Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

 

An authoritative study reveals the ideal age to be successful in launching a business.

Technology startups results are included in the study, which makes the age-revelation even more surprising.

You see, the ideal age to launch a business is 45. That’s really surprising when you consider the rampant ageism in the technology sector.

Conducted by two MIT professors and the Census Bureau, researchers studied 2.7 million entrepreneurs who hired at least one person between 2007 and 2014.

In addition to revealing the ideal age for an entrepreneur is 45, the study discloses some fascinating information.

The odds favor a 50-year-old person over a 30-year-old. The former is 2.2 times as likely to succeed over the latter.

In fact, the odds favor a 50-year-old over a 25-year-old by 2.8 times.

Compared to a 25-year-old, a 40-year-old is 2.1 times more likely to prevail.

The odds even favor entrepreneurs older than 45. A 60-year-old entrepreneur is 3.1 times more likely to beat a 30-year-old.

Moreover, here’s an astounding statistic: The 60-year-old is 1.7 times more likely to reach a very high level of success – the top 0.1 percent of all businesses.

Key reasons

While younger entrepreneurs can have good ideas, naturally there are reasons why they typically don’t stack up to 45-year-olds and older.

What counts most are strategy, specific tactics and execution. With a richer background and experience, it’s much easier for an older entrepreneur to make decisions and execute strategies.

So, experience is the best teacher. Younger people simply don’t know what they need to know. And to succeed in entrepreneurism, leadership is a key quality.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurs launch their small business with big ideas. Certainly, the business and the owner are synonymous – everything is based on the person’s personality. At the minimum before you start, there are six key questions to ask yourself.

True, there are many considerations before launching a business. But if you’re thinking about starting a business and you’re the right age and have the creativity, drive, ideas and talent – pursue your dream.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are two relevant articles in which The New York Times quoted me:

Been There… Done That… Here’s How – New York Times.” That’s when The New York Times invited me to coach their readers on entrepreneurship.

Countless readers emailed their questions for my solutions to their business challenges, which were published in “Advice on Taking an Entrepreneurial Leap – New York Times.”

Related articles:

Startup: 8 Tips to Organically Grow Your Business – Organically growing a business is a lot like organic farming. Organic farmers rich sources of organic matter for growth. If you’re like many entrepreneurs, it probably makes sense to grow organically.

Planning – Tips for Avoiding Growing Pains in Your Startup — For startups, there are questions about getting the work done before hiring, and how to quit your job before starting a business.

Startup Financial Planning: How to Get a Pragmatic Forecast – Unless you have a lot of startup experience, it can be a little tricky to make down-to-earth financial projections for your new company. Pragmatic assumptions are important in such a forecast.

Checklist — 11 Tips to Increase Your Startup’s Cash Flow – Cash flow is the salient dynamic that leads to the failure or success of a business. Here are 11 Biz Coach ways to maintain positive cash flow.

Why Startups Fail – Biz Coach Strategies on How to Win – It’s vital to conduct a thorough needs-assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – followed by development and implementation of a strategic action plan.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

-Peter Drucker

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.