According to the Australian Small Business and Family Ombudsman, the most common age of small business owners is 50, compared to 45 in 2006, and nearly half of small businesses are owned by people 50 years and older.

So, is it a good idea to start a business when you’re aged over 50? We spoke to a couple of businesses who not only did this but in an entirely new industry. Here, they discuss the rewards and challenges they faced, plus their sage advice for anyone else considering a similar path.

A flash of inspiration

Sonia Wray established Sterling Fitness, a fitness club in Willougby NSW, in 2015 at age 52. She moved out of a corporate career in IT (and prior to that, a high school maths teacher), to establish the business from the ground up. She now has around 100 people attending her gym each week, which is targeted at a niche of women aged 50+.

When Sonia first left her job, she knew she wanted an alternative, but she was not sure what that would be. While hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, and seeing other people struggling to walk to the top by themselves, she was inspired to found a fitness business.

“After completing the appropriate certifications, I started the business in 2015 from a baseline of no clients. I had to build my reputation and offerings over several years,” she explains.

“Since there are so many fitness trainers offering the same thing, I needed to find differentiation. That's when I decided to focus on people like myself, primarily women over 50.”

Clients did not come overnight, and she started by training her neighbours and slowly moving into personal training clients.

“It was a challenging beginning as I had to believe in myself and do everything possible to build this business,” she says.

To build her clientele, she took on roles with NSW Health training older adults and started a hiking program for clients who were planning hiking trips overseas. And, through listening to clients and asking what they wanted, she gradually expanded her offering to include small group classes.

However, when the pandemic hit, she had to pivot quickly, and offered classes online and small group hikes which complied with Sydney’s lockdown rules.

For others who are thinking of doing similar, she says to firstly zero in on strategy, building a strong business plan and vision of where you want to be. Then, focus on sales.

“Sales is your revenue in. Identify the right pricing model. Prepare a financial plan, budget and map out how many clients and sales you need each month to be successful,” she says.

And, as well as sales, she finds it’s also important to keep an eye on expenses.

“Know every dollar in and out… and ensure you have a strategy to build revenue to match.”

She also recommends that those starting businesses research different ways to market their products or services and try different ideas.

“Measure the results and make changes based on those results,” she says.

And finally, she finds it important to focus on operations – especially, documenting procedures from the beginning.

“It’s easy to outsource basic tasks if they are well-documented,” she adds.

Scaling in a growing market

It’s still early days for Jane Harbison, who started her current e-commerce business, Jane Harbison Design, last August at the age of 52. She designs and sells PDF sewing patterns for boys and men – a far cry from her former career as an accountant.

Having just hit her 100th sale, Jane believes her digital product is very scalable in the fast-growing DIY market. Her ultimate goal is to sell one million patterns, but her immediate goals are monthly traffic of 3000 visits (currently between 1800-2000), an average order value of $35 (currently $28), and a conversion rate of 1% (currently 0.6%)

So far, most of her business comes through a mix of organic and paid traffic primarily from email campaigns, Google, Facebook/Instagram and Pinterest. 

“I’ve spent quite a bit of time refining my SEO. Since January, Google paid and organic has gone from the fifth and sixth highest source to the second and third,” she explains.

She says her motivation behind starting a business was two-fold – control of her life and a challenge for her creative and entrepreneurial skills.

“Starting a business gives me the freedom to set my own hours, work from home, and pursue my own passions. We have a seven-year-old son who I like to be around for,” she explains.

However, the transition was not without its challenges. She says it took a lot of bravery to put herself out there, but “you can’t be successful if no one knows about you”.

She also says she needed a lot of resilience and dedication to try something a different way when it doesn’t work.

“You will get lots of crickets,” she says. “But there is a quiet maturity that comes with age that helps you handle the awkward silences.”

What helped her to overcome challenges was firstly, having clarity on the problem her business was trying to solve, and secondly, surrounding herself with the right people.

“Over a long career, you get wise to whom you surround yourself with. Those people need to make you feel good about what you do and be very good at what they do. It gets you where you want to go quicker.”

How we help

If, like Sonia, you want to ensure your business has strong documentation and procedures, have a look at the range of lawyer-drafted templates and policies on My Business Workplace.