#Millennials, #BabyBoomers, #Millennialentrepreneurs, #BabyBoomerentrepreneurs, #womenentrepreneurs, #millennipreneurs, #millennipreneurs, #AnnaLive, #AnnaMcCoy, #InternationalWomensMonth, Inyang Sami Orungde, Emra Smith, Urban Izzy, Sarah Platt, Bidemi Mark-Mordi, #WatchHerRise, #businesscoaching, #lifecoach
International Women’s Month has taken me in so many wonderful directions so far. We have been celebrating women around the globe through the #WatchHerRise entrepreneur series, and last week, we talked to Bidemi Mark-Mordi and Sarah Platt from Urban Izzy about how our keys to becoming successful may lie in what we already have. www.urbanizzy.com With women being a beautiful and diverse group, we have different needs, opportunities, and challenges depending on where we are in our life’s journey. So this week on Friday Live with Anna McCoy, we are going to be looking at women entrepreneurs from a generational perspective—Baby Boomers and Millennials.
Now, if I asked you, “Are Baby Boomers or Millennials starting businesses in larger numbers?” you might think the safe guess would be Millennials. However, you’d be wrong. Many have speculated that Millennials would be far more entrepreneurial than they have actually turned out to be. Britt Hysen’s, the editor-in-chief of MiLLENNiAL magazine, claims that "60 percent of Millennials consider themselves entrepreneurs, and 90 percent recognize entrepreneurship as a mentality.” However, although fewer #Millennipreneurs are starting businesses, as a whole, Millennials are projected to be the least entrepreneurial generation: Entrepreneurship rates for people under 30 have fallen by 65 percent since the 1980s. According to Entrepreneur magazine, Baby Boomers are the most powerful entrepreneurial group, often foregoing retirement to launch their second or third career.
Well, I am not one to pit one group of women against another or join in the argument about which generation is best. However, what I see in these statistics is an opportunity for synergy and collaboration! Despite Millennials taking part in the gig economy and embracing self-employment in greater numbers, their reluctance to launch their own businesses stems from an aversion to risk-taking caused by excessive student loan debt. While debt and lack of capital are real hurdles to entrepreneurship to overcome, technology has played a major role in bridging those gaps.
This week on Friday Live with Anna McCoy, I will be talking to Emra Smith, founder and CEO of The International School of Story, and Inyang Sami-Orungde, a partner of Averti Professional Managers, an all-women business solution and consulting firm, who are both entrepreneurial baby boomers. Inyang Sami Orungbe started her business just five years ago instead of heading for retirement, and Emra Smith has dedicated herself to encouraging women to share their stories in order to inspire others, empowering women and girls to find solutions to limiting situations and beliefs, and also bringing economic stability to women through healing, inspiration, and education. Emra is also a life coach.
Entrepreneurial Baby Boomers can coach and mentor Millennials with some of the life lessons they have learned and help to steer them away from the pitfalls that come from launching a business. This can empower millennials to overcome their hesitation toward becoming the businesswomen they have always dreamed of being.
I hope that Millennials and Baby Boomers will join me this Friday, March 22, on Facebook at 10 a.m. CST to start this very important and crucial dialogue. As women, we have so much we can learn from each other. Be part of the conversation!
