at blogs.hbr.org

We are talking more and more about the baby boomer who wants to become semi-retired and become an entrepreneur. But what happens when a baby boomer who is already an entrepreneur wants to retire?

In many cases the answer is to organize the business so that they do not have to work in the business full time. Then they redefine themselves, often as a different entrepreneur.

This article interviews an entrepreneur going through that transition. Learn about the challenges she is facing and who is there to help her.

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

Amplify’d from www.cnbc.com

For Entrepreneurs Near Retirement, What's Next?

Monday, 10 Jan 2011 | 3:16 PM ET

By: Sharon Epperson CNBC Personal Finance Correspondent

Many entrepreneurs, whether it's five, 10 or 20 years into a successful business or franchise, wake up one day and wonder: "What's next?"

Figuring out the next chapter can be a financial and emotional challenge.

Jean Moran, 58, has spent more than three decades in one business and more than 20 years at the helm of LMI Packaging, a manufacturing business based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisc.

With a tenure like Moran's, many Baby Boomers would be planning their exit, but, for her, retirement is not even on her radar.

"I am used to being a problem-solver and working in the daily issues of the business," Moran says. "My fiduciary responsibility in this family-owned business is to make sure it goes on into the next generation."

For entrepreneurs who live and breathe their business every day, retirement can certainly be a daunting proposition. Letting go of day-to-day operations for Moran has been difficult, yet essential.

"A necessary part right now for this business is that I allow the executive staff that I have put in place to do that problem-solving and not get in their way," she says. "So that these guys can thrive and grow this business."

To help her make a smooth transition, Moran turned to retired business owners who've already done it. Bruce Leech and Dave Jackson are the founders of Evolve USA, a mentoring group for seasoned entrepreneurs based in suburban Chicago. Both made the transition successfully, but not without some bumps.

Sharon Epperson CNBC Personal Finance Correspondent

"One day I had 400 employees working for me, and the next day the phone didn't ring. It was a very weird place to be," says Leech, who ran a telecom company. "I just wish I had been with some people that had been through that experience before me and with me to be able to process what was going on."

Most members of Evolve USA have owned, operated and sold businesses. They also have grappled with that question: "If I am not my business, who am I?" Jackson, a former CEO of a home healthcare company, sold the business and became an investor. He and Leech started Evolve USA as a gut check for business owners interested in selling or defining a new role for themselves within their business.

"There is a time where maybe we need to transition or change the game plan," Jackson says. "It's creating a new way to do what we do so well."

Through Evolve USA, Moran has learned to step back and see more clearly the goals she wants, not only for her business, but her life. "The Evolve group really had me take a look at where will I create a new outlet for myself, so that I can work on whatever it is that juices my life," she says.

"In no way am I ready to just sit back and retire." Read more at www.cnbc.com

If you listen to the advice of some of the smartest gurus on business development, you constantly here the message of working on your business and not in it. Unfortunately this story is about a lady who worked on it but more so in it. She has to now reverse over a short time some of the things that might have been reversed before she was ready to sell her business.

So will you learn from the price she has paid and is will to share with you so that you can avoid the problem? If you follow the advice she is receiving, CAN YOUR BUSINESS BE SOLD?

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Visit Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

Amplify’d from boss.blogs.nytimes.com

January 10, 2011, 12:04 pm

an This Business Be Sold? B

Can This Business Be Sold?

By BARBARA TAYLOR

David Walter Banks for The New York Times

Ann Price: “I need to get enough to retire on.”

Last week, NBC Nightly News featured the story of Ann Price, who is proprietor of Ann’s Snack Bar in Atlanta and has been struggling to sell her business. While Ann’s is a beloved regional icon, both the NBC Nightly News feature and this New York Times video that was published in November (along with this article) offer some wonderfully visual examples of classic problems that can make it very hard to sell a small business.

Problem No. 1: The business revolves around the owner.

The personality of Ann’s Snack Bar appears to reflect her no-frills, I’ll-do-it-my-way approach to business ownership. The interior of the building has a small counter with just eight stools. Ms. Price, known to her many fans as “Miss Ann,” is content to let customers wait in line two to three hours for one of her signature “Ghetto Burgers.”

Ms. Price, who is in her late 60s, runs the business pretty much by herself. In essence, she has created a job, not a business. That’s O.K.; there’s nothing wrong with what’s sometimes called a “lifestyle business.” In fact, there are plenty of people looking to buy a job for themselves and be their own boss. But Ms. Price’s job has entailed working 12- to 13-hour days for 38 years, with no vacation. This is not a job that most people would be willing to pay for.

Solution: Remove yourself from daily operations.

Ms. Price may want to pop in around lunchtime to chat with her loyal customers, but she needs to hire employees and let them do the actual work. She may have a hard time doing this, given her business philosophy: “You can’t depend on someone else, you’ve got to do it yourself,” she says in the Times video. But if she really wants to sell her business, she will have to structure it so that it can run without her.

Problem No. 2: The asking price is based on what the owner needs to retire.

The business was originally priced at $1.5 million; she is now asking $450,000. Obviously we don’t have any background on these valuations, but we do have Ms. Price’s own words: “I have all my money – all my savings – tied up in the business,” she told NBC. “I need to get enough to retire on, or I’ll keep running the business.”

This is a common attitude among small-business owners. The tendency is to approach the issue of pricing the business for sale based on what the owner wants, or needs, not on what a willing and able buyer would reasonably pay. In my experience, this is not a winning strategy.

Solution: Have the business professionally valued and consider creative deal terms.

The most common approach to valuing a small business is based on a multiple of earnings. If the cash flow of the business cannot support the purchase price — including mortgage payments if real property is involved — then it may be difficult for Ms. Price to sell.

If she needs a lump sum of money for retirement that she cannot get through the sale of the business, Ms. Price may want to consider what kind of monthly or annual income she needs to maintain her current lifestyle. Perhaps she could sell the business, hold back a portion of the purchase price with a promissory note, and collect monthly payments on both the note and a lease on the real property. It’s hard to make suggestions when you don’t have all of the facts in front of you, but the point is that Ms. Price may be able to sell her business if she’s willing to consider alternatives to getting all cash at closing.

On the one hand, Ms. Price provides a wonderful portrait of an authentically American, entrepreneurial free spirit. She serves up wisdom, as well as burgers, with irresistible frankness and charm. “You can’t let a handful of no-good customers run you away,” she tells us. Amen to that. On the other hand, like a lot of business owners, she probably could have positioned her business better for sale.

Still, I congratulate Ms. Price on building a much-loved institution that has inspired decades of support from her community. And I hope the next story I read about her and her business tells of a happy ending.

What do you think? Can Ann’s Snack Bar be sold?

Barbara Taylor is co-owner of a business brokerage, Synergy Business Services, in Bentonville, Ark. Here is her guide to selling a business. Read more at boss.blogs.nytimes.com

Baby boomer entrepreneur, business owners are told over and over that people buy from those they know, like and trust. But how do YOU get started so that people will know, like, and trust you? In this article Guy Kawasaki gives you some helpful hints.

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Follow Shallie Bey on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/ShallieBey)
Visit: Join The baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-entrepreneurs)

Amplify’d from www.openforum.com

How to Be Fascinating

Guy Kawasaki Co-Founder (Alltop) see profile | recent posts

The primary goal of your social media activities—whether for your personal brand or your organization’s brand—is to establish yourself as a fascinating subject-matter expert. The only exception to this is if you are a household name celebrity like Lance Armstrong, Oprah or Barack Obama. If you are this level of celebrity, then tweeting or updating, “I'm at Starbucks on the way to fly VirginAmerica to Vegas” is cool.

May 11, 2010

For the rest of us, the challenge is to achieve a consistent level of fascinating information about your area of expertise. The answer is simple. First, it helps if you actually know what you're talking about. If you don't, it may be better to let people wonder if you're clueless rather than participating in social media and removing all doubt. But let's say you've crossed the Rubicon.

Then it's all about finding good stories, videos and blog posts about your subject and providing links to these sources. For example, if you own a restaurant, then you could post a link to The Second Annual New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt, Cilantro Haters, It’s Not Your Fault, and Check It Out: Get Your Groceries At The Library. Do this for a few months, and people will recognize you as a food expert. And guess what? They’ll come eat at your restaurant.

Then the next question is how you can find these stories, videos, and blog posts. I have four methods for you to use:

StumbleUpon. If you sign up for the service, you can tell it the subjects you’re interested in. Then when you “stumble,” it will only take you to pages that other StumbleUpon users have liked in that subject. To really use StumbleUpon well, gets its toolbar. Like 14,846,969 others, I use the Firefox version because it lets me pick categories and share pages via Twitter, Facebook and email.

SmartBrief. SmartBrief is a company that’s in the business of providing associations with good content for its members. As such, they have subject matter experts who search every day for good content. All you have to do is go to its website or subscribe to its email newsletters to benefit from their effort and expertise.

Interns. You could hire people—usually interns—to find stuff for you. For $10 to $20/hour, there are lots of starving, smart people who will comb the Internet to look for good content. They’ll probably use StumbleUpon, SmartBrief, and other tools, but what do you care if they’re doing what you could easily do for yourself? If you did everything you could do yourself, you’d be licking stamps too.

Alltop. Alltop is the online version of the magazine rack in your bookstore except that it has 900 subjects and is free. It aggregates news by topics, presents the five most recent stories from the best websites and blogs about a subject, and gives you a preview of each story. Going back to the food example, I found all those stories using Food.alltop in less than two minutes. (Disclosure: I am the co-founder of Alltop.)

The test for your social media efforts is whether people find what you post so fascinating that they retweet it (or favor it, share it, or email it). Trust me, today the sincerest form of flattery is retweeting, not imitating, you. With these four resources, you’ll rock. Read more at www.openforum.com

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling is celebrated as the first baby boomer. Get her take on what it is all about in this Baltimore Sun Interview.

Shallie Bey

Smarter Small Business Blog (http://businessrebirth.blogspot.com)
Follow Shallie Bey on Twitter (http:www.twitter.com/ShallieBey)
Visit: Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs (http://www.squidoo.com/Baby-Boomer-Entrepreneurs)

Amplify’d from articles.baltimoresun.com

Nation's first baby boomer turns 65

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling's birthday represents milestone for generation

January 07, 2011|By Hanah Cho, The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis

The nation's original baby boomer turned 65 on New Year's Day, representing another milestone for a generation. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, who celebrated her birthday with family at her second home on Maryland's Eastern Shore, is the very first of more than 78 million baby boomers who will turn grayer during the next two decades. According to the Pew Research Center, about 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day. All baby boomers, those who were born between 1946 and 1965, will reach that threshold by 2030. That means they can collect Social Security — and now Medicare benefits. Despite a recent Pew survey that found baby boomers feel more downbeat than other generations about their future, Casey-Kirschling is taking a different approach. "I'm OK with knowing that I don't know what tomorrow will bring," the retired teacher said from her home in Earleville in Cecil County. "I'm going to live for today. And I'm thankful that I could live for today, and I am healthy."

Casey-Kirschling retired at 60 and two years later began taking her Social Security benefits early. Since then, she has volunteered, spent time with her six grandchildren and traveled with her husband, Patrick.

Because of the "first baby boomer" distinction, Casey-Kirschling has garnered a lot of media attention over the years. Since her late 30s, she has been featured in Money and People magazines, as well as in other national and regional publications and on television stations.

And this year was no different. She had just given an interview to NPR when she spoke with The Baltimore Sun about dealing with her celebrity, her generation and what it means to hit the 65-year threshold.

Question: How do you deal with all the media attention?

Answer: In the beginning, it was overwhelming. But I said I'm just going to be who I am and do what I can, especially for Social Security. They asked me to do public service [ads] for the generation and help baby boomers apply [for benefits] online and get direct deposit.

Whatever I could do, I would try to have a positive impact. So many things are negative in the nation today. Like all human beings, we are not a perfect generation. We certainly created so much, built so much and have an incredible work ethic to this day.

Q: Do you feel pressure to represent your generation?

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