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What happens in the brain of a baby boomer when they decide to abandon the corporate culture and strike out on their own? What are they thinking? What are their plans? What follows are some interesting examples from responders to our request for Self Employment stories. I've done some consolidating and editorializing for consistency and privacy. You might have read the story about our new friend Frank. He was booted out of his job in a most heinous fashion (my words not his). See his story at downsized. His bounce-back attitude was to declare that the corporate world had 'screwed him up' for the last time. He is taking the insurance agent test and is going to sell Medicare supplement insurance to retirees. As an independent consultant, he is promised an over abundance of pre-qualified leads. We'll keep up with his story. Competitive advantage: I have notes from baby boomers who have left their employment in disgust and opened competitive companies. I see this happens a lot in technology and service businesses. More about this later when I can consolidate the responses. One contributor described how he 'dropped out' of the corporate world, scraped enough money together to put up a small coin operated car wash in a 'washer free' zone. He's doing well. No employees just bushel baskets in his car to scoop up the money. Others have set themselves up as expert consultants charging huge fees to tell companies what to do and how to do it. A cute and funny story: It is quite a good example from the 'seeing a needed niche' and filling it category. A man who lives in a small town was sick and tired of coming home from his job in restaurant management (in the city) and finding nothing palatable to take the family out for a quick bite for supper. Sure there were fast food and 'an alarming quantity of Chinese and Mexican store fronts'. He'd had enough of the commute, the long hours, corporate pressure and headaches. He rented a store front just off the town square and painted a sign in the window, 'American Food Only'. What a great idea right? But wait! The story gets better. Every day his restaurant only serves one selection. One day it might be grilled cheese and tomato soup, another day perhaps fried chicken or pork chops with fixings. Other daily surprise menus included chef salads, manhattans, beans and weenies, burgers and fries ... get the picture? Customers line up around the block to eat whatever is served to them (on real dishes), drink their glass of water or iced tea. No bottled water or soda pop. Children could have a glass of milk if they wanted but no chocolate syrup. Daily menus are not even posted on the door. There is only one sign posted anywhere in the place: 'Ya get what ya got and ya shut up and eat it whether ya liked it or not'. Ahhhhhh makes me nostalgic for my childhood dinner table. This Baby Boomer entrepreneur has it all together. Niche, need, doing exactly what he wants to do. His biggest problem? He only has seating for 25. If the place is full, there is no waiting list or buzzing flashing pager. He doesn't even ever want to SEE one of those again. There is not even a choice to wait for next available table! If you were at the cash register after a table had been vacated and cleaned, you could have it. If there was no seating, your meal is automatically put into a carry out box and customers were instructed to take it home or elsewhere. What a great concept!!!! Our friend was able to do good deeds as well. There were free meals for all comers in exchange for policing the town square and courthouse lawn for trash every day. This kept the town council and courthouse occupants happy. An interesting side note: He told me he keeps 25 or more full servings for the after work clean up crew. In my ignorance I asked if his customers were such litter bugs that it took 25 people to clean up outside after them. His response, "Well, no not really. That's just about how many would go without supper". I quizzed him a bit more. His after hours guests were also served on real dishes. They didn't have to stand in line at the cash register, they just came in and sat down. The owner personally served each of his hungry guests and when there was enough to go around, he offered seconds and carry outs. This is a very good man with his spot in heaven already reserved.... he had no feeling of being taken advantage of. He felt like if he were ever hungry enough to need a good meal, he hoped one day someone would be there for him. I offered to promote his restaurant right here on this web site and his response was, "No thanks, I've accomplished my goal and I'm living my dream." See more about Baby Boomer Self Employment <NEXT
Your stories are welcome! We'll collect them, consolidate and publish. No real names or people are used so fear not. We'll protect your privacy and anonymity.
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