Over the past few years, more and more people have decided to set up their own businesses in the UK for a variety of reasons.
For some it is the lack of job security that has driven them to set up their own business while for others it is situations such as redundancy.
Businesses have been set up by people of all ages and according to a recent report older entrepreneurs are continuing to set up their own businesses for the first time.
It is reported that thousands of people aged fifty and over have been setting up their own small businesses and are enjoying significant success. Some are starting these businesses as a means of supplementing their income from work while for others it is a way of ensuring a comfortable retirement income. The boom in the number of older people starting their own businesses comes at a time where pension funds have been highlighted as an issue.
The idea that starting a business is something that is exclusively for younger people has now been dismissed, as there are many older people who are making their mark in the business world. As pension ages increase the number of people who decide to start their own business at an early age is likely to continue increasing according to industry experts.
The number of older entrepreneurs has grown significantly over recent years according to industry figures. In fact, between 2009 and now the figure has increased by more than a quarter of a million with 1,766,000 over 50s registered as self employed compared to 1.5 million in 2009. Data suggests that older people tend to start smaller businesses than their younger counterparts and they are often in industries such as catering, the service industry, or in arts and crafts.
The data also shows that around one in every five people aged over fifty is now self employed, which is a higher proportion than for all other age groups. Around 25 percent of older people who have started their own business did so after either being made redundant from their job or after retiring from their job. Older people now also have greater resources to tap into in order to help them to make a success of their own business, including a range of college and training courses that are designed for this age group.