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Reinventing Retirement Newsletter
Table of Contents Monday morning at 8 a.m. and you are at your desk. You took a three-mile walk on the beach this morning at sunrise. After a shower, you pulled on a clean pair of shorts and t-shirt and made breakfast: hot oatmeal with raisins and maple syrup. Now, while your email comes in, you are finishing up your cup of coffee and taking a peek at your to-do list for the week. You feel relaxed and ready for just about anything. Dream job? Would it surprise you to learn that this, or some version of it, could be yours should you choose to become one of the millions of people who work from home, at least part of every week? How big is this phenomenon? Experts estimate between 12 and 15 million small businesses, that is, approximately a half of the 25 million reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are home-based. Of course, this is no secret to companies like Kinko, Staples and Office Depot, who service this growing market. Anyway, you look at it; the small business/home business movement is having an impact on the workplace, worker satisfaction and work itself. We older workers are well represented in this revolution. According to a study for AARP by the Rand Corporation, a Santa Monica, California think tank, workers 50 and older represent 40% of business owners, or 5.6 million people. Many observers, including author Daniel Pink (Free Agent Nation) see this as the tip of the iceberg. Cross an entrepreneur of 50 or older with the Internet and you get E-TIREMENT, a word Pink coined for folks like us. 2. Environmentally smart. Here is a question: how much energy is wasted to heat and cool houses that are vacant all day, except for pets and plants? If you work from home, you are not only making productive use of the energy in your home, you are freeing up office space (and utilities) for someone else who needs to work on site. We believe corporations are already recognizing the value of this. A family member who works for one of the bluest of the Blue Chips has an office at home. 3. No commuting. Another obvious benefit to the environment in lower emissions and wear and tear on the transportation infrastructure. But eliminating the daily commute ranks high in job satisfaction for most people, in the improved quality of life as well as the significant savings. Happy people do better work. 5. Control over your time (and no one breathing down your neck.) Got a tough deadline? You can put in the extra time to meet it, then reward yourself with an afternoon at the gym or local museum. Your clients and customers don't care as long as you deliver quality work. If you wake up at 3 a.m. fired up with an idea, go for it. You can sleep in later (or even take a nap.) 8. Control over your wardrobe. Now that "face time" has been eliminated or minimized, you don't have to keep up with appropriate office attire, so you save money on clothes, as well as visits to the hairdresser and/or nail salon, and put your attention on the business itself. 10. Finding balance. Everyone claims to want it, but as we mature, we recognize how important balance is to our health and well being, especially if we*ve been "doing time" in the corporate world. A home-based business may not cure the inveterate workaholic, and probably won't generate enough income for the incurable slacker. But for anyone who values independence and control over their own future, and has the discipline to work for it, it is a blessing. Resources: SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives). http://www.score.org. The mother ship of business startups, it provides free walk-in (389 offices nationwide) and online counseling for small business. Part of the Small Business Administration. Your tax dollars at work. Coaching for the Solo Entrepreneur: http://www.solo-e.com/ also includes a Forum and some free articles. Chief Home Officer, Jeff Zbar's great site for the "soloist, moonlighter, teleworker and entrepreneur*" who are "driving force in the New New economy." http://www.goinsoho.com/ Here's a haiku from Zbar: Eastward, the sunrise Terri Lonier*s terrific site and services: http://www.workingsolo.com/. See her article, "How much start-up capital does a typical small business need?" And The Small Business Money Guide, co-authored with Lisa M. Aldisert. Legal Help. The best legal self-help site for small businesses available on the Internet is Nolo, http://www.nolo.com/ Nolo also publishes books on the subject. Jim Blasingame. http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/ http://www.startupjournal.com/ The Wall Street Journal*s online Center for Entrepreneurs offers masses of free articles that are well worth your time. Jeff Berner's The Joy of Working from Home (Berrett-Koehler 1994) remains a classic of the genre. And if you haven't already bought your copy of Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life (Plume 2004), you should know that many of the 101 business ideas are home-based. And finally, how to know if you have what it takes for solo entrepreneurship. Take this assessment test: http://www.startupjournal.com/howto/soundadvice/20030317-mancuso.html POTPOURRI A couple of milestones. Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life is in its second printing. Congratulation to Sandi Urabe, our 5,000th subscriber. Sandi does workshops in "Redefining Retirement"* and "It Ain't Over!" Perfect places to wear her 2young2retire t-shirt. Our yoga teacher and friend, Lakshmi Voelker-Binder, got some well-deserved press for her great Chair Yoga series from the Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA). You can download the link and photos of some of the moves here: http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/health/20041110195629.shtml Elder Hostel's Road Scholar program in Costa Rica, one of the world's 20 most bio-diverse places, is travel with a purpose, "To gain a real-world awareness of biodiversity, to understand why it is essential for the health of the planet, and to examine critical elements of long-term and sustainable conservation. Through an enjoyment of its natural resources, rafting its rivers, walking its forest trails, all with excellent local interpretation, you will gain an experiential appreciation of biodiversity." Program #12326LE. Toll-free 1-800-466-7762, Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Eastern Time. Or, register online at http://www.roadscholar.org/. From the Gerontological Society: Initiative on Civic Engagement in an Older America, a five year study by experts in field. http://www.geron.org/press/engagement.htm 10 tips on volunteering wisely. Very useful! http://www.networkforgood.org/volunteer/volunteertips.aspx Congratulations to 23 new MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellows, including Rueben Martinez, 64, who started selling literature out of his barbershop and went on to found Libreria Martinez Books and Art Gallery in Santa Ana, California. Martinez now tours schools and appears on Spanish-language television to promote literacy in the Latino community. Recipients of the $500,000 award can use it however they wish. "The joy of my life is what I'm doing now,"Martinez was quoted as saying. If you're curious about how the MacArthur Foundations awards work, click on this URL: http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/fel_overview.htm Global warming? Drilling in the Arctic? Planet Art calls itself "the most comprehensive source of environmental news on the Net." Check it out for yourself: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewshome.cfm From NASA. One picture, 1,000 words: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/Human_Dimensions/Population/ Find out what smart companies are doing to retain workers in the coming tight labor market: The Herman Group, futurists and specialist in workforce issues has a collection of useful article on this critical issue that can help YOU, the mature job-seeker. Log on: http://www.retentionconnection.com/articles.html We get letters: I want to compliment you on your book. It is the ONLY "How To" book I have EVER read that gives useful information that can be applied, i.e., e-mail addresses, Web sites, and phone numbers. THANK YOU. I just checked your book out at the library (just started reading it today.) I am non-retiring in April 2005 at 63. I have an extensive career background in media, marketing, public speaking etc. and don't intend to waste all of those years of experience, just plan to use it to help others. Don't have a story yet, but will have one I am sure, because I'm not through with this world yet and rocking chairs are meant to sit in for just a few minutes, not the rest of my life. Thanks, now I will go read your book. I am in the middle of your book and loving it. I am a 57-year-old, polio survivor, who left the Seattle area and my job at Boeing, over 10 years ago, to go back to school, and moved to the desert. The desert climate is kinder to how I feel, and I am much better here. I did go back to school, and obtained a dual degree, or two bachelors degrees: one in English, and one in Communications. So I graduated twice, once in May, and again in December, 2002. Your book has really inspired me. I am hoping to find some resources to work at home since that would be easier physically for me. I am dictating right now, with DragonDictate NaturallySpeaking as my hands are both bad with carpal tunnel, and surgery has not been an option. It has allowed me to type my usual 103 words a minute, which thrills me. I have been a writer for a long time, but generally technical writing, and some articles. Some were for Boeing, and some freelance, but not enough to keep me alive. I thought I would write to you, I am hopeful that the web sites you provided and some other writing jobs that you cited in your book will give me the answers. Your work is very uplifting for someone like me who has just completed 40 years of work as a teacher and school counselor, and has now taken what I call "the next step" in my career of "retiring" from that job and entering a different phase. I'm not sure just yet what that phase will be, but your book has helped me come to the realization that there is more to me than what I do to make money. Stay well, make it new, make it better.
Marika and Howard Stone Home | How They Do It
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