Baby Boomers Building Businesses
My name is Erica Fath and I’m living with enthusiasm after 50!
I live in Alberta, Canada and have 4 wonderful adult children. It took me a few months to get used to the “empty nest” when my youngest left for college in 2004 but there was always something happening.
The spring of 2010 however, saw some major major changes for me. When my oldest daughter got married (she’s also the first to get married) I realized that for the first time ever in my life, I would have the privilege of being on my own.
I remember when I was young I dreamed of having my own apartment – but things were different in those decades. According to my father, girls didn’t move out just to live on their own, especially if they worked and lived in the same city as their parents. The “rule of thumb” was that a girl moved out of her parents home the day she got married.
So that’s what happened. I got married and left home to go set up housekeeping with my new hubby. Then came the babies and the family kept expanding until there were six of us in total.
Life happened and after 17 years of marriage, I found myself as a single mom and suddenly there were 5 – and I had all the responsibility of family, work, home and everything else.
In 2001 my only son moved out on his own and that left a house full of women. We managed to do all we those “man’s jobs” and life was good.
The day my second daughter turned 18, she moved into her first apartment. Oh she was so excited. I remember that day very well. And I’ll admit, I was a little jealous. She was doing something I’d never been able to do.
A year later, in 2004, my youngest moved to another city for college and when she graduated in 2008, she moved home for two weeks while she looked for her apartment.
That means for the last six years, my oldest daughter and I were housemates or roommates (she didn’t want her friends knowing she lived at home with mom, so I was the roommate. And now she’s married – and mom, that’s me, had some decisions to make.
I opted to move into a beautiful new apartment – no snow to shovel or grass to mow – a beautiful compact kitchen with all the latest appliances – great color scheme.
I feel so at home here. It’s like this place has been waiting for me for 40 years; yet it was only build this year so I’m the first occupant. That makes it extra special.
In the fall on 2010, I decided to get serious about something I have long thought about but kept putting it off because of family concerns.
I made the decision to build a business using the internet. I realize that 65 is not that far off and I’m not sure if I like the lifestyle that my proposed pension will allow me to life … so I’m changing my future. I’m going to work hard, learn lots, network much, support others, and build a business that will allow me to life the lifestyle of my choice.
This site is going to me the story of my journey – the ups and downs, the struggles and the thrills, the new and the old. I’m not sure how often I’ll get here, but I will come to share what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, if it’s working, or not.
I invite you to journey with me, regardless of if you’re a baby boomer or not.
I’m excited to be going place I’ve never been before. And I’d be even more excited if I made some new friends along the way.
I’ll be honest – I’ve been on the Internet for years and I’ve been getting peoples newsletters and ezines for years.
I’ll be honest again – Sometimes I read all those ezines and sometimes I don’t. It really depends on the week and what’s all happening and how much time I have for reading. There have been weeks when I just skim the subject line and hit delete to the hundreds of emails that accumulated in my inbox. And then there are times I’ll have some free time and I’ll read one email and maybe follow the link and suddenly it’s four hours later. That happens when you follow a link that sends you to a link that sends you to a link. Suddenly the sun has gone down and the day is finished.
So today, as I consider exactly what I’m going to do for my future, I realize that the first step is to actually step back and evaluate my options. I’m reminded of the phrase that if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get where it was you really wanted to get to.
From my experience on the net and off, I’d summarize the options that offer me a way to create income and appeal to me as being:
I’m sure there are many other options but those are the 3 that seem to have potential for me.
So which is best?
I think this one is really a key element of my plan as it will create an income in retirement without my having to make constant effort once the business is built. So now the question is – which company will be easy to promote on the net? You see, I’ve been in networking since the ’80, but it’s always been the offline stuff – going to meeting, using the phone, doing presentations. It has created a residual income that was my survival when I became to ill it even leave the house. They say that often an extra $500 a month means the difference - well for me, that regular small check every month meant my kids had some food on the table. So yes, I know the power and potential of network marketing. For my retirement, I definitely want a residual income check so this will be something I need to get working on the net.
This sounds great – but what. I do like to write – but I have to write with integrity. I can’t write a book and claim to be making lots of money from “a system or technique” if I haven’t done it. So although this sounds like a great idea, I think I should put it on a back burner for a while.
This is definitely a good option. Until I become “expert” enough to have my own product or system, there are hundreds of thousands of things I can promote. Not sure I want to be selling dog training tips when I’m not a dog lover or golfing tips when I’ve never been on a golf course … but I’m sure there are many options available. I think I’ll spent some time doing some research about what and how to do affiliate marketing.
I have always loved teaching and motivating people offline. I wonder, is this a something I could do online? Teach what? I don’t know if I know enough about anything that I could charge people to listen to me. Not yet, anyhow. Yet, I see lots of coaches that make a great income be being a coach … I wonder … Something to consider for down the road. Have to make some money first then I can teach someone else to do the same.
Oh my! So many things to think about. So many options. Think I need to pray about this too. I’d only want to start a business if it’s the business God has for me.
I’m going to spend this month of November doing two things:
First, and most important, to spend some time in prayer. My prayer will be to attract people whom I can bless and who will bless me and I will ask God to only bring people with integrity into my life each day and that I would cross paths with the people who will make my business more profitable.
Second, to do some research and learn what my options really are for 2010. What will I need – as in software? as in systems? as in marketing techniques? as in mentoring for me? I don’t want to just start doing whatever the first things that comes my way. I need to do some basic research so I can begin to create a plan and strategy.
