Boomers lead small business boom

By John Sullivan

October 12, 2009 at 08:00 PM

Share & Print

According to a recent client survey by Guidant Financial Group, 80 percent of new small business clients are between the ages of 40-60.

"In the past 12 months, many baby boomers have been downsized and most have suffered huge losses in their retirement savings," explains David Nilssen, co-founder of Guidant Financial Group. "The economic woes have wiped out trillions of dollars in retirement savings and many excellent workers have been downsized. This environment is providing boomers a lot of motivation to evaluate other options and pursue things such as small business ownership."

Of these small business and franchise owners, nearly one out of four new business owners are investing $100K-$150K of their own retirement funds into a new business.

"These people are making a substantial and courageous personal investment of retirement funds into a small business," says Nilssen. "Like most entrepreneurs, they are demonstrating a strong belief in themselves and feel that a small business provides greater opportunities than the stock market.

With this particular investment size, coupled with this particular age range, there is not much time to make up any large losses that might incur, but that does not seem to deter many people, according to the survey. Indicating a strong optimism for their outcome, over 50 percent of new business owners are expecting year-over-year growth in 2009.

"While the economy is shrinking, our clients are opening businesses and creating new American jobs," adds Nilssen.

NOT FOR REPRINT