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Bizstarters Press ReleasesFor A Retirement Business, Ways To Find The Best Fit: Tips From a Business Start-Up Expert Lifestyle Choice Should Come First For 50+ Entrepreneurs, Says Expert Bizstarters Company ProfileHow We Started Bizstarters is the evolution of the Go Smart Business Start-Up Center founded in Chicago by Jeff Williams in 1988 to provide live entrepreneurial training. He was stimulated to start his company after interviews with 100 business owners of shuttered businesses disclosed that many were profitable when they closed. Their lack of a well-laid plan had simply made running the businesses too demanding for them. Jeff thought there must be a better way to prepare to launch a business and so the Go Smart Business Start-Up Center was born. In 1998, Bizstarters.com was organized to adapt the Go Smart curriculum to Internet-based learning. The Go Smart training programs are now being used by new entrepreneurs both across the U.S. and around the world. From working with an increasing number of clients who are age 50 and over, it became obvious to Jeff and the Go Smart Center staff that a business start-up course specifically designed for the 50+ individual was needed. In 2004, Jeff and his staff created Starting A Business In Your Fifties And Beyond, a self-study course which guides the user to use their interests, experience and desired lifestyle to identify a business idea that uniquely suits them. And then it shows them how to use a proven 25-step business planning process to launch their business...in a matter of weeks. In 2005, the "10 Keys To Starting a Great Business At 50 And Beyond" interactive workshop and accompanying DVD & workbook combination were introduced. To spotlight the new training course, interactive workshop and DVD product, and to support the marketing of additional training materials and courses aimed at the 50+ audience, the Bizstarters website was completely redesigned in July 2005 to solely feature content, training and advice aimed at the "fifty and beyond" market segment. What We DoHere is a quick run-down of what we offer:
This business start-up program combines four components and is offered in three forms. Program Components
Program Versions
This two-hour live workshop answers the ten most commonly asked questions about starting a business at 50 and beyond. A professionally-produced DVD recording of the workshop as made in February 2006 and is now offered for sale through the Bizstarters website, as well as through membership organizations and for-profit companies. Workshop participants and DVD users individualize their learning experience through a series of revealing worksheets contained in the accompanying 40-page workbook. Questions from participants and users are quickly answered by the Bizstarters staff through a private, online website location, the address of which is included in the workbook.
We offer revenue-sharing affiliate marketing of the "Starting a Business In Your Fifties And Beyond" self-study course through complimentary web-based marketing companies, as well as special discount pricing on quantity purchase through affinity groups, such as retired teachers associations. We also market the full range of Bizstarters products through joint-marketing partnerships with retirement coaches and small business consultant across the U.S.
Visitors to the Bizstarters website can access our special FREE learning tool:
In addition, we offer on our website a Free Resources area, which includes:
Company BackgrounderThe Path Not TakenRarely is so much time and money invested in an effort with such uncertain outcomes as is the new business planning process in America. More than 1.5 million new businesses are launched each year, with more than 70% doomed to fail by the fifth year. Millions of dollars of start-up capital are wasted, not to mention the psychological toll on hundreds of thousands of well-intentioned people. American teenagers understand that they must take training before they are permitted to drive a car. But as adults the same individuals attempt a process that demands even more knowledge, with little or no training - launching a new business. What makes the high rate of small business failure so bitterly ironic is that the process of business launch is based on steps that have been successfully completed many times before. At Bizstarters, we offer step-by-step training and planning tools designed to feature a wide variety of business planning techniques that draw from the real-world, street-smart experience of the Bizstarters founder and CEO, Jeff Williams, and hundreds of his start-up clients. We have found that: the path is often not taken, because it is not made clear! Bizstarters Provides The Path
The Bizstarters.com site presents a clearly defined planning process
for moving from the entrepreneurial tingle to a smoothly running business.
Key decision points are based on the accumulated wisdom we have gained
from guiding more than 4,000 new entrepreneurs through live and online entrepreneurial
training programs. Company Fact SheetBizstarters is devoted to guiding entrepreneurially-oriented individuals, who are age 50 and over, to successfully launch and run their own small businesses.We fulfill the needs
of aspiring entrepreneurs leading very busy lives by combining a disciplined
planning process, a shared community, carefully selected products
and services, a committed interactive dialogue and a sincere desire
to witness successfully launched businesses. Thanks to my grandmother's promotion among her bridge club ladies, I suddenly found myself committed
to cut 40 lawns a week. So, I got three of my Little League buddies and together we ran a full-time summer lawncare
business. Even as I settled down into a fairly traditional corporate career path after earning a business degree from
the University of Virginia, I continued to engage in entrepreneurial projects, such as earning
a cool $1000 for organizing a Spring trip to
New Orleans for a group of my college friends. I started my sales career selling packaging materials for a division of Corning Glass Works, but quickly realized that
what I really enjoyed was working with the marketing guys on new products, such as Corelleware. Guided by the direction of the Corning HR department that an MBA would help me transition into product development,
I scoured the U.S. for a MBA program that was strong in marketing and from which I could graduate
as quickly as possible, as money was tight. My choice: Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, which permitted me to graduate after four straight quarters,
having studied with some of the top marketing professors in the U.S. I'd been told by the business school Dean that I was being groomed to become someone's CEO, but I couldn't get the
memory out my head of that summer when I was 10. When I finally jumped out of the corporate world at age 39 to start my first business, the Go
Smart Business Start-Up Center, my corporate buddies used to rib me about what
I was losing. But,
by the time I started Bizstarters at age 50, the very same friends had
changed their outlook. Now, my Boomer friends continuously call
me with ideas on how they can take early retirement from their
corporate jobs and join me as small business owners! I understands from first-hand experience the financial challenges that
many of my 50+ peers are facing. Like more than 50% of the U.S. work force,
I am not eligible to receive a pension. My retirement security comes
from the salary and retirement savings my business affords me. I am a nationally-renowned business start-up coach and trainer and my Go Smart start-up course has won
state and national awards for its effectiveness in helping downsized corporate managers successfully transition to
I have written eleven small business workbooks, guides, CDs and DVDs and regularly offer a series of
interactive live workshops and telegroups, as well as acting as a contributing editor to several 50+ websites,
including letlifein.com. I am frequently quoted in national print and online business publications, such as MSN.com, Fortune.com,
Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and Wall Street Journal.com. To date, more than 4,000 new entrepreneurs have completed my business start-up training program. I live in suburban Chicago with my wife Marianne, who after working
for thirty years as a court administrator, recently started her own 50+
business as the owner of a shabby-chic home accessories business. I take a hands-on approach with my 50+ business start-up clients – I’m
always just one e-mail or phone call away when a business planning or management
question arises. |
At age 10, I had my first entrepreneurial encounter almost by accident.
