By Lou Carlozo
At an age when others might ready for pre-retirement, some folks pass age 50
determined to start a new life in the business world - and succeed beyond their
rosiest business plan projections.
Reuters spoke with four entrepreneurs who have created successful businesses
after 50.
And take note: Three of the four leaders featured here are women, having
shattered the twin glass ceilings of gender and age.
Though some of these folks did well in their former lives, others had to
think creatively to start their businesses.
Jill Boehler, for example, used seed money from her son's college fund, while
Carol Gardner offered pieces of her business in exchange for essential start-up
services.
Read on for their interesting, real-life stories.
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Carol Gardner, 66
HER STORY: While nursing a broken femur and a broken heart
(she'd just divorced her husband of 27 years), Gardner got an English Bulldog
named Zelda, who became the mascot of a humorous greeting card land gift line,
Zelda Wisdom.
A former advertising creative director, Gardner started the business at age
52 around 1997, and almost by accident: Cash-strapped, she entered a Christmas
card contest held by a pet store to win free dog food for a year, and won.
TODAY: Gardner started her company with 24 greeting cards in
the middle of her living room.
Within six months, she sold more than one million cards. Today she produces
more than 200 licensed Zelda products, from calendars to children's books. Sales
are conservatively estimated at US$50 million (S$64.4 million) annually.
TOP TIPS: Listen to your customers.
"The young ones said,'Why can't we buy greeting cards online?'" Gardner
recalls.
That led to a lucrative deal with http: Cardstore.com, which was bought out
by card giant American Greetings.
Gardner also advises building a close-knit circle of trust. She's worked with
publicist Sandi Serling and photographer Shane Young since the start.
"I couldn't offer them money, so I gave them a part of the company. We're the
best of friends and we take care of each other."
PRICELESS: The original Zelda died two years ago, but not
before saving Garner's life. Gardner fell out of bed and broke her neck roughly
four years ago.
When she came to, "Zelda was butting me in the head. For the next two hours
she stayed with me until I clawed my way to the phone and called 911."
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Franny Martin, 65
HER STORY: A former marketing professional who worked with
Domino's Pizza, Martin left the corporate world just shy of turning 56 to pursue
her passion - baking cookies.
TODAY: Martin's Cookies on Call, based in Douglas, Michigan,
ships 40 cookie varieties all over the world and should surpass $700,000 in
sales for 2011. She provides work for more than a dozen part-time and full-time
employees. She started the company in 2002.
TOP TIPS: Get a great business team and ask for sage
advice.
"Make sure that you have the best accountant, the best lawyer and the best
web designer," Martin says. She also enlisted held from Michigan's Department of
Agriculture.
Inspector Larry Goldin suggested Martin rent an elementary school kitchen,
which saved her "hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was already licensed and
all I had to do was come in, bake my cookies and clean up afterward."
ROLLING IN DOUGH: Martin's recipes can't be copied because
they go back two generations to her maternal Italian grandmother, Maria Ginotti,
who wrote everything by hand. But you can fool your guests by buying her newest
product in development, "scoop and bake" - it's raw dough in ready-to-cook form.
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Jill Boehler, 59
HER STORY: A self-described "do gooder," Boehler spent her
career as a speech pathologist until she got the inspiration to make "portable
shawls" (wrinkle-free wraps that come with a tiny carrying bag) after she
shivered through a meal at a restaurant because the air conditioning was too
high.
Soon she was making cold calls at fashion stores; she was 54 when she started
in 2006.
TODAY: The founder of Chilly Jilly sold more than US$500,000
(S$650,000) in products in 2010 and is constantly unrolling new products, from
gloves to the Duelette bracelet and hair tie. Boehler works with 20 private
contractors across the country.
TOP TIPS: Toughen up.
"You will have people who will come up to you and say mean things - all the
reasons you should not do something - and I've had friends tell me, 'Why not go
back to speech? You were really good at it.'"
STARTING AFTER AGE 50: "It's the perfect time to do it. My
kids were gone and I could start working at 3 o'clock and work until 1 in the
morning. My husband was into it, and I don't have to wait for kids at the bus
stop, change diapers, or take them to activities."
FROM PATHOLOGIST TO TASK-OLOGIST: The day of her interview,
Boehler was dashing around her warehouse to check inventory, and prepping for an
all-nighter so she could appear on QVC at 4:30 a.m.
"Sometimes my computer screen looks like 'The Brady Bunch' credits, because I
Skype with so many people at the same time." |
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Wally Blume, 73
HIS STORY: The one-time dairy marketer struck out on his own
in 1996 to form Denali Flavors, a company that specializes in making ice cream
ingredients and flavors for independent dairies. He was 57.
TODAY: With Denali sales at between US$80 and US$100
million, Blume credits much of his success to Moose Tracks - the flavor he
helped develop and popularise as his company took root.
"You have a flavor that is almost as strong as vanilla, and the national
brands will never be able to get it. As soon as we developed it, it just took
off."
TOP TIPS: Know your industry. "You have to figure out if
there's a niche you can take advantage of," Blume says. "All our partners knew
the industry and had been in it all our working lives."
He also stresses training and hiring people you can trust to mind the store.
"I have such good people working for me that I'm hardly involved with ice cream.
They just run it and they do a better job than I can."
ANOTHER FLAVOUR?: Eight years past retirement age, Blume is
an avid philanthropist, giving to various organisations around the world, from
orphanages in Latvia to helping homeless kids in Moscow.
He has also started a brand new company, Brandi Renee Designs: "I'm jumping
into women's fashions on the Internet. How's that for diversity?"
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