"How Age Affects Your Plan

What is your life plan? Take a look at where you are now and decide how long you want to run this business. Will you sell once you reach a certain gross sales number or once you reach a certain number of years in business? Maybe you want to pass this business down to your children. What ever your plan, start the business with this in mind.

If you want to retire in a few years, can you grow the business in order to be ready for retirement? What will the business sell for, and will this be your main source of retirement? Maybe bringing in a partner will help the business reach this point by the time you want to retire.  Maybe the partner will buy you out and continue on his/her own.

If you have a long time until retirement, time may not be as much of a factor. Consider what else you want to do in life. Do you want to start a family or have more children? Who will run the business while you care for a new baby? Could your husband be relocated? How will this affect your business?

Usually, the younger you are the better the chance that you can recover from a business loss. Many entrepreneurs suffer one or more business failures before achieving a business success.