I wrote How Hard Can It Be to Become a Blogger? last September because I was surprised at how hard it actually is to become a blogger. In that post, I revealed my disappointing visitor/follower statistics and expressed my determination to carry on regardless. I mean, it’s not like I’ve failed, I just haven’t succeeded yet 😊.

But it’s not all about marketing and I don’t want to just write about topics that interest me, they need to be of value to my target readers, ie people over 50 who are unemployed, retired, approaching retirement or economically inactive, who are thinking about or are setting up a business.

So, I’ve been on the case, apart from the Christmastime chaos, when I spent my time shopping, cleaning, feeding people and managing the relationship between my toddler grandson and my puppy. (Hint: they both wanted my exclusive attention.)

What I did next

Having read all the research I was able to access, identified academic and business influencers, joined the British Society of Gerontology and the special interest group on Work and Retirement, I am now setting up a symposium entitled ‘Perspectives on Later Life Entrepreneurship’ to take place at their annual conference in July. Before I got involved with the BSG I didn’t know what a symposium was and, to be honest, it is not my favourite word. In any case, here is my abstract, although it will probably change over the next few weeks.

Does senior entrepreneurship warrant further research and support? Perspectives on Later Life Entrepreneurship, one of the symposia presented by the Special Interest Group on Work and Retirement, explores how becoming self-employed or starting a new business can help unemployed, retired or economically inactive seniors to improve their quality of life and wellbeing, as well as their finances. The symposium also examines the influences, challenges and opportunities they encounter, the types of learning and support they require to make the transition, and the lack of resources available to them. Research has shown that senior entrepreneurship can benefit individuals, communities and the economy but what needs to be done to support older people is less clear

Speakers from academia and business will present their views and include Dr Justyna Stypinska, Researcher at the Institute for East European Studies (Berlin);  Dr Breda Kenny, Head, School of Business, Cork Institute of Technology along with Sarah Davis, CIT doctoral student; Dr Fiona Whitehurst, Director of Impact and Senior Lecturer along with Dr Eftychia Palamida, Lecturer in Creativity and Entrepreneurship, both from Newcastle University; Wendy Mayhew, Founder of Business Launch Solutions and Canada’s leading expert on senior entrepreneurship; Viv Poole MBA, business coach/mentor who helps young entrepreneurs through the Prince’s Trust, more experienced entrepreneurs through her consultancy Viv Sloan Associates and senior entrepreneurs through her Silver Startups project. She believes there should be more support for senior entrepreneurship and aims to raise awareness of this issue.

My new coachees

I want to contribute to this meeting from a practitioner’s perspective and have recruited five coachees (so far). I hope to work with them until at least the end of June and write about their experiences and progress. All are over 50 (one is over 60), and they all have special talents and experience that can be applied to their new businesses. Two are unemployed and have faced ageism by employers, one is setting up a Community Interest Company, one is working full-time but wants to set up a business to run during retirement and one is running a small business that needs to grow.

By working with them, I hope to gain a greater insight into their challenges and the type of support they need to create sustainable businesses. I will write about these topics and also try to attract the attention of organisations that could help lots more people than I could. There are, of course many coaches and consultants that help startups, but seniors often can’t afford their fees or do not trust them.

My vital statistics

Considering that much of December was a write-off, where am I now, statistics-wise?

Silver Startups website average monthly visitors

Then: about 100

Now: about 200

These are very modest figures, but at least they are going in the right direction!  The more blog posts I write, the more visitors I attract through SEO. I have also spent a little on Facebook boosted posts and an advert (£20) aimed at seniors.

My post, entitled What it’s like to be unretired? attracted far more views (412) than Which accounting software should you choose? (81) . The accounting software post took much longer to research/write and in my view had greater value, but this wasn’t reflected in the statistics. It could be that my readers are still curious about the idea of starting up a business, rather than specific business problems that need solving.

I suspect that much more needs to be done in the UK to raise older people’s awareness of the potential of entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn followers

Then: 307

Now: 316

LinkedIn is not the right platform for Silver Startups, but it is a very useful resource when I am trying to identify and network with subject experts.  I intend to be more proactive and try to connect with or follow more senior entrepreneurship experts – I have much more to learn from them.

Twitter followers

Then: 100

Now: 179

I am not actively seeking followers on Twitter, but they are now finding me, which is good. I use Twitter as a learning resource and those I follow do share some excellent material. I try to be selective about people I follow, because I don’t have enough time. Meeting seniors who are seeking support with their business ideas is a very slow process, but it is beginning to happen. Through Twitter I connected with The Redundancy Podcast, who interviewed me and promoted Silver Startups in a podcast. I now think that Twitter IS worth the Bother, but it takes time and effort.

Facebook likes and mailing list additions: minor increases but not worth mentioning.

On the other hand, the next few months should be very interesting !

Best wishes

Viv