Ever suffered from the ‘back to work blues’? Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, said recently that working is good for us and continuing to work later in life could actually improve our health and happiness. So, should we ever retire? Business expert Glenda Shawley of The Training Pack is 64 years young and has no intention of retiring. Her new book ‘Founded after 40’ has been published to help mature entrepreneurs set up and run a business on their own terms.
Glenda Shawley
Here are her top ten reasons for not retiring:
- Work can be fun especially when you run your own business. There’s never a dull day for an entrepreneur. Marketing, customer service, administration, finance are just some of the activities that need attention on a regular basis not to mention dreaming up new ways to make more money.
- Working keeps our brains active. Whether it’s how to use a new software package, how to solve a problem or just how to get more done with less resources working helps to stimulate our brains and that helps us to remain healthy into our 70s and beyond.
- Combat loneliness. According to Age UK 1.2 million older people are lonely. Whether you work in a large corporate or run a one woman business working forces you to interact with others and gives you at least the work in common so there’s always something to talk about and an excuse for some social chit chat.
- Retain a sense of purpose. It’s easy to lose our way when we retire or are made redundant or when our family no longer needs us on a daily basis. Working gives us a job to do and a reason to get up in the morning.
- Leave housework to the professionals! How many of us are really fulfilled by doing the housework? If you are then maybe the rest of us can pay you to manage ours! Working gives us an excuse to pay for help.
- Fund the lifestyle you want in your more mature years. We’re living longer and our savings and pensions have to last a long time so working for longer will increase the pot that allows us to do all those things we want to do.
- Use your knowledge, skills and experience. You’ve spent years acquiring knowledge, skills and experience that can be of value to others and sharing it can be rewarding in many more ways than financial. Don’t you just love helping others overcome a challenge that has had them stuck?
- Keep on learning. The speed of change gets ever faster so there will never be an excuse to stop learning and learning can be fun with new and varied ways to acquire new skills and knowledge.
- Stay young. Have you noticed how some 60 year olds are old and others are merely middle aged? Working helps us to stay connected and maintain a youthful approach to life.
- There are no age barriers in business unless we put them there ourselves. Plenty of women started their first business after the age of 40, including fashion designer Vera Wang. There are lots of opportunities for more mature people to set up and run a business to suit their lifestyle.
Glenda Shawley is author of Founded After 40: How to start a business when you haven’t got time to waste, published by Practical Inspiration Publishing, RRP. £14.99. The book includes a downloadable workbook which turns into your business plan. For further details visit: www.foundedafter40.co.uk