by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
August 11, 2025
As an entrepreneur, having some expertise below your belt can truly be certainly one of your largest property.
Among the finest elements of entrepreneurship is that it doesn’t include an expiration date. When you have nice concepts and the fervour to see it by, it’s by no means too late to deliver it to life and make them companies. Actually, people who’re 55 and older personal greater than half of America’s companies, in response to the most recent knowledge from the U.S. Census Bureau.
As an entrepreneur, having some expertise below your belt can truly be certainly one of your largest property. Likelihood is you’ve honed worthwhile expertise that can make you a stronger enterprise proprietor. In different phrases, your previous work and life experiences have doubtless ready you for entrepreneurship and for dealing with companies.
Beginning companies as a second act could appear like a significant profession transfer or just monetizing a ardour or passion you take pleasure in. It might fulfill a long-held objective of creating an impression, leaving a legacy, or discovering the pliability outdoors of a typical 9-to-5 to reside life in your schedule. Shopify talked to founders who launched their companies later in life, and their tales would possibly encourage you to take the leap.
Observe your ardour
The age-old recommendation to observe your ardour could sound overdone, but it surely might result in a satisfying new chapter. After working for 16 years within the mortgage business, Sonja Detrinidad turned disenchanted with the go-go-go pace of the work. The turning level got here when an actual property agent known as her on a Sunday afternoon with an pressing work request. The expectation was that she would drop every thing, together with her private time, to accommodate it.
At 48, Detrinidad left her job to lean into one thing that had all the time introduced her pleasure—vegetation. “There are photos of me as somewhat woman hanging round within the backyard with my grandmother,” she says. “I used to be all the time surrounded by vegetation.” This ardour discovered the proper outlet when she moved to a brand new home that required a significant landscaping overhaul. Detrinidad made an artwork out of discovering free vegetation on Craigslist, and blogged about it alongside the best way.
Earlier than lengthy, she’d constructed a loyal following as knowledgeable plant shopper. As of late, she’s on the helm of Partly Sunny Initiatives, a enterprise that ships vegetation and equipment to clients nationwide—and he or she’s by no means been happier.
“I feel it’s by no means too late as a result of by no means within the historical past of your life have you ever been this previous and recognized this a lot,” Detrinidad says. “You’ve got the expertise that perhaps a 20-year-old or 35-year-old model of you didn’t have.”
That doesn’t imply there isn’t a studying curve, however working for herself has introduced Detrinidad the skilled freedom and satisfaction she all the time craved.
Use business expertise to go your personal approach
When you’ve labored in the identical business for years, you doubtless have a wealth of information and expertise to attract on. That could possibly be certainly one of your strongest assets. Earlier than launching the clear skincare model Tower 28, Amy Liu had labored within the magnificence business for twenty years.
“After I began Tower 28, I used to be truly 40 years previous, so I did it a lot later in my profession,” Liu says on Shopify Masters.
Throughout her company profession, she grew her skilled community and received to know among the largest gamers within the business. Liu was all the time drawn to entrepreneurship, however determined early on to be taught from every thing the established manufacturers had been doing earlier than beginning her personal.
“I went to go work for different folks as a result of I advised myself, ’I’m going to be taught on another person’s dime. I’m going to be taught from every thing they’re doing,’” she says. “And I truly assume that was an incredible factor for me. I don’t assume there’s something fallacious with (beginning a enterprise) early, however for me, it helped me construct up that confidence. And I’m going to make my very own errors, however I really feel like, because of that, I’m making an attempt to no less than not make the identical errors that I noticed.”
As a result of Liu had made a reputation for herself throughout the magnificence business, she additionally had a better time securing funding and retail partnerships with Credo and Sephora.
“I really feel like I had perhaps the simplest time fundraising of anybody I’ve ever recognized,” she says of the pre-launch fundraising she secured from family and friends. “I feel it was very a lot based mostly on simply who I’m and my background.”
One other massive a part of her success was her willingness to share her imaginative and prescient with others—as early as her enterprise college days—which she acknowledges will be scary for brand spanking new entrepreneurs, however has the potential to repay massive.
“After I lastly went to go increase cash, and I turned to folks, so many individuals got here to me and stated, ‘Hey, I do know you’ve been wanting to do that. I’ve been ready for you. You’ve been saying this ceaselessly. Lastly. Let me make investments,” says Liu. “And that was an enormous vote of confidence for me.”
Be taught from previous missteps and keep adaptable
Dusting your self off and forging forward after failure can go a good distance as a enterprise proprietor. That resilience is what helped Danny Winer flip HexClad, which he started constructing at 49, right into a multimillion-dollar kitchenware model.
“It’s OK to fail,” says Winer. “It’s the way you react to that failure, and the way do you have a look at it after which go, ‘What is really my position on this failure?’”
Winer first tried launching a juicer, however finally shuttered the venture after he and his enterprise companion realized that they had misjudged the market. Fairly than getting discouraged, he selected to see these challenges as alternatives and apply them to his subsequent concept: hybrid cookware.
“I knew the ache factors the patron had, as a result of I’d accomplished it for years,” Winer says, referring to his prior profession within the cookware business. Whereas attending a commerce present in Asia, he linked with a person who invented a laser-etched, hexagon-shaped, non-stick cookware coating. He knew he’d discovered one thing particular, but it surely took time—and lots of no’s—to persuade others {that a} direct-to-consumer cookware firm was price investing in.
“To start with, it wasn’t resonating,” says Winer. “All people laughed at me after I went to attempt to increase cash and say, ‘We’re going to be a DTC cookware firm.’ No person had ever accomplished that but.”
Winer noticed these criticisms not as a failure, however as a chance to fine-tune the model’s messaging. “I used to be capable of take the learnings in these rooms and switch these into some good Fb adverts,” he says.
HexClad launched in 2016 and was completely positioned when the pandemic hit in 2020 to offer the wave of latest dwelling cooks with the instruments they wanted—all on-line and on-line companies. The model additionally caught the eye of superstar chef Gordon Ramsay, who got here on as a model companion in 2021. The mega-popular model is now marketed to skilled cooks and residential cooks.
“I’m not saying I’m smarter than a 25-year-old, however I’m guaranteeing I’m wiser,” Winer says. “And you’ll be taught from my knowledge, as a result of all of the errors you’re gonna make from 25 to 40, I made them.”
This story was produced by Shopify and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
RELATED CONTENT: Ofori Brothers’ Ginger-Infused Wine Brings Ghanaian Historical past And Delight To Beverage Business
