You’ve probably heard of at least one billionaire entrepreneur who had a late start in his/her career – Jeff Bezos launched Amazon when he was 31, Vera Wang reached fame in fashion design at the age of 40, and Bernard Marcus co-founded Home Depot at 48 after getting fired from his day job. Here are four commonly overlooked benefits to getting a late start as an entrepreneur:
Management Training
A study by the Kauffman Foundation revealed that entrepreneurs who started a business mid-career were five times more likely to succeed in the next five years than their younger counterparts who recently graduated from college. A key differentiating factor is that entrepreneurs who worked several years in a respective industry gained management experience that prepared them to assume the role of an entrepreneur.
Professional Connections
People who had a full-time career prior to entrepreneurship may come out with professional connections that they can tap into later on. This network can yield more favorable deals with third-party vendors or, at the very least, an introduction with other businesspeople who can help you.
Better Intrapersonal Relationship
Older entrepreneurs tend to have a better and deeper understanding of themselves. It takes time to get to know oneself and, oftentimes, requires you to be put in a myriad of highly stressful situations. Over the course of their career, older entrepreneurs have learned what roles they thrive in, how they perform under immense pressure, and what weak spots they have to cover for. Younger entrepreneurs who do not have any work experience will often have to figure everything out on their own for the first time, making every executive decision a riskier one.
Financial Stability
If you start a business later in life, you are more likely to be financially stable, thus enabling you to self-fund your new enterprise with minimal to no debt required. According to a Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies’ report, the average American aged 30 or over has $45,000 in savings while those in their 40s have $63,000 tucked away in a savings account.
Being older shouldn’t deter you from pursuing a business idea. As many successful entrepreneurs have proven, age isn’t a crutch. You can harness a wider industry-specific knowledge base, skill set, and contacts that can help grow your enterprise faster.