At 50, Did You Know What You Wanted To Be When You Grew Up?

in baby boomer, Prime Time Women

Dr Shannon Reese is a psychologist who specializes in helping women launch entrepreneurial dreams. She has a chat session on Wednesdays at lunch time. Today I was lucky enough to be the only one on her chat.
She asked me questions about what I do and what I want to do. The “what I do” was easy. The “what do I want to do” was a lot harder.
What Do You Want to Do?
I have several things I’m working on to start a business but for the most part they are unrelated. The only way they are remotely related is that I see them all being for Boomer Women.
Why Boomer Women?
Starting in our late 40s and 50s, women are more able to focus time, money and energy on themselves. Family and/or career are no longer the top priority in our lives.
But other than knowing who my intended audience is, I have no clue for relating this blog to a custom bra making business or a how-to book on playing a folk instrument. I don’t yet know if they even can be related.
I’m looking for a way to make a sustainable business. The how of it is what I’m trying to figure out.
Do You Have a Ready Answer?
Dr Reese asked me if I could do anything I wanted, what would it be?
Would you have a ready answer? I didn’t.
My thoughts went to this how-to book I’ve been writing. I’ve loved the time spent on this. I love creating and I love sharing what I know. I’m a jack of all trades. I love knowledge. I love researching and learning new things. I’m an engineer. I can understand technical ideas and turn them into more understandable terms.
Could this be a business model?
The Boomer Woman’s Guide to …. ???
I’ve had thoughts along this line before.
Who knows maybe my next book will be:
 “I have an iPad, now what do I do with it?”
Creating books, videos and such to share what I know and what I have a desire to learn could definitely be fun. But could it be a business that makes money? That I don’t know.
A few of the things Dr Reese said as we were exploring this idea were:
“… the most important thing to do when you are starting out is your research.  Before you invest a ton of time and effort, much less money in a direction.”
“…make sure there is a need in the market, for which you can provide an
awesome solution that doesn’t already exist.  And then figure out if there is a
very large portion of the population seeking to purchase what you are offering.”
“One great way to do your marketing is to go out there and talk to boomer women.  Ask them questions, find out what they want, where they shop, what they need in relation to the direction you are thinking about heading. ”
Thank you Dr Reese. You’ve given me some ideas to consider.
I think getting the how-to book out next month and figuring out how to market it will give me some data on whether providing this kind of training is something people are interested in.
And as Dr Reese suggested, I need to ask Boomer Women their ideas and opinions.
What do you think?
Are you interest in trying out hobbies if you could find a good source of information?
Would you like to have someone explain new gadgets and technology in terms that you could understand rather than Geek-speak?
Leave me a comment with your thoughts.
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{ 3 comments }

drshannonreece May 18, 2011 at 10:26 pm

Ann, I am honored that you would share my comments with your audience. My hope in our time together today on the Wednesday Workout is that I gave you some good food for thought and you work to narrow your focus. Being successful in business is not about trying to be everything to everyone. Instead focus on being the go-to person for a very specific issue that Boomers are facing. Keep me posted on your progress!

Ann May 19, 2011 at 12:18 am

Finding a narrowly defined problem that I can provide the solution for and make a business out of is the stumbling block for me at the moment. Your advice definitly gave me food for thought.

Tabitha May 19, 2011 at 10:30 am

I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body, I really admire your drive.

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