March of over 50s startup army

A select but growing band of grey entrepreneurs may find some Budget cheer next month from Chancellor Gordon Brown, who is thought to be looking at ways of encouraging greater numbers of older people to start in business.

Special help - including money, advice and loan guarantees - available for female entrepreneurs and ethnic minorities could be extended to over-50s thinking of going it alone.

The Government’s £50m Phoenix fund, targeted mainly at boosting entrepreneurship in deprived areas and among minority groups, has made £1.4m available to help older people start in business, and it is thought considerably more could be on the way.

This might appear to be one group that needs no encouragement to go it alone. Official figures show that 14% of those aged 50 to 54 are self-employed, rising to 18% for those aged 55 and over. For the population as a whole, the figure is 11%.

But the picture is not as rosy as the figures suggest. The Government’s household survey of entrepreneurs in 2001 asked how many people were thinking of starting a business.

In 2002, the survey team went back to those ‘thinkers’ who could be traced and found that 25% of those aged 16 to 24 had started a business, 36% were still thinking about it and 35% had dropped the idea. In the 45-64 age group, just 5% had started a business, 61% were still thinking about it and 34% had decided against.

One man who has done a lot of thinking is Justin Lewis. More than 20 years ago, he tried to buy his wife a card to celebrate the birth of their son Tyrone, but nothing reflected his Jamaican background.

It was only after he retired from his job in telecommunications that Justin, 59, and his second wife, Millie, from Hackney, east London, launched their own business, Lewis Hanson Greetings, and found their niche market in the African-Caribbean and African-Asian communities.

The couple hope that their three-year-old business will support them through retirement. Justin says: ”We realised that we couldnt rely on our pensions. We believe in our product and hope that it will be an international success.”

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