The One Thing You Need to Start a Business in Retirement is...

hi everyone its Margaret here with sixty

in me hope you're doing great today

thanks so much for being here as always

I hope you're having a wonderful day

wherever you are got something fun plan

for yourself hope you're going out and

doing something interesting today you

know this is the time of our lives where

we have choices you know we have haven't

got the same commitments that we had

when we were younger and we've got the

ability to just go and do what we want

so hope that you got something fun

planned for yourself it's really

important that you do that and it's one

of the reasons honestly that we started

60 and me because when I well I was 59

for many years before I finally accepted

I was 60 and and when I discovered that

there was not very much out there for us

in terms of motivation and inspiration

you know groups and communities that

were focused on the older woman you know

the woman was the older the aging

beautifully woman who's you know just

making that transition it's almost like

you're in high school again you've got

all kinds of discoveries to make anyway

I hope that you're doing great I've been

having a really fun last few days

because we have just announced our first

cruise with she cruises which is the

sister site 260 and me and we have about

35 women now who have planned to join us

and lots of others are making up their

minds about whether to come or not and

it's really been great and the thing I

think there's been the most interesting

is that I've got to meet people kind of

one-on-one you know I've got

conversations going on email and these

are women in our 60 and me community and

also in our patreon group just honestly

such a fun group I'm having such a great

time over there with our patreon

supporters if you want a little bit more

relaxed conversation that's the place to

go

we talk about all kinds of cookie

wonderful things and I do exclusive

videos and like yesterday I just posted

one on a little chat I have with my

grandson who's two and it was kind of

basically bye-bye Bubba and we had lots

of fun with that and I posted that on

the patreon group and that's the kind of

stuff we can do there because a bit more

personal but anyway with the 60 and me

crews are with the she curses crews we

actually discovered that people are

working

they're busy there you know we've got

full time people working people who are

transitioning to a new business

we've got grandmother's people that are

divorced I've got some people that have

just lost husbands who want to go on a

cruise to kind of draw a line under

everything and start again so as we've

been discovering new women we're finding

there is a complexity and in that

complexity it's beautiful that I'm gonna

get to meet these people of course on

the cruise but also that I just have a

insight into who's out there in our

world and it's some it's richer and more

involved and dynamic then I probably

ever imagined anyway I forgot to mention

my tea because I always mention my

little tea this morning

this one I'm drinking it's a green tea

it's a matcha green tea broke my pucker

and I like green tea it's kind of my

well it's pretty much my go-to tea other

than my English breakfast but anyway I

just wanted to share that with you

though that I appreciate all of you out

there doing different things we've got

women in Asia Europe lots in the is in

the states lots in Canada and it's just

really really cool to know that you're

there for us so thank you

now the topic today I was actually

talking as I said about people who are

working still and who are thinking about

doing an entrepreneur adventure and it's

some it's like you know you're at the

edge of a cliff it's kind of like okay I

spent near 35 40 years doing this now I

want to do that for myself you know I

was a teacher I want to now do something

with teaching I learned language you

know and I want to do something with

language I was a an accountant I was a

nurse a doctor I was a writer all these

things communications manager all the

things that you did in your corporate

world you know are thinking how on earth

kind you know learn how to start a

business utilizing those skills so

Hilary Henderson who's one of our

bloggers wrote an article on why you

need a mentor to excel in a

post-retirement

job or an entrepreneur adventure

and you know you think about mentors as

people that know something that you

don't know and maybe you had a mentor

when you are working you know perhaps

even when you started working they gave

you someone to talk to who I do know the

ropes they knew what to do they

anticipated the questions that would be

asked and so they kind of were your you

know your buddies the the ones that got

you started and when you're trying to

start a small business of your own

you're actually wearing like multiple

hats and it's really important to know

where your gaps are you know where know

where the areas that you're not so good

with and find people that can help you

through that not so much just teaching

you what you don't know but asking you

the questions and giving you you know

what their experience was now Hillary

does a really good job of this she's

actually a coach a work coach which is

different than a mentor a mentor is

someone who you know it's just really a

specific and experience in what you're

trying to do they've been through the

bumps they've walked their talk and they

are the people that you know know your

business well a coach is someone who

doesn't necessarily have any experience

in your area of expertise but someone

that you know that has the ability to

ask the questions and knows the maybe

the legislation and knows the the things

you have to do to set up a business but

anyway a mentor and the importance of a

mentor um where do you find them well if

you look at your LinkedIn profile right

now if you've got LinkedIn you'll see

all kinds of people who you worked with

who are now perhaps retired themselves

if you don't have LinkedIn you've got a

rolodex you've got a book you got

addresses your people that you knew and

these are people sometimes that are not

doing a full-time job anymore and

they've got some extra time to sit down

with you and help guide you through the

steps so they've usually taken the

knocks and they know what to anticipate

and that probably is the most important

thing now it can be a very short term

you know can you help you can ask them

could you help me for just a month while

I get my business started you can lure

them in with some perhaps you know a

benefit I'll do this for you give them

back but usually a mentor is someone

who's got a little time and is willing

to give and you know people have asked

me for example would I be a mentor to

them you know in the last few years and

honestly I do not have a spare minute

because I'm trying to run my business so

you want to look for someone who is

through that that doorway and now has

some time to sit down with you and and

help so what are the qualities of a good

mentor so Hilary is a coach lists these

kind of things now they're important

they are first of all a good listener

they know how to listen to you truly

listen and not just be waiting for their

you know what they're going to say or

tell you what they did they really want

to hear you know that what you what

you're trying to accomplish so they're

good listeners and they're not just

interested in telling you how they did

it

they've got some other broader you know

ability they are looking to find answers

to questions they want to pull out of

you the questions that you've got so

that they can say ah well in my

experience this is what happens this is

what you could anticipate I'm doing and

so just having that kind of knowledge of

the process is super important and some

the most important thing I think in some

ways is regardless of whether they were

in exactly the same business as you I

mean they may have been an accountant in

financial services and you may have been

an accountant in a in a dental office

you know it's like there's totally

different they will know how to present

to you some different viewpoints you

know what if what if you try this or

what if that happens so they can give

you a kind of a lens on possibility and

I think that's super important with a

mentor they've they've walked the talk

for sure but they're usually people that

are big hearted and maybe very busy but

so you know you want to make sure that

you ask them and set an expectation so

that you're not overwhelming them either

but I have had several mentors in my

life couple have been buses employ my

managers and we've gotten to the point

in a relationship where we just decided

hey

you know we've kind of got a rhythm

going here and what we're what we're

doing I worked with one man Austin who

was just a beautiful mentor for me he

probably didn't even know he was a

mentor in that formal sense but he

taught me so much about selling and

about to the art of selling he took me

about people he psychology just knowing

how to deal with situations not just at

the surface but below

I mean honestly he was my greatest

mentor but these are people that often

don't necessarily call themselves a

mentor but they agree with you that

they're gonna work with you on this

journey and then helps you so if you're

starting to set up a new business maybe

this is something that you want to do

now I was actually you know I've got

these some deck of cards I actually look

at everyday my inspirational aging

beautifully deck of cards which you've

got so many good things in them but

there's one here I want to read to you

and it's you know just to give you some

insight into this idea of sharing your

wisdom

I love these illustrations back it's so

beautiful every time I look at them I'm

inspired but it says here wisdom grows

golden with age but what use is gold if

you never spend it you have so much to

offer the world share your wisdom with

young people be a mentor and get

involved in causes that you care about

now you can be a mentor there to meet

new people and inspire them with your

knowledge inspire them with your life

experience your businesses your wisdom

is priceless you've lived it now share

it so that's that's I think a really

good tone to set for mentoring because

you could be an enter for someone else -

honestly it doesn't take that long it

every week maybe half an hour an hour

over coffee but it's just that whole

idea of sharing so I hope that was

useful I hope that you've got inspired

by Hillary's article about mentorship

and if you've got some area that you're

looking for mentorship mentorship put it

in the comment section below

say hey I'm starting the business doing

this I've got a retail shop I'm opening

I want to do this

you know what advice can you give me put

anybody out there like to be my mentor

for one hour o month let's do it let's

try to share our expertise here at sixty

and me this is kind of what we can

offer each other we can share our wisdom

so hope that you're doing great I hope

this has helped you we're all here

trying to you know make it fun and

profitable in our 60s and it's really my

pleasure to be here with you guys so

have a fabulous day go out and do

something good as I said at the

beginning have a wonderful wonderful day

and we'll talk again very very soon take

care everybody bye for now