A Second (Career) Wind

America’s entrepreneurs are aging.

According to a Kauffman Foundation report last year, launching a new business was at a 15-year high in 2009 and 2010. Though the report didn’t track how many of the 565,000 new U.S. businesses started each month were launched by people who already had established careers, it shows that the 55- to 64-year age group represented the largest sector – 22.9 percent – of new entrepreneurs in 2010, up from 14.5 percent in 1996, suggesting that many entrepreneurs already have spent several years in the work force.

“We have seen an increase of [people in] midlife and older starting businesses in the past several years,” said Rayanna Anderson, director of the Missouri State University Small Business & Technology Development Center, which provides training and consulting to small-business owners and prospective entrepreneurs.

For Enoch Morris, 62, the journey to entrepreneurship is fueled by longtime enthusiasm for barbecue. Morris and his family are working toward a March opening for Enoch’s BBQ & Southern Classics at 2101 W. Chesterfield Blvd., Ste. B-102, in Chesterfield Village.

Morris, who works by day as the director of development and sales at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts, has taken his food to festivals and entered numerous barbecue competitions, winning in the rib category in 2000 at the American Royal Barbecue competition in Kansas City.

Last year, he decided to open a restaurant with his wife, Debbie, and daughters Devon Morris and Ryanne Farabee, and her husband, Andrew.

“Our daughters have worked in restaurants, and we decided to put their experience together with our recipes,” Enoch Morris said.

Though he declined to disclose specifics, Morris said the family members invested some of their own money in the eatery. Morris Spices LLC, the entity under which Enoch’s BBQ will operate, obtained an $80,000 U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loan through Liberty Bank, according to records published by Springfield Business Journal.

Though the opening was originally planned for January, early challenges came via delays in permitting and plans for remodeling the space. Morris said he will continue in his job at Hammons Hall and plans to work at the restaurant during evenings and on weekends. Other family members will be at the helm during the day.

“I wanted to watch the girls grow the business and make it their own,” Morris said. “But it’s also preparing me for when I do retire, I will have something to do.”

Sometimes, entrepreneurship comes from necessity, regardless of age.

That was the case for Gary Rostic, 43, who had worked in residential construction after moving to Springfield from Pittsburgh, Pa., 12 years ago, when his wife, Kelly, took an anchor job with KOLR-TV news.

At its peak, his company, Tara Homes Inc., was building eight to 10 houses a year.

“Then 2008 hit, and we did two houses and about 15 remodels,” Rostic said. “Prior to that year, we never did remodels due to the high demand for new construction.”

Kelly Rostic now works in sales and marketing for Big Cedar Lodge, and Gary Rostic also operates The Tool Bonnet, a company that provides weatherproof covers for the construction industry.

After struggling in the construction sector for two years, he decided to add another business to his portfolio. In November 2010, the couple turned to a business broker and started investigating opportunities that led to their May 2011 purchase of Wood You Furniture of Springfield, an independent retail, finish-it-yourself furniture store.

“When we looked at it, at first I said no way to retail,” he said. “But when we looked at the numbers, they were really good and could see it had more potential.”

The Rostics purchased the 14-year-old business from Jim Montgomery for $200,000, using $50,000 of their own money for the down payment and a SBA loan through Liberty Bank for a remodel and the remainder of the purchase.  Rostic said he spent another $10,000 for the business license, utilities and incidentals to complete the transition.

Rostic worked as an environmental safety inspector in the steel industry before coming to Springfield, and he said his background in construction, coupled with his wife’s sales and marketing experience, is a good fit in terms of operating – and growing – Wood You Furniture.

Remodeling the 7,000-square-foot store and warehouse, and updating computers and software, were first on his list. He also added another delivery truck and altered the do-it-yourself-finish model to include products with custom and factory finishing.

To date, the store is on target to beat 2011 sales figures by at least 10 percent, Rostic said.

Rostic said he plans to operate all three businesses, although it isn’t an easy task. “What made me afraid is what happened in 2008,” said Rostic. “It was a wake-up call to make myself more diverse. It’s what keeps me going, I’m afraid to turn down any work.”  

The first issue would-be entrepreneurs should consider are whether they have experience in the industries they’re investigating, said Bill McNeill, president of the Springfield chapter of SCORE, a volunteer organization that partners with the SBA and provides small-business consulting and mentoring. A good second step, he said, is looking at the financials and what it actually means to be an entrepreneur.

“We have an online quiz that helps them determine if they really want to be an entrepreneur,” McNeill said. “There’s extremely long hours and you’re responsible for doing everything. It really wakes people up.”  

The “Am I an entrepreneur?” quiz by Wicked Start, posted on Score.org, asks several questions aimed at helping potential business owners assess their strengths and weaknesses, with questions on topics such as determination and willingness to take risks.

Laura McCune, a business broker with The Kingsley Group, worked with the Rostics in the Wood You furniture purchase and said decisions such as theirs to buy a business in a new sector isn’t all that unusual.

Part of her job, she said, is to help her clients determine what types of businesses are right for them. McCune said she asks plenty of questions about goals and aspirations and explores how hands-on they want to be with a new business.

“I’ve had several buyers such as the Rostics come in, and they’ve gone into business in something unrelated to what they had been thinking about,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]