Real Life Retirement:  what real people are doing after age 55 

 

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Best Ways to Build, Promote and Sustain a Retiree Business

So you are setting up your own self-employed business now that you are retired.   Your best choice, as we write on Best Retiree Job, is to work as a freelance or consultant using the skills, knowledge and training you already have.  So after you have gone through the 7 steps of setting up your new retiree business and made the initial phone calls, what should you do next?

  1. Make Every Contact You Can To Promote Your New Business.   Hand out your cards to everyone you know socially or through business.  Send email to all your personal and professional contacts.  

Make sure they know you have a new business--and a new website--even though you retired from your previous job.  

Then continue tooting your own horn by telling every new person you meet what your business is.  Be careful, however, not to be obnoxious about it.  

2.  Show up in Public.  Attend conferences that relate to your business.  Learn about and go to other conferences where potential new clients may be in attendance.  If your business is a local one, be sure to attend the Chamber of Commerce.  You may want to join the local Rotary or other business group.  Better yet, offer to speak on a topic related to your business at one of the conferences or local groups.

3.  Write an Article.  One way to position yourself as an authority is to write an article for a magazine or trade paper and local newspaper.  Better yet, write a weekly or monthly column about a topic related to your business.  Believe us, assignments go to people who are authorities and who are well-known--not to unknowns. 

4. Publish a Newsletter.  On your website offer to send a monthly newsletter to anyone who signs up.  You can also send email to all your personal and professional contacts asking if they want to receive your newsletter--which will give you an instant subscriber list.  Do not send your newsletter to anyone who does not reply to your offer.  You do not want to be seen as an annoying pest.   One tip: make your newsletter short and snappy.  No longer than the equivalent of one typewritten page.  Keep an archive of your newsletters on your website. Each newsletter should be a separate page on your website. 

5. Publish a White Paper.  White Papers are articles on specific topics of interest to your prospective clients.  They are not published monthly--but perhaps once or twice a year.  They should focus on one newsworthy  or controversial topic, rather than the multiple topics in a monthly newsletter.  Keep your White Papers in an archive on your website.

 
A Real Life Retirement: 

Betsy moved to Nevada when she retired and decided to re-establish herself as an independent insurance agent, a business that relies greatly on personal contacts--which she did not have in her new community.  

She called the local college and offered to give a 2 hour evening seminar on the topic of "Women and Personal Finances". From this class, which she gave regularly, she developed a new client base for her retirement years. She also was very  active in her homeowners' association and that brought even more clients to her.

6.  Offer a Class.  Offer a short class on a topic related to your new company through a local adult education program or community college evening course to help you generate new business leads.  By doing this you are positioning yourself as an authority in your field--which is always desirable.

7.  Don't give up.  It takes persistence to start a new business.  A good reputation and a bit of luck can help, too.

About Press Releases.  An article in a newspaper or online media can increase your business enormously.  So the impulse to send out  press releases to trade publications or other media can be high.  But this public exposure will happen only if someone at the publication actually decides to use your news.  The 7 tips we list above are things that you control and have proven to be effective ways to promote self-employed businesses--without relying on someone else's decision.   We suggest that you read Jay Levinson's "Guerilla Publicity" for more information about getting publicity for your new venture.  

About Blogs.  Blogging can be incredibly time consuming.  Some people use their blogs successfully to promote their businesses, but beware becoming so involved with your daily blog that you quit focusing on your business.  Check out our information about blogs.

NOTE:  All names on this site have been changed to protect individual privacy.  
The stories are real, the names are not. 





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