There’s something special about the later years in life, including the freedom to do different things like travel, explore, and even start a business.

Those individuals who endeavor to create their own business at this stage in life are often referred to as  “encore entrepreneurs”. Individuals who start business after 50 accounted for nearly one-quarter of new businesses started last year. People in this age range actually start businesses at a higher rate than those in their 20s. If you consider full-time independent workers, baby boomers and seniors combined are actually the largest segment at 37 percent according to the MBO independent workforce study.

Regardless of the kind of exit you're considering for your business, it's going to take time to complete and will have an array of effects on you, your employees, your family, your finances, and more. In today's post, we'll elaborate on why you need a business transition plan.

It's hard to start a business, and even harder to admit when your business is struggling. The admission is only the first step to determining what's right for your struggling business. Do you fight onward and find out how to improve your struggling business? Or is it that your business will only continue to struggle, draining your energy and your wallet? There's no way to address this directly without looking at all the specifics of your business and industry.

In today's article we'll talk about some of the questions you should ask yourself to help figure out what's right for your struggling business.

When it comes to honoring and promoting small and local businesses, almost everyone thinks of Small Business Saturday. To be fair, it is timed at the height of the retail shopping season, but this isn't the only time of year that focuses on small businesses. In fact, Small Business Week was earlier this month.

There are now about 100 million people in the U.S. over the age of 50 - and most of them are going to live a very long time. Life expectancy has increased dramatically over the last century. Now when you turn 65 you can look ahead to 20, 25, even 30 more independent, energetic, active years. Never before in the history of humanity have we had such long life expectancy.  What an apportunity.

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm. 

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm. 

Press release originally posted on SBA Portland District Office website.

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm. 

As a small business owner, you're sure to know that your storefront is important. But do you realize just how important it is? Everyone's heard the adage, "don't judge a book by it's cover," but the truth is, customers make judgments about what they're interested in or what seems most likely to meet their needs in the first 15 seconds. Your storefront is the first impression you can make on a customer, and depending on their reaction, you may not get another chance to capture them.