Early Retirees in New Ventures, Mostly for Fun

A recent article in the New York Times described a new breed of entrepreneur rebooters now coming on the business scene.

“Not the hard-driving type who makes the business news pages,” the Times reported in an article by Brent Bowers. “Rather, the laid-back, come-what-may variety. Many of them are part of the first wave of America’s 76 million baby boomers who are taking early retirement and turning their hobbies into small businesses. Very small businesses.”

The Times said the new entrepreneurs see their microbusinesses as a way to give focus to a favorite pastime, get more zest out of life and make a little money. The best part is they do not care if the ventures fail.

Ty Freyvogel, a small-business consultant and investor in Pittsburgh, predicts that the ranks of early retirement dabblers will swell as they discover they have too much time and not quite enough money. “If they do the proper research and can get started without putting a significant amount of capital behind them initially, these types of small start-ups can get going with little risk,” he said.

Three of these entrepreneurial rebooters were described in Bowers’ article.

Carl Boast, owner of Peaceable Kingdom Photos in Moneta, Va., quit his job as a neuroscientist in the pharmaceutical industry five years ago at age 55 and became a nature photographer.

He says he is too busy hiking, boating, reading, writing songs and traveling to fit the definition of an entrepreneur. “I’ve put very little effort into marketing,” he said. “I’m not out to make money or change the world.” He has created a Web site, he says, but it is “buried in Earthlink somewhere” and is out of date.

He makes a few hundred dollars a year, but it's not about the money. What really motivates him, he said, is “sharing my pictures to convey the idea, ‘Wasn’t this a neat moment?’”

Jan Oudemool of Harwich, Mass., 65, retired five years ago from a job as a special-education teacher and not long after began making decorative mobiles in his home.

Last year, he sold about 35 for close to $4,000, more than double the revenue of the previous year, his first in business. He’s pleased with the growth – not so much for the money as for getting his creations out of his house so they won’t clutter up his basement.

He has a Web site, business cards and a niche market. But he says he knows next to nothing about business, did no research or planning for his company and does not want it to grow.

Bowers, the author of the article, has also recently started a business. Formerly a New York Times editor, he took early retirement two years ago and opened a business writing freelance articles and giving occasional speeches.

“I do not know a whole lot more about the mechanics of running a business than Mr. Boast or Mr. Oudemool,” wrote Bowers. “But I guess I’m a quasi-entrepreneur like them. I’m doing this for the fun, not the money. I love being (mostly) my own boss and I am even tempted by the delusion that I may make it big some day.”