1. Turn What You Most Enjoy into a Business. If possible, turn your favorite hobby or interest into a business. There's nothing better than getting paid to do what you most enjoy. When teacher John Lewis neared retirement, he became interested in how people could remain vibrant and active after they retired. He found that knowing what to do was a problem for many retired people, so instead of retiring, he began doing retirement counseling.

Ideas for Turning a Hobby or Interest into a Business

• Creating arts and crafts
• Becoming a travel guide
• Selling antiques or collectibles
• Selling cosmetics
• Interior decorating
• Teaching dance and exercise classes
• Selling collectibles on eBay
• Offering tennis lessons
• Breeding, training, and grooming dogs
• Giving singing or instrumental music lessons
• Appraising collections (stamps, coins, art)
• Running a recording studio
• Operating a "niche" website
• Soapmaking

2. Turn Your Existing Job Skills into a Business. Accountants, communications specialists, engineers, graphic artists, health-care personnel, lawyers, programmers, sales and marketing professionals, scientists, secretaries, teachers—people from all walks of life—are turning their salaried jobs into profitable independent businesses. What job are you doing now? Consider how you could turn it into an entrepreneurial venture.

Gil Gordon was a personnel director; he became a telecommuting consultant. Doug Savarese is a financial software programmer and analyst; he started a sideline business writing custom software applications for fund managers. Karen Youngblood was a full-time mother; she runs a day nursery. Peggy Glenn was a secretary; she started a secretarial service, wrote a book about how others could do it, and is now a nationally known speaker, writer, and publisher. 

Sometimes losing your job, or the threat of losing it, creates the momentum to start a home business. Sue Rugge started the highly successful research service, Information on Demand, after losing her job as a librarian owing to heavy cutbacks in the aerospace industry. In seven years, she and her partner turned the $250 they used to start the business into over half a million dollars' worth of sales. Reflecting back on the day she was laid off, Sue remembers, "I felt strongly that the only way I would ever have the job security and salary level I wanted was to work for myself. In other words, if you can't get a job, create one!" "Fundamentally, all business is concerned with problem solving."

Jack Nadel, Business Author

Work Sheet: What Would You Enjoy?

Here are some questions to help identify what you enjoy most:

• What do you get so involved in and intrigued with that you lose track of time?
• What do you do first when you get to a new city you've never been to before?
• What are you doing when you feel most like yourself?
• What are you doing when you like yourself the most?
• What are you doing when you feel most alive and energized?
• What do you like to talk about? What are other people talking about that draws you into the conversation?
• What do you take immediate action on? What do you delay doing?
• What do you do during your time off? When you're on vacation?
• What do you read? What newspaper or magazine headlines catch your eye?
• What do you collect? What mementos and photographs do you keep around your home and office?

While Marsha Zlotnick was fighting to survive a life-threatening disease, she discovered that recovering involved many changes in what she could eat and other daily habits, but there were few places for people like herself to turn to for information, support, and assistance in making those changes. When she recovered, she turned her kitchen, dining room, and living room into a center for helping others conquer illnesses. She teaches cooking classes, offers courses in relaxation, acupressure, and massage, provides counseling, and has an extensive bookstore where people can get current information about getting and staying healthy.

Contributed by:
Paul and Sarah Edwards
Best Home Businesses for People 50+

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