5 Reasons You Should Start a Microbusiness

“For 1 out of 4 folks who are over the age of 70, what’s driving them into this particular [microbusiness] activity is that they don’t want to become stale or become irrelevant,” Brown says. “They want to have something that is active that they can contribute towards.”

For owners in their 50s and 60s, earning extra income was more important than staying active. Eighteen percent of owners ages 50–59 said they run businesses for extra money, while only 5 percent said they do it to stay active. For the 60–69 group, 19 percent do it for the additional income while 14 percent of respondents said they run businesses to stay engaged.

2. Being your own boss is less important for older microbusiness owners.

While entrepreneurs bear the ultimate responsibility for their businesses, that authority isn’t what motivates them to start businesses later in life. Among microbusiness owners younger than 50, roughly 43 percent said they started the business because they wanted to be their own boss. But that share shrinks steadily with each age group, dropping to 37 percent for those 50–59, 32 percent for owners 60–69 and just 25 percent for owners age 70 and up.

3. Nearly 3 in 10 older owners make over $4,000 per month from their microbusiness.

According to the survey, 34 percent of older microbusiness owners are earning significant annual income. The experience they have built through previous jobs or businesses is paying off later in life.

“Whether it’s to supplement the retirement income they’re getting from their 401(k) or savings they’ve accrued over their lifetime,” the income is meaningful, Brown says. “That this population is able to generate these kinds of results is a strong signal that their experience pays off and creates these more robust and healthy communities in which they exist.”

Only 27.8 percent of microbusiness owners under the age of 50 who had some previous entrepreneurship experience were earning more than $4,000 per month.

4. Marketing and technology are the biggest challenges for older microbusiness owners.

When asked to name their biggest challenge, 66 percent of owners 60–69 and 63 percent of owners age 70 and older cited marketing their business. Only 52 percent of the 50–59 group said marketing was the top hurdle, a share that was comparable to the number of owners under the age of 50 who said the same (55 percent).

Older microbusiness owners also tended to be less comfortable setting up their businesses online. Only 25 percent of respondents age 50 and older said getting online was their top challenge. But 37 percent of owners in their 60s, 36 percent of those age 70 and older, and 30 percent of microbusiness owners in their 50s picked getting online as a top challenge.

5. Access to capital is less of a challenge for older owners.

For younger owners, raising capital to launch their businesses can be one of the key obstacles. Roughly 29 percent of those under age 50 said gaining access to capital was their biggest challenge. Only 15 percent of owners age 70 and older and 20 percent of those in their 60s said capital was a top obstacle.