Age 45+ Have Expertise with Proven Value in the Market: Why Wouldn’t Freelancing Be For You?
During the second 1984 presidential debate, on October 21st, Ronald Reagan, the incumbent and 73 years old, was debating his Democratic nominee opponent, Walter Mondale. Reagan was asked by the moderator if at his age he really had the stamina any longer for the presidency. He responded with (see video):
“I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.” His answer was well received, and helped him overcome a fatigued looking performance in the first debate, and he rode the momentum from it to victory.
If you remember that presidential election, this note’s for you.
In 1984 our unemployment rate was 11%, which some of us may have been affected by. A hundred dollars then would be worth $254 now. And the music charts were dominated by Wham, Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr.), Phil Collins (Against All Odds), Huey Lewis and the News, Cyndi Lauper, Canada’s Corey Hart (Sunglasses at Night), Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Relax), and the Julio Iglesias-Willie Nelson duet (To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before)and the big albums in terms of enduring popularity were no doubt Prince’s Purple Rain, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.
Ok so you’ve honed your expertise over many years, maybe have a Reaganesque level of longitudinal experience, with lots of very satisfied “customers” – who may be colleagues you worked with, or in other companies you dealt with, or consumers frequenting the business you worked in. It certainly has been comfortable and convenient to work for someone and get a T4 slip every year for tax time. But as you look ahead, do you really want to keep going with the same routine someone else requires, or wait until a corporate downsizing eliminates your job?
Typical Barriers to Seniors Becoming Freelancers
Many older Canadians haven’t started their own small business before, nor found customers as a freelancer. It’s time to consider such a direction and the opportunity to keep working, but on your terms, when, where, and how much you want to do. Just because you step back alittle from the formal fulltime labour market doesn’t mean your expertise somehow loses value to others.
There may be a lingering perception in society, in addition to agism, that older Canadians aren’t tech and internet savvy, so freelancing may not be for them. You and I know that is out-of-date thinking. We may not be as tech savvy as young adults, but we have access to and know our way around plenty of the tech solutions we need, and learn about new ones.
Along with not having started a small business before, finding customers may come to mind for many seniors as a barrier. Certainly customer acquisition can be one of the biggest challenges, to start freelancing and often can remain an ongoing challenge. A solution to that would be a big help to all freelance seniors. [Hint: read on!]
At this point, I am tempted to use another famous Ronald Reagan quotation (see video) from June 12, 1987, to emphasize my comment about older Canadians overcoming barriers to become freelancers, including the mindset change needed: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”, in reference to tearing down the Berlin wall to help end the Cold War. Now I’m not suggesting any sort of equivalency. Just that sometimes we need to take what might seem to be a bold step.
Efficiently Enabling Age 45+ Businesspeople as Freelancers Selling Their Expertise
The last 10 years or so has seen the rise of the “gig economy” and websites acting as online marketplaces. Very often the target for these trends has been young adults. Now we have an online marketplace dedicated to Canadian seniors. And it was founded by Canadian seniors too. Elderberry.work is such a marketplace, which matches the expertise of those age 45+ with the needs of SMEs.
Older Canadians who want to sell their expertise as freelancers on Elderberry.work register and set up their profile within the relevant service category, so that potential SME customers can find them. Elderberry.work handles the matching of customers to freelancers, facilitates the communication to complete an agreement for service, and handles payments processing via a leading global payments company called “Stripe”.
Elderberry.work provides resources and links to help seniors get started as freelancers, and has a set of best practices, in conjunction with Stripe’s, that aim for a safe, secure, and efficient user experience.
There is a lot of power in a large community of age 45+ convening on Elderberry. work, attracting a massive number of SME customers drawn by its "one stop shop” efficiency in finding whatever business expertise they need.