Home Business

In the August issue of Fast Company, Shoshana Zuboff notes “In 1900 there were 13 million people over the age of 45. Now there are nearly 100 million.” She also points out that the average life span is 77 years. The average life span! So if you balance out all those young people whose lives are cut short by accident or illness, that means that a whole heck of a lot of people are living into their 80’s and 90’s these days.

This begs the question: what are you going to be doing at age 70? Are you going to be working, or are you going to be retired? My gut feel is that a rapidly growing number of baby boomers are going to want to transition to some sort of home-based business - a business that offers an escape from the corporate rat race but gives them a supplemental income to extend their retirement savings those extra years. People these days are living longer and they are also spending more time “retired.”

In a time when corporate downsizing and “restructuring” tends to focus heavily on those with higher salaries (i.e. more senior people), there are a lot of people scratching their heads and thinking about starting a new career in their fifties. Many of you will be looking for a low-stress home business where you can control your own destiny.

This all points toward yet another incentive for people to extend their independence further into their senior years. It won’t be just for the enjoyment of living in your own home rather than a nursing home, but also for financial survival because it is pretty hard to save up enough money to live comfortably for 20 years. There is already some movement toward developing technology that makes it easier for people to live alone and continue working at home when in the past they would have to move to some sort of managed care facility. Unfortunately most of this activity is in the realm of developing medical devices, not everyday technology that makes your life easier or makes it easier for friends or relatives to keep tabs on you or vice versa.

Lots of interesting trends to keep track of.....