A Renaissance For Boomer Entrepreneurs

From the Baltimore Sun, Felton Barner, who started ReIMAGE gallery in Savage Mill in retirement.

A story published today in the Baltimore Sun suggests that entrepreneurial activity is highest and most concentrated among Baby Boomers 55-64 years old, and lowest among 20-34 year olds.

"[The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation study] predicts the United States may be on the verge of an entrepreneurial boom because of a growing aging population. For the past decade, the 55-64 age group has been the most entrepreneurial. The youngest age bracket - 20 to 34 years old - has been the least active in creating new ventures, according to the study.

"I'm pleased to see that I'm not alone in looking out there and realizing the Elvis Costello [lyrics], 'Don't bury me 'cause I'm not dead yet,' " Van Buren said. "I've got a lot of life to live and a lot of living to offer, and I've got a lot of things to offer. The idea that I would go away quietly is ridiculous."

This may seem like a bit of a suprise, as for many the dot com era and rise of the internet has changed the perception of entrepreneurs to young, tech savvy coding geeks. But it seems to me to make total sense.

The Baby Boomers are one of the best trained generations in history. They have build up decades of experience with professional skills. And although the changes are still accelerating, they have also seen a shift in long-term employment and have seen a shift a way from a career defined by a single job or employer. Finally, advances in health have made retirement come younger and more and more, Boomers feel full of energy and ready to start "encore careers" pursuing their passions.

This has implications for social change work specifically and the economy as a whole. From the standpoint of social change, groups like the Taproot Foundation and Civic Ventures are finding new and creative ways to enable this incredibly well trained and highly skilled generation to contribute their talents to existing enterprises or start new social ventures.

But in some ways, I think the implications for the economy as a whole are even higher. You have more and more folks who want to contribute value to society by building businesses around their passions, whether it's photography, antique restoration, or something else entirely. And those 20-something tech entrepreneurs have given them the new connective tissue necessary to connect with people willing to pay for whatever it is they're providing, even from thousands of miles away.

I truly think that we may be poised for a small business renaissance where the entrepreneurial instinct is applied to what are sometimes referred to as "lifestyle" business. I think that while the later part of the 20th century did it's best to reinforce the notion that bigger is always better, the early part of the 21st century will be characterized by a much more deliberate conversation about what it means to lead a life of meaning. "Lifestyle businesses" which allow people to make a living sharing their passions - whether it's early or later in life - might be an essential part of that shift.