Boomer Entrepreneurs: Is Betting on your Future a Good Plan?

Boomer Entrepreneurs: Is Betting on your Future a Good Plan?
by Susan Freidmann - "Dedicated to Helping You Succeed!"


Boomer entrepreneurs fall into two groups when it comes to running their home-based business: gamblers and planners.

A gambler is often willing to put money into risky online marketing ventures, and as with any lottery, they hope and pray to cash in, and win big, fast. They're often individuals who get sucked into the "get rich quick" schemes, and are habitually very disappointed at their results. Time after time they try one new idea and then another, optimistic that the jackpot is well within their grasp.

The planner boomer entrepreneur on the other hand, tends to follow a less exciting route of carefully researching companies, and marketing strategies with a proven formula for success, before making any kind of investment.

Whether you're a novice home business owner, or an experienced one, how do you run your entrepreneurial venture?

Most of you will probably veer on the side of the planner, yet within the vast majority of baby boomers, there's a gambler personality itching to come out.

It's easy to be influenced by hypnotic wording in promotional copy. The writers work hard, and are paid big bucks, to craft just the right message to put you into a trance-like state to motivate you to click the "buy now" button.

However, next time you recognize this persuasive approach, step back and pull out your analytical personality.  Making a plan, doing your research, and taking more prudent actions are ones that will, in the long run, save you money, and be less stressful and frustrating.

Some gamblers win. After all, that’s what keeps lotteries going. And, the same applies to some boomer entrepreneurs who work their home-based business with only half an idea of what they’re doing, and yet still come out triumphant.  But the odds are against most gamblers.  For every winner, there are thousands of losers.  For every successful ‘I just wing it’ boomer, there are hundreds who look at the time and effort spent, and realize they could have done much, much better, if only they’d taken the time to learn what they were doing. Are you willing to take that chance?

I’m not much of a gambler myself, but even I know you should never lay money on the table without knowing what’s at stake.  Ask yourself, what could happen if I leave my home business performance to chance?

You could luck out and make money.

You could also:

• Miss out on great sales opportunities because you didn’t seek out the best marketing vehicles to reach your target audience.

• Alienate potential buyers with pushy sales tactics, where you disregard their needs in favor of making a quick sale.

• Make any of a dozen common mistakes that cost companies customers.

• Ruin any kind or reputation you have or want to have, because of your appear inept and poorly prepared next to any competitors.

• Discourage would-be buyers from considering doing business with you: after all, you obviously don’t have your act together!

And many more!

Losing this wager doesn’t appear so inconsequential anymore, does it? When the real life cost of poor marketing and selling tactics are spelled out, the planning route suddenly becomes far more attractive.

Ideally, your business planning begins with a simple three-step process:

1.  Understanding "Why" you're in business
2.  Planning "What" you want to achieve
3.  Developing "How" you're going to achieve your goal. 

All of this takes time, energy and focused thinking. However, when you consider the alternative, that is 'winging it,' which is comparable to throwing the dice and hoping for the best, you’ve got to ask yourself one simple question:

Do you feel lucky?

Wisanow contributor, Susan Freidmann is Originally from London, England, Susan Friedmann, is an internationally recognized niche marketing expert and “how-to” coach, aka The NichePreneur Coach. As an innovative and insightful business coach, she enjoys working with baby boomer entrepreneurs who want to grow their home-based business using niche marketing strategies, Susan offers programs to increase results and focus on building better relationships with customers, prospects and advocates in the marketplace.

She is a regular contributing writer to numerous professional and trade publications.  A prolific author, Susan has written twelve books including her bestseller “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market,” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Target Marketing,” “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” and many other titles.  Several of her books have been translated into multiple languages, and her training materials are used worldwide.  Susan has appeared on a variety of radio talk shows and as a guest expert on CNN’s Financial Network and Bloomberg’s Small Business.

She has earned the Certified Speaking Professional, CSP, the highest earned level of recognition that a professional speaker can achieve.
http://susanfriedmann.com/