Viv at the neighbouring village show
I set up Silver Startups in January 2019 to lift my spirits after discovering I didn’t like being retired, and to further connect with the world outside the little village where I live. It took months to design my website, create content and learn enough about social media to launch it. My main purpose was to be a blogger – to observe the world of older people seeking new beginnings through entrepreneurship, understand their challenges, and then write insightful posts they would hopefully find useful.
But I soon realised that reading articles, papers and newsfeeds wasn’t enough. And as much as I enjoy studying market trends and consumer behaviours, I need input from real people to fully understand their needs and how to make my blog posts relevant.
My challenge was to find these people. As a volunteer for the Prince’s Trust I already mentor young entrepreneurs, and I have years of experience as a consultant and coach working with business owners and managers, but where would I find people in my target demographic (i.e. people aged 50+ who are unemployed, approaching retirement or retired)? And what would I do once I found them? I added a coaching service to my website and started searching for them on Facebook and Twitter.
I set up a Facebook page and after experimenting with boosted posts, which brought traffic to my site but no engagement, and an advert which didn’t work for me, I joined some groups which I found useful. Through these groups I met some great people, wrote case studies about their successes, and started coaching two of them at no charge. My purpose was to learn about their needs rather than to generate income.
The problem is, I’m not a natural networker and eventually found the group scene too contrived and, I’m afraid, a little boring. I considered starting my own group but haven’t proceeded and won’t until I can conceive of a group that I would really want to join.
At first I was totally mystified but since then Twitter has introduced me to clever people and organisations who share, at least in part, the same interest as me. I have learnt a lot from their posts and links about older people and work; ageism; how purposelessness in retirement can affect mental health and cognitive skills; how an increasing number of retired people are becoming self-employed or setting up businesses; and, most importantly, the lack of support available to them.
Most of my followers are genuine, although I have no idea why Prince Harry “I'm Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, KCVO ADC I'm a member of the British royal family” or Gen John kenn “I'm in simple and nice looking man who wish to live life to the fullest” are following little old me 😉.
Although some followers may well be older people looking to set up in business, the only interaction I seem to have is with gerontologists, third sector organisations, influencers and bloggers. I had a few discussions with a professor I met on Twitter (and in person) about a research project, but no further progress has been made.
Twitter has its uses but it’s not delivering the people I am targeting, and I am now also finding that many tweets are repackaged repeats, and that I am getting the same old news over and over again.
Sometimes I think I should just return to reading novels rather than tweets before bed ☹ .
As a business to business consultant, I have been on LinkedIn for many years. It’s a great social media platform but I don’t think it’s the right one for Silver Startups.
Business Incubator Project
It occurred to me that if I could set up a business incubator for older people, I would be in a better position to learn about the type of support they need, and this would inform my writing. I read all the research papers I could find on the subject and realised that sustainability would be an issue, and that the project would require ongoing funding. Although there would be benefits to individuals, communities and the economy, gaining the necessary funding would be challenging and the amount of effort on my part to set up, launch and then run one seemed like hard work – and do I really want to work that hard? Well no. But maybe…
There is another unsettling issue. I did arrange and attend meetings with various people in the third and public sector about the business incubator idea as well as a more sustainable project helping people set up community businesses. I found myself in the middle of internal disputes and oddly, suspecting that some people felt threatened by me. Perhaps I was mistaken?
In any case, that was enough to put me off chasing support. At least for now….
SO, WHERE AM I NOW?
Writing this post made me realise that I need to raise my marketing game and attract and engage with more visitors to my website. After nine months, I must admit to these statistics:
Average monthly visitors to the site: about 100
LinkedIn followers: 307
Twitter followers: 150
Mailing list subscribers: 12 (aarrrggghhh).
Facebook likes: don’t ask ☹, but I won’t sell my soul for likes (but if you like my page I will be very grateful 😊)
OK, I have a long way to go, but I won’t give up because I enjoy getting involved, writing posts, developing my skills and capabilities and focusing on issues I care about. The world outside my little Derbyshire village has lots of problems and still needs older people like me to contribute to its vital causes.
I will keep you posted about my progress. Meanwhile, I would love hear from you so please leave any comments or suggestions in the comments box below or email me at viv@silverstartups.co.uk and I will respond quickly.
Best wishes
Viv