Starting a Business

Senior business start-ups surge

Posted in Starting a Business on March 11th, 2010 by Karen Axelton – Be the first to comment

By Karen Axelton

photo boomerMy dad has long been convinced that the next big wave of business startups will be seniors starting businesses. Looks like he’s been  right: The Wall Street Journal recently reported that, according to the Kauffman Foundation, Americans age 55 to 64 have posted the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity for the past 10 years.

The Journal took a look at some senior entrepreneurs, many of whom have found their niches targeting people in their own age group. Many do so because they feel no one else cares about or understands their age group.

Entrepreneurs cited in the article include a woman who helps clients deal with Medicare paperwork, a woman with a memoir-writing service and a man who coaches seniors on how to start businesses. “The aging boomer is the ideal customer,” says Jennifer Campbell, the memoir writer.

Statistics bear her out. In a recent Ipsos Mendelsohn survey of affluent adults (household incomes $100,000 or higher) baby boomers were still America’s wealthiest generation; their annual spending power is estimated at over $2 trillion.

Matthew Taylor, a consumer market analyst at Datamonitor, which recently did a survey of boomers, said size and affluence make boomers a market to be reckoned with and noted that boomers–especially “empty nesters”—are still likely to upgrade and buy premium products despite the recession.

If you’re targeting boomers, realize they are still price-sensitive and want value. Yes, they’ll spend more—but only if they’re getting quality.

Within the boomer cohort, an especially good market to target is boomer men. Author and marketing consultant Brent Green, writing in MediaPost’s Engage:Boomers e-newsletter, notes, “nearly 6,000 baby boomer men turn 50 every day and a boomer male turns 60 about every 15 seconds.”

Boomer men have “transformed every life stage they’ve occupied,” writes Green, who cites studies from the National Marketing Institute showing that boomer men have been spending discretionary dollars despite the recession—a trend he believes will continue  as we move towards recovery. “Boomer men are changing the meaning of aging,” writes Green, who predicts that as they pass 50,  boomer men will continue to “acquire more.”

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New twists on the cupcake business

Posted in Starting a Business on March 8th, 2010 by Karen Axelton – Be the first to comment

By Karen Axelton

photo butch bakeryCupcake businesses remain hot, but now some new twists are popping up. Here are two we’ve seen recently.

Manly Cupcakes: FINS.com reported on the story of David Arrick, a Wall Street Lawyer who started a cupcake business after being laid off and noticing long lines outside New York City’s Magnolia Bakery. He saw an article describing cupcakes as “pink and magical” and decided they could also be masculine.

Arrick’s online cupcake delivery business, Butch Bakery, sports an unabashedly manly design and touts the manifesto: “We make manly cupcakes. For manly men.” What makes them so manly? Part of it’s liquor: flavors include kahlua-soaked vanilla cake with Bailey’s Bavarian cream, brandy-soaked lemon cake with orange-infused chocolate ganache filling, and chocolate and beer-infused cake with beer buttercream frosting. Of course, there are also non-alcoholic flavors like caramel cake with salted caramel filling; and maple cake with milk chocolate ganache and crumbled bacon.

Ironically, Arrick admits most orders have been placed by women. Brides have also asked him if he’ll make wedding cakes, and the Food Network approached him to see if he wants to audition for its show “Cupcake Wars.”

“It’s surprisingly a cutthroat environment for cupcakes,” Arrick told FINS.com, but that isn’t stopping him. Currently with so many orders his site is backlogged, Arrick is planning to expand to Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles this year.

Wine and Cupcakes: Combining two hot trends, sisters Sandy Neves and Josie Genaro launched Sisters Cupcakes by Design in Cathedral City, California. The company sells 23 varieties of gourmet cupcakes and caters weddings and other events. But one marketing tool that’s worked especially well is its wine and cupcake tastings.

Held several times a month, the tastings pair flavors like coconut lime, chocolate orange and spumoni cupcakes with various wines.The events have been extremely successful for the sisters, who also offer tea and cupcake tastings that can be held at clients’ homes for events like wedding or baby showers.

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Targeting African-American consumers, small-business lending and more

Posted in Money, Sales & Marketing, Starting a Business on March 5th, 2010 by Rieva Lesonsky – Be the first to comment

Find out about an untapped market you may not be targeting–African-American consumers–and how to reach them in my blog on AT&T’s SmallBusinessInSite.

Get the latest on the state of small-business lending in my blog on iBank.com.

Finally, read whyRieva Lesonskysome of America’s biggest brands are turning to franchising in my post on the AllBusiness.com Franchise Blog.

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Why not get over your fears and start a business?

Posted in Starting a Business on March 4th, 2010 by Rieva Lesonsky – Be the first to comment

By Rieva Lesonsky

photo grooverJen Groover, inventor of the Butler Bag, is an innovative entrepreneur who’s a real inspiration to others. If you’re thinking about starting a new business but your fears are holding you back, pre-order a copy of her forthcoming book What If? & Why Not? How to Transform Your Fears Into Actions and Start the Business of Your Dreams.

Groover knows that the biggest roadblock to startup success isn’t the outer obstacles like getting a license or even finding financing, but the inner obstacles that keep you stuck in the status quo. “This is a book about overcoming self-doubt and the fear of failure so that you can take action,” she writes.

The book’s chapters are structured around specific fears, such as, “What if everyone tells me I can’t do it?” or “What if I’m terrified of selling?” In each chapter, Groover addresses the fear and offers a series of “Why Nots” to help you overcome it. She also includes anecdotes from real-life entrepreneurs who share how they overcame fears.

There are many business books that will tell you the nuts and bolts steps to startup, but Groover’s edge is in addressing those inner steps that are often the biggest and hardest to take.

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In web sites we trust: VeriSign announces new product

Posted in Management, Sales & Marketing, Starting a Business on February 23rd, 2010 by Maria Valdez Haubrich – Be the first to comment

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

TRUSTEDToday, the world’s most recognized online trust mark, VeriSign, announced an extension of its authentication and verification services. “We recognize what small businesses want is to establish credibility,” explained Fran Rosch, senior vice president of authentication for VeriSign.  For Web sites that outsource their shopping cart or payment functions to third-party providers or for information-only Web sites, the new VeriSign Trust™ Seal will bring the same image of confidence and trust to customers that the long-established VeriSign Secured® Seal does. The VeriSign Trust Seal pairs the familiar VeriSign checkmark circle with the words “VeriSign Trusted,” enabling Web sites of any size to capitalize on displaying the  highly-recognized and respected brand seen on well-established Web sites. For a small company, a reputation of trust can increase traffic and secure customer loyalty.

Available next week for Web sites in North America, the VeriSign Trust Seal costs $299 for a one-year license. Here’s what you get for your money:

• Authentication: Validates that a Web site represents an actual business and is not a scam.

• Daily malware scan: VeriSign will scan your site daily for signs of hackers trying to inject malicious code on your site. The VeriSign Trust Seal tells visitors they don’t have to worry about picking up a virus when visiting your site.

• Seal-in-search results. VeriSign will partner with shopping search engines such as TheFind, which will display the VeriSign Trust Seal in the search results reassuring customers your site is a trusted site.

For more information on the VeriSign Trust Seal go to www.verisign.com/trust-seal/index.html.

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