Fact: The number of Americans age 50 and up will rise by 31 million by 2020, to 118 million, the Census Bureau predicts. Much of that growth represents the aging of the huge baby boom generation.
For those done with working for others, but not yet ready to retire, the best option may be taking up the mantle of entrepreneur. After all, 5.6 million workers over the age of 50 are self-employed, up 23% from 1990. Corporations don’t have those lifelong jobs anymore and baby boomers have learned to change jobs more often than previous generations.
As the concept of retirement undergoes re-interpretation by younger generations, its definition is changing from “employment termination” to “lifestyle change.” For some it’s dumping the 9-5, for others, it’s an evolution from other forms of self-employment.
The lure is calling many. A theme runs through the entrepreneurs profiled here; they love to work, produce and provide the best. Featured here are four business owners, two who are enjoying renewed passion and two who are using their previous business experience and awareness of needs to create businesses geared to seniors.
Rincon Rat Pack
A former network TV writer has what seems like the perfect business for his stage in life. When Bob McCullough turned 50, all of a sudden the 20-year writing streak for Aaron Spelling and other top producers he’d been riding faded to black. “I’d walk into a meeting and the people I was meeting with said, “You worked on that show? That was my mom’s favorite.” I saw the writing on the wall and started looking into new things to do.
So he decided to leave the rat race, and become a new kind of rat.
First it was a web site that died in the dotcom bust - and ate up $3 million in personal assets. Feeling the pain of that loss, it was on to renovating and selling homes in Santa Barbara with his wife. Then he also felt the pain of his surfer sons buying $20 T-shirts, getting tired of them in a minute and handing them off to Dad - “hand-me-ups” he calls them. Daring his oldest son Nick to come up with something better than the corporate logo-laden beach wear on the market, he did. By listening to what the surfers at famous Rincon Beach, just south of Ventura, were saying, two designs were born: Get Off My Wave and Wet is Good, which has become the company’s tag line. With that, Rincon Rats, Wet is Good, was also born. At their first local festival, they outsold all the competition.
Rincon Rats are succeeding, McCullough says, by staying in touch with the local community. Because they actually live in the area, they have a leg up on corporations that have no connections to the surfers. “Their stuff,” he quips, “is nothing but boring logos.” For the rats, it’s the magical blend of local identification mixed with a legendary surf location. Community involvement is also important to the McCulloughs. For example, they were quick on the scene to help those affected by the mudslides in nearby La Conchita in January.
“We live a mile-and-a-half from La Conchita,” says McCullough. “We went to the local coffee shops here in town and raffled one of our gorgeous surfboards. We raised $2,500 and gave it to people who were literally standing in mud. It’s not all about profit, it’s about giving something back.”
Profits are good, too
Speaking of profits, McCullough says, “We hope to be in profit in a year; but we’re prepared to go two years.” He is confidant because unlike when working for others, or my son’s short time in college, “when we wake up every morning, we really want to do this stuff!” The day we spoke McCullough was delivering shirts to Santa Barbara stores, meeting with a festival about sponsorship and handling several other business meetings in the afternoon. It doesn’t leave much time for his personal surfing habit. But the work is paying off.
Later this year they’re opening their own factory/retail store “on the hottest corner” of Carpinteria (Linden and Carpinteria Ave.) and will be exposed to 3 million campers each summer. The store will only carry Rincon Rats merchandise, following the model of Patagonia and Big Dog, and others. “Branding is what it’s about in casual beachwear,” says McCullough. Their clothing, pre-washed, pigment dyed shirts and hats which cost about 40% more than regular cotton, currently sell at local surf shops up and down the coast, plus some larger stores. The Rats guarantee fit and quality and are making shirts for other communities, as well — like Cornwall, England of all places. “Everybody wants their place to be special, so we’re helping them.”
The true entrepreneurial spirit
McCullough had originally gone to school with no real direction, stayed in to avoid the Vietnam draft, ended up in USC film school and then passed the bar just as he sold his first TV script. Not being afraid to try the unconventional has helped him navigate his changing career river.
His sons seem to have inherited his style. Nick, 21, is a bit of a daredevil, says McCullough. “He likes to surf all alone, so that usually means he’s out in 12-15 feet surf that no one else wants to tackle. And in high school he ran a business helping people with chores. He’d charge $10 an hour, pay his friends $8 an hour, deliver them to their jobs and then come home and sleep. Son Chance is still in high school. He’s the design test market. “If he doesn’t like it, we don’t make it,” says McCullough. “We’ve used all his buddies to test what works.”
And the other benefit of this career move, is that when McCullough is ready to move on, the sons will have their own business to run, provided Chance is available - he’s pursuing a baseball career.
www.rinconrats.com
Banister Buddies
Verify names…Ken and Bette Biddulph? She said Bette Smith.
The Biddulphs were motivated to go into business after Ken’s position as director of the Los Angeles County Botanic Gardens was eliminated when the city privatized that department. Having moved to San Diego in 2002, they purchased a manufacturing company in Yuma, Arizona, Boolee Seating, that made folding aluminum beach chairs. The timing wasn’t good.
They faced the loss of orders due to globalization, i.e. the jobs were going to China and retailers here were importing the cheaper products. Retails sales in the U.S. were declining every year. Their upscale hotel clients in the Caribbean and Hawaii weren’t enough to keep sales brisk. “We had always occupied the high end, quality market and still have that position today. But that market is so limited that even if we had 100% of it, we wouldn’t have enough to support a manufacturing operation,” says Ken.
They expanded the business to include other aluminum products like flag poles, garden lighting poles and the like. Then wife Bette, who is the company’s official owner, faced ongoing knee problems that required surgery. Ken created a new product to help her up and down their three flights of stairs.
“Crutches didn’t work so Bette asked me to do something. I went to the factory and made a couple of items. The first is what we’re calling Banister Buddy (WHERE TO BUY/PRICE - couldn’t find a web site). It’s like a walker, but the two front legs can be adjusted shorter so the aluminum unit fits on two steps. It weighs less than two pounds and once you’re up or down the stairs, it can be adjusted into a walker.”
A unique shower seat is next, says Ken. “It’s 20 inches high with arms that come up another 7 inches to help you stand. It’s unique in the market and there are dozens of seats in the market. I wanted a fabric seat but most can’t be cleaned with bleach and detergent. Ours can.”
Boolee also has a folding aluminum cane and there may be other products, too. “People in Yuma have a lot of ideas for products and are coming to us to make them,” says Ken. “This is a niche market in U.S. manufacturing.” And what about that competition from China? Better quality and innovation seems to be the answer at Boolee.
On the Silk Road Again
Cari and Jon Markell, owners of Silk Roads Design Gallery in West Hollywood, have always been in the art business, with substantial credentials. But it was after they turned 50 they really got serious with their gallery. Having met in the 1980s, they realized their mutual love for artifacts of the Orient and have spent years scouring Asia to import rare items. But Jon keeps pretty down to earth about it.
“My father was an importer for mass produced crapola,” jokes Jon. “I got the family business dumped in my lap when my father got cancer and died. So I spent a couple of years buying for the family business. I got my art history degree at ‘Berzerkley’ and my M.B.A. at Columbia in arts administration, a program I created.”
Then he headed to Asia for five months and started buying crafts, then antiques. That was his first business in the 70s. “I was 10-15 years ahead of the curve.” China banned the export of antiques in 2002, but the Markells have accumulated hundreds. “When Cari (who has a B.A. in art history from Boston University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago) and I met, we went to Bali and fell in love with Asia. We started collecting at auctions, then hit antique shows to sell them. The more we spent time with the antiques the more we fell in love with them.” Many were sacred statues located in monasteries, temples and home shrines.
Back to the future
Their first Silk Roads gallery (named for the legendary trading routes to China) was on La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles in 1988-89. They spent the last few years on Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood, but are now preparing to return to La Brea in spectacular fashion. To kick off their new venture, they were recently part of a show titled California Asian Style at the Pacific Design Center (or the Blue Whale as it has been dubbed for its color and huge size), just a short walk from their current space. Several of their antique Buddhist and Hindu statues were on display.
Their new building is actually an old one, with 18-foot ceilings. They refurbished it and designer Carl George has been creating a rich haven for the museum quality artifacts. Neither Jon nor Cari can stop talking about it. “It promises to be the most amazing place in Los Angeles,” she sings. Their collection includes some pieces which date to the rare Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and are valued between $300 and $700,000. With prices steadily rising, money for the space design won’t be an issue.
Their plans are big - to create a spiritual and cultural center, primarily focused on Buddhism. “Part of the floor is being made in China out of bamboo,” says Jon. “It will have a large yin/yang symbol on it with 30 pedestals around the store in an 18-foot circle,” adds Cari. “In the center will be a 10-foot high pedestal holding a Buddha. Praying hands will be suspended from the ceiling. We’ll probably have a tea bar, cultural events, candlelight meditations, seminars in partnership with UCLA and major museums, classes on Buddhist art and blessing ceremonies. We had ritual Buddhist ceremonies in our old space and we really want to reach out and be the source for these things in Los Angeles.”
They have plenty of contacts to make these plans happen. Jon was a board member and Programs Chair of The Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles, and Cari was a board member of the Southeast Asian Council of The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. They’ve combined their education with their mutual passion to create a business they truly love.
A Servant’s Heart is felt in San Diego
When Tim Colling and his wife Linda realized they wanted to return home to North County San Diego, some changes had to be made. A trained CPA, he had spent recent years in the Bay Area’s software industry while his wife worked as a social worker. He realized he’d need to make a career change to live in San Diego, so they paid attention to some trends.
“My parents are in their 70s and we wanted to be able to help them when they need it,” says Colling, 52. “So we considered the best option was to create a business to serve the senior population. It’s a growing population with many concerns,” says Colling, 52.
With that they founded A Servant’s Heart in 2003. The company provides non-medical caregivers to assist seniors in their home. Sometimes seniors don’t need medical care but they do need everyday assistance. “We don’t do things only nurses are licensed to do, like dispensing medication or wound care,” explains Colling. “We take care of the activities of daily living - bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, incontinence, light housekeeping, transportation and shopping.”
It’s a service with growing demand, yet as of now, it is a completely unregulated business, so users need to be aware when hiring people for this kind of service. “Anyone can set up a business and either have high standards or no standards,” warns Colling, who’s a member of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, a national organization that has trained over 14,000 professionals in understanding and taking care of the concerns of Seniors.
Colling says it’s also tough finding the qualified people he hires. “There are only a handful of companies around here who hire only non-smokers, require a car and a caregiving certificate,” he says. Colling’s requirements are much greater than that (see sidebar).
Hands-on is everything
And there are those day-to-day challenges of running a business. Like the day I spoke with him he was interrupted several times as he handled all the phone calls in the company’s Carlsbad office, including one from a caregiver who needed alternate directions to a client’s home because of extensive freeway traffic. “I have the structure in place, but our office person left so I’m now doing double duty. We absolutely positively cannot let the clients down.”
He says everything he and his employees do has to ensure their service is valuable. “We have to be highly trustworthy. We want to make sure the people we bring in are going to be professionals in this domain.” Linda is the vice president of the company, and has more than 15 years of experience as a Medical Social Worker, case manager, and caregiver herself. So they know the qualities they want in their employees.
Because Colling had run a business before, and had taken an educational program about business as a profession, he says running this company isn’t that different. But the life experience he now brings to the work makes marketing easier, using a combination of advertising, word of mouth, referrals and other tools. A Servant’s Heart is up to 25 employees, but he declines to quantify his clients, because some only require minimal care while others need 24/7. And it’s heartwarming work.
Satisfaction guaranteed
“Am I happy that I’m able to provide a living for 25 families? Absolutely,” says Colling. “And to provide a service to seniors who trust us for help or companionship has its own human and spiritual satisfaction. It’s worthwhile work if you do it in a way that’s careful, diligent thorough and thoughtful.”
So the lessons here are to use the experience and success from one or more careers to create future success - and if you do it right, it can be passionate, heartwarming, expansive, tough, helpful, lucrative, creative - or just plain fun.