Does age matter in business? You be the judge

Speaking from experience, I know that age can matter quite a bit in business, but its impact on success can be a double-edged sword. Whether we’re talking about the age of the business, the age of the owners or directors, the age of the products or services, or the age of the target market, the following vignettes present situations with which to judge, from the obvious to the cryptic. , from the ridiculous to the sublime.

The importance of age can juxtapose experience with naivety; forecasting with momentum; poise with passion; and wisdom hopefully. An entrepreneur dulled by longevity resignation may be outmatched by the gambles of reckless youth. However, a person with nothing but common sense can catapult from mediocrity and oblivion to fame and fortune. More than a matter of chronological years, age can be a state of mind, a platform from which to represent one’s own convictions, an ideology with which to guide actions.

My life is a saga of the ramifications of age. I was born to parents in their forties who immediately alienated me from my peers, whose parents were of a younger generation. As if I had been raised by grandparents and, moreover, as an only child, I had the demeanor of an older person from the beginning. “Fun” was not part of my vocabulary. So when I ventured into the business at the ripe age of 23, my serious attitude paved the way for widespread respect and the business prospered as a result.

This is something I owe to my father, himself a businessman, who spent most of his time a grumpy “old man” in my young eyes, except when he was on the phone with one of his “prospects”. So what a joyous soul he turned, only to revert to his usual sad mode when the call ended. In hindsight, I now realize his enigma, an embattled state he struggled with long before depression became the household word it is today. However, I learned from this that, above all, the customer was king.

For example, I have an unorthodox client whose target market is primarily octogenarians and older. Having first experienced the benefits of my various marketing services some eight years ago, this computer-challenged assisted living center manager recently called me to change his website hosting so that he can reap the benefits of unlimited email. This is because you can’t make up your mind to delete any emails that have been sent to you but haven’t yet opened, and you are perpetually with a full inbox rejecting newcomers. To avoid the loss of this valuable material, he also agreed that I would log into his email account and individually open and forward each email that he received during this eight-year period to a separate alternate account, although most of it is spam. I dutifully complied with his requests without a word of complaint for this grueling task (which he refused to do himself), not to mention I also went through a total redesign of his original website, including new on-site photographs that I added free of charge! My efforts were tireless in tackling everything from the latest comprehensive SEO to secure online job applications and social media metrics. You may not know the internet, but you really know if your business is thriving, and you know who is behind the scenes fostering that phenomenon. I did not receive any email, phone call, or thank you note for everything I did. But when I finally sent him a judiciously prudent bill for months of this job, his check arrived within a day. That was all the thanks I needed.

Ironically, I have also recently been working with a group of older people who organized their own non-profit organization primarily as a self-service instrument that each personally benefits from. The concept, known as Aging in Place, is to allow each of them to remain living independently in their own homes with dependence on this service for a variety of purposes. These could include free transportation; regular social outings; free counseling on health issues; help with simple home maintenance; and other similar needs. While this seems like a worthwhile effort, the problem arises when members of the public show interest in joining. Founders restrict their membership area to a very small region based on where they live and can easily provide service. Their hours revolve around what is personally convenient for them, and marketing decisions are based on what amounts to being the least expensive option. It’s no wonder your organization is failing. Perhaps this is a case of being too close to the forest for the trees, as they do not have objectivity or sound judgment on how to successfully run a business. This could also be the result of inflexibility of age, in which you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Years ago, I remember arriving at the office shortly after 9 a.m. M. To be greeted by the director of one of our largest accounts, an “older” man (in his 40s) who owned the only commuter airline in the county, who was quick to scold us for this unforgivable transgression. Although he had arranged for an unscheduled visit himself, he felt we should have been there ready to serve during “normal” business hours. Things were different back then before the internet. There was no email, no cell phones, no computer technology. The work we did for him was roughly composed of wax and drawing tables, statistical cameras and letterpress machines, rapidograph illustrations, and pre-typographic headlines. And our journey from the bucolic outskirts of our residential sprawl involved nearly an hour’s drive after micromanaging the logistics of dog walks, daycare, and school bus departures. At twenty-six, our hands were busy.

However, I had to go along with his conservative business ethics and eventually arranged my act, along with my appearance and availability. We finally lost that client, who died shortly after. People shook their heads when he left and told us that we were doomed. But it was the guts of our creativity and the determination of our writing that held us together, decade after decade. Thirty-six years later, this business continues to thrive.

One last peculiar story: the story of two lawyers. Over a period of twenty-five years, two competitive but friendly clients enjoyed dominance within our region as a result of their consistently impressive case results, skillfully communicated to an engaged audience through excellent marketing efforts inspired by their separate commitments to our unique brand of quality. . Along the way, however, one defected due to a billing problem and hired one of our competitors to continue their marketing. The other attorney continued with us for another decade through the advent of the Internet while maintaining a close friendship with the defector. Our strengths in online advertising, design and ranking kept our client in the lead as he racked up case after case of million dollar results. But the strain of the economic climate eventually convinced him to abandon his coveted independence and consequent financial strangulation and join the ranks of his friend, merging his two firms with the defector at the helm. Thus, our relationship ended. And so their internet presence was shut down, leaving search engines in a state of confusion. Since these two attorneys are somewhat web phobic, what they don’t know can’t hurt them, or so they think. A page on the website of the newly merged firm promises that my client’s bio will appear soon, however, I have been waiting over six months for that to happen. Has age crushed my client’s bravado, killed his spirit, crippled his pride? How can you allow your “friend” to squander the fruits of your entire career under the pretext of procrastination? Can you be so blind? My hunch is that releasing the shackles of impending debt while working endlessly in contingency for the benefits of others has far outweighed the importance of attracting future work in the fall of your years. And I don’t blame him one bit.

But he deserves better, and I am sorry for the crime of fate of robbing me of the opportunity to protect him from what he does not realize. Age can be responsible for many things, such as minimizing one’s energy, reducing enthusiasm, reducing shock, and stealing vision, not to mention making one vulnerable to discrimination from those of a younger persuasion. But for this writer and business owner, age has only magnified the desire to do the best job possible, by preserving stamina with the pursuit of optimal health and fitness; keeping up with technology in all aspects; and sharing my knowledge for the benefit of all. Does age matter in business? Bet!