Hello, and welcome to the Midlife Business Show with Suzanne Mountain. This is the podcast that celebrates all those of us who are building a business during our middle years. I’m an ex corporate girl who started my business six years ago in my fifties. And I’m loving it. This podcast is here to inspire you with conversations with other entrepreneurs about the messy and magical ups and downs of this period of our lives. Plus, I’ll be sharing simple, actionable step by step strategies to help you build a business with impact and a life that you love

Suzanne (00:43):

Speaker 1 (00:05):

Hello and welcome to the Midlife Business Show. 

Now, it will come as no surprise to most of you here, that ageism in the workplace and in any environment actually really winds me up. I’m a believer in positive aging.  In living our best lives whatever age we are. Be that 20 or 50 or 90. 

We should live our lives as best we can. So as an ex HR leadership development person and having spent 30 plus years in large Fortune 500 companies, one of my key values is around equality. And of course, as I’ve got older, the value around ageism has become even more important because, you know, now that I’m in my early sixties, it is really, really key to me that I demonstrate and role model how wonderful it is to be at this age and to be able to do all the things that I can do.

(01:53):

You know, I recognise that being in the workplace can be a difficult place for people to be when they’re in their fifties. I was fortunate to be in a leadership position, and I think if you are higher up in a large organisation, you are a bit more protected from some of the ages, and that happens at the lower levels. And being an HR professional, obviously I did what I could during that time to make sure that it wasn’t happening in the organisation that I was working for. But large corporate organisations really, really tend to celebrate and promote a youth culture. And that can be very alienating for people who feel that they no longer fit when they’re overlooked for promotion and feel that they’re not encouraged to step up to the next level. There’s assumptions made about what they want from their career and from their life.

(02:53):

So it’s no surprise that in my mid fifties I decided to leave my corporate role and set up my own coaching business. And part of that desire was to actually do business on my terms that fitted with my values and had led to my mission of working with midlife business owners to help them set out profitable businesses on their own terms. And this podcast, the Midlife Business Show and the previous 40 odd episodes, talk about and share my learnings from this journey that I’ve been on over the past six years. So this week a report was published by 55 Work Redefined, and there are some absolutely shocking statistics in the report. The report set out to look at the impact of ageism on individuals in the workforce and showed that the relationship between the over fifties and work is broken. Let me talk you through some of those statistics.

(04:01):

So almost one third of retirees felt they had been forced to retire. That’s despite now as not having a statutory retirement age where you have to leave the organisation like we had when I was growing up, and I’m sure when many of you were growing up as well, 70% of people felt it is difficult to start a career when you’re over 50.

So say you’ve done a job for all your working life, or you know you’ve done many jobs and you get up to 50, but you physically can’t do that job anymore. You want to do something different. 70% of people feel it’s difficult to do that to change career when you’re over 50. And here’s a real shocker. Two out of three people who are over 50 expect agism in the recruitment process. I mean, that’s disgraceful in this day and age, isn’t it?

(05:02):

These are shocking statistics, and especially when you put them against the background of companies talking about talent shortages and a volume of unfilled vacancies. So we need to be finally putting an end to ageism. We need to be drawing a line under this and making it as unacceptable as racism or inequality based on somebody’s disability. The report also says that six in 10 people in their fifties are open to re-skilling. So you know, it is not like people believe those old, old phrases like, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. We know that we’re still able to learn the new things at this time in our life. And I want you to think about this in terms of the number of entrepreneurs who are over 50. In fact, the over fifties make up the bulk of highly skilled global freelance workforce and community. So those with the amazing skills are out there in the world already.

(06:13):

But the trouble with the freelance community is they’re under the radar. So they’re working, you know, within organisations, often they under the radar, not out there running their own businesses in the same sense and being visible. So people don’t see it. They don’t see those people being active in the workforce in the same way as they do with people in employment and also with people running their own businesses. And of course, the danger of freelancing, just like other forms of self-employment and being an entrepreneur, is the lack of benefits that can come with that. So the lack of contributions to national insurance, the lack of paid pension, those things can really impact individuals. But that doesn’t mean that starting your business in the fifties is not the right thing to do.

So the report actually states that nearly 30% of people based in London are considering entrepreneurial endeavours and that that is higher in London than it is in any other region.

(07:26):

And I want to speak to those people who are thinking about starting their own businesses. I want to encourage them to find out and explore more about it, this exciting option to actually run your own business. I want to say to them, do it.

Grow a business on your terms. Continue your work life on your terms, because 47% of employees want flexibility around when they need to work, and 32% want to work for a sense of fulfilment and purpose. And both of those needs can be met really clearly from running your own business because you get to call the shots. Your own business can provide these things and so much more.

And the ONS say that more than four in 10 new businesses in the UK are founded by people over 50. So you know, people are doing this, I did it. And if you are listening, you know, maybe you did it too or maybe you know someone that’s about to do it.

(08:40):

So running your own business allows you to call the shots in terms of how many days or hours you’re gonna work each week and who you’re gonna work with and what exactly are you gonna do. You get to make the decisions.

Now I’m not pretending it’ll be easy to set up and run your own business in your fifties, and that is the same regardless of your age. However, it’s definitely worth the effort.

So if you are listening and you’ve been made redundant and you are in your forties or in your fifties, or even in your sixties, or if you are listening and you’ve been forced into early retirement, or if you are listening and you know someone in those situations, then get in contact. You know, I offer a free call where we can talk about your situation, we can talk about your skills and talk about your idea for what you might do.

And I will give you some genuine advice on whether I think that’s gonna work for you. So if you want to talk it through or you know someone that should be talking it through, then book a free call. Feel free to share this episode with someone you know that needs to hear this message. I’ll pop a link to the report and the show notes for any of you who are interested in reading it. And I look forward to speaking to you soon. Take care everybody, and let’s fight ageism. Bye for now.

(10:14):

Okay, that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, rate and review the Midlife Business Show. And if you’ve enjoyed it, tell your business buddies all about it. Bye for now.