Posted on: Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Many boomers turn self-employed
By Caroline Lynch
(Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
When Carol Dawson took an early retirement offer two years ago, she didn't turn to her hobbies — tennis, volleyball and volunteering. She went to work at her own business.
Mary Ann Gerth • Gannett News Service "I think a lot of the boomers are saying, if I'm going to keep working after 55, I want it to be on my own terms," said Dawson.
Now 46, Dawson turned her years of equal-employment-opportunity auditing for the federal government into a business that trains employers to comply with anti-discrimination laws.
Experts say baby boomers may stay in the work force longer, some of them opting for self-employment, partly because they're living longer, healthier lives — but also because they'll have to.
Ron Crouch, director of the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville, doubts government assistance programs will be able to support the huge number of baby boomers. Also, the fixed-payout pensions still being offered don't always keep up with inflation.
"Their money is going to run out before their life runs out," he said.
The trend hasn't become critical yet, Crouch said, but the time is coming when boomers will have to work — maybe not the traditional 40-hour week but at some kind of job.
Sara Rix, senior policy adviser for the AARP, said boomers may be attracted to the flexibility and autonomy of self-employment.
As of 2003, 11.5 percent of those 50 and older were self-employed, and about one-third of them made the switch after age 50, according to a study by the AARP.
Ken Andreozzi, 53, spent 30 years in accounting before opening a franchise flower shop, KaBloom, in Middletown, Ky., recently. Previously, he was working 70 hours a week for a small business. He decided if he was going to work long hours, he was going to do it for himself.
"If I work long hours in this business, at the end of the day I feel like I've accomplished something," he said.
He used savings, inheritance and a loan to start.
Andreozzi fits some of the typical characteristics of baby boomers who open businesses, said Michael Ashcraft, director of the Greater Louisville Small Business Development Center.
Often they have an inheritance or some sort of severance package that they use to get started, he said, and a good deal of business experience. They choose safer ventures, such as franchises or existing businesses, because they don't want to blow the wealth they've built.
Also, "they're clear on what they want, and clearer on what they don't want," Ashcraft said.
Dawson spent the last few years of her job managing other people and didn't like it. She was also glad to be rid of the layers she had to go through to get approval.
"I was able to take the best part of my job, what I loved the most, and isolate everything else out," she said. "When you have that opportunity knocking at your door, it's hard to turn it down."
Dawson went out on her own for the same reasons as some of her baby boomer peers: to make money at a job they want to do on a schedule that works for them.
Ken Andreozzi opened a franchise flower shop called KaBloom in Kentucky after spending 30 years in accounting. At 53, he decided that if he was going to work long hours, it should be for himself.
