Founded After 40 summary

Once you’re confident about your reasons for starting your own business, it’s tempting to charge ahead with your exciting new venture. But before you do, you need to understand some fundamental principles of good business. 

When you’re starting out, it may seem like a good idea to make what you do appealing to everyone. After all, if everyone likes your products or services, then you’ll have plenty of potential customers, right? 

Now that you know some of the pitfalls to avoid, it’s time to start thinking about your ideal customers. This is a group of people at whom your products or services are aimed. When identifying your ideal customers, it pays to target a niche that’s both narrow and deep.

Take mothers, for example. They’re certainly a niche, but considering how many mothers there are in the world, they’re a very wide one. But what about a business aimed at solving the problems of mothers with babies under three months old? Targeting a narrow niche like this means that you can tailor your company’s language to appeal to the particular people to whom you want to sell. You can advertise in spaces where they congregate, too, whether virtually or offline – local cafes popular with parents, or online parenting forums, for example. 

How did you choose the last car you bought? When she was younger, the author wouldn’t buy a car made by Skoda, as they have a reputation for breaking down. But she wouldn’t have chosen a Volvo either, thanks to their middle-aged, family-friendly image. 

Considerations like these show how important branding is, and if you want your business to be successful, you’ll need to craft your brand carefully, too. 

No matter how noble your reason for starting your business, you’ll still need to turn a profit. One advantage of founding a company when you’re over forty is that you’ll likely have some experience managing finances, even if it’s just your household budget. Nonetheless, for many first-time entrepreneurs, crunching the numbers is the most daunting part of launching a business. 

Luckily, a little forethought about your finances can go a long way. 

For many of us, founding a business when we’re over forty is a tantalizing prospect; you can finally be your own boss, fit your working hours around your family life, and choose how and when you work. But if you’re counting on this scenario, then think again. It’s natural to want your business to revolve around you, but it’s vital that your customers’ needs, rather than your own, be at the heart of everything you do.

Making your company customer-centric requires you to consider your customers’ journey all the way through your business, starting from the moment they become aware that it exists. Many business owners make the mistake of simply identifying their ideal customers, setting a price point that should appeal to them, and then expecting those customers to form an orderly line. But it’s not quite as easy as that.

Being in your forties has its perks, like feeling wiser and more confident than you did in your twenties. Becoming a mid-life entrepreneur can carry a downside, though, in that you likely don’t have as much energy as you did in previous years. 

This doesn’t need to be a problem, as long as you understand when to bring in help. Your fledgling business may feel like a baby you couldn’t entrust to anyone else, but it’s important to recognize when an extra pair of hands is needed.