Starting a business in your 40s

Did you know that a landmark study of almost three million start-ups discovered that the best age to start a business is not as young as you may think? There are a lot of examples of entrepreneurs that started in their 40s and are uber successful.

* People like Donald Fisher who co-founded The Gap was 41 when he founded that company in 1969. Today that company is a nine-billion-dollar company.

* How about Brenda Cascio, who in her late 40s started GB Design House - a wedding customization company which today sells more than a million dollars' worth annually.

* Auria Abraham, at age 44, founded Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen which can be found under the same website (https://auriasmalaysiankitchen.com/). She started mostly for work-life balance after having her first child at 39.

* Robert Noyce founded Intel when he was 41 years old. You know the rest of that story and what a success this visionary company is.

* Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn in his 30s, but was in his 40s when the business went public.

In fact, according to the study, a business founder’s age being in the 40s means that their business has two times the average chance of success. That means if you want to start a business in your 40s, it’s an ideal time to do it.

There is one thing that stands out as a reason for this fact, and that is implementation or execution. You can have all the dreams and ideas you want but without executing the plan, you won’t see success. And the fact is, people who are older with more experience tend to be much better at execution.

Most 40-year-old people also have something that most 20-year-old people don’t have, which is access to start-up funding. You may already earn a decent wage in your career, and you’re more established and know more about what you want.

Maybe you have savings or equity in your home. Even if you were a stay-at-home parent, by the time you reach your 40s, you still have more confidence in who you are and what you know (and are more aware and accepting that there are things you don’t know) than a 20-something person.

You can start any type of business you are interested in, from digital companies to physical companies. You can create software or start a new clothing line. It’s totally up to you. While there is age discrimination in the workplace, there is no age discrimination for starting a business; in fact, you’re more likely to get VC funding if you’re older and have more working experience.

The key to being successful is to do something you know, love, and really feel passionate about. You know how to do it because you have the experience to create your business plan and follow it to success.