Do you still want to be in the rat race as a pensioner??
I’ve seen a few articles recently about the increase in businesses being run by over 60’s. My immediate thought was “wow … pensioner power” and loved the idea that many people nowadays are still enjoying being an active part of business into the their 60’s and 70’s, but then I started to wonder if my optimism was foolhardy and the fact that so many pensioners are still working into their “twilight” years is a problem that could spiral in future.
Accounting firm Moore Stephens did some research and found that 21% of small business directors are over retirement age, and more than half of those are over 70!
Barclays have also commissioned some similar research and found that businesses ran by over 55’s have increased by 63% in the past decade.
Not all of this is bad news, as it’s great that many over 50’s and 60’s are proving it’s never too late to fulfil a life ambition of running their own company, along with the average living age rising this is great news for the UK economy.
Barclays estimate that start-up businesses set up by those aged over 55 in 2015 contributed over £7billion to the UK Economy in the following year. However I do worry how many of the older entrepreneurs, especially those over 70, are still working hard due to bad retirement planning.
Having a poor or none existent exit strategy can lead to business owners working for many years more than they originally hoped. It’s like setting off in a car without knowing where you’re going – there are so many roads to choose from, if you don’t have a destination in mind, you could end up anywhere, don’t know how long it’s going to take or how much it’s going to cost you!
At TI Accountancy we believe that having yearly targets and goals is a great way of knowing where your company is heading and working towards you end goals. We don’t just do this for our own company but offer a popular VIP service where I visit our clients in their office environment and together we plan the next 12 months and set realistic targets and goals. I then use accountability to ensure that our clients look at this annual map to make sure they don’t go off track and lose sight of their goals.
For accountability in our own company we have monthly meetings to check our numbers are still working. Without setting targets and goals I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to grow TI Accountancy into the business support experts we are today.
I haven’t achieved this on my own, but have an amazing team around me that helps to achieve goals and targets, whether they are financial or customer service based. All this planning has led to me being able to take a more of a marketing role in the company, living and working from Spain, while the team keep the company running from the UK maintaining the high level of customer service we have always provided.
If you’d like any help with business growth or would like to chat to one of our tax planning experts we’d be happy to help, but as a business owner, whatever size your business, I recommend that you have a think about where you see your business heading and the financial impact for you when you reach retirement age, as I sincerely hope that if you are working in your 70’s it’s because you love what you do and not because it’s the only way to pay your heating bill.
