Business Ideas Targeting Seniors

In 2011, the oldest members of the Baby Boom generation celebrated their 65th birthday. In the next few years, the first wave of post war baby boomers those born between 1946 and 1964 begin to retire and we will see a significant increase in the number of seniors and older people.

In the next few years, the number of elderly and the Cheap Oakley Sunglasses Sale rate of aging are expected to increase steeply. According to projectionsPew Research Center, about 18% of the United States population will be 65 and over in 2030. How can you, as a small business entrepreneur, take advantage of this fast growing market segment?

The graying of the population will change the business landscape. As people age, they will have different consumption and saving patterns at different stages in heir lives. The needs of older people are very different from the needs of middle aged and younger people: older people buy different things than younger people and have less need for borrowing money. We are already seeing massive shifts in business investment, much of which is responding to the changing tastes of an aging population. We will see a gradual substitution away from such purchases as new family homes and automobiles to greater spending on rent and services. While consumption of durables is expected to rise, it will be increasingly dominated by household equipment and furniture purchases.

The baby boomers possess different characteristics from any preceding groups of that age:

They are richer, have more savings and possess greater disposable income than their parents

They are healthier, more active and fitness oriented

They want to remain independent, and a vast majority of seniors now want to stay in their own homes rather live in nursing homes

Older people want to continue working beyond their retirement years.

Here are some suggested business ideas focusing on the older population.

Adult Day Care

Adult day service programs (formerly know as adult day care centers) are achieving new popularity as more and more seniors chose not to live in nursing homes. The advent of home and community long term care Medicare and Medicaid waiver programs that support alternatives Cheap Oakleys to institutional long term care and rehabilitation also contributed to its growing popularity. This is a relatively recent service for frail, physically or cognitively impaired, seniors and their caregivers. Oakley Outlet Stand alone facilities offering day care are cropping up in urban and suburban areas.

Demand for this kind of service is growing largely due to the benefits it provides to caregivers, particularly the children. With their elderly parents in an adult day care center, the caregivers can retain a job outside of their home, have help with the physical part of caring for a loved one, avoid the guilt of putting a parent in a and obtain respite from what can be a 24 hour responsibility

You could run this type of business if you are qualified to do so. Your goal will be to provide for the physical, emotional, social and mental needs of elderly during the day and return them to their Oakley Outlet Store family home toward late afternoon. To improve customer response, you can offer include round trip transportation and pick up services, as well as facilities for bathing and hair washing. The professional qualifications of your staff is also important, and the presence of a registered nurse may be required by law particularly in areas of licensing for administering medicine and medical procedures. You also need to schedule activities, trips, arts, crafts and other disguised therapy, nutritional meals prepared on site or by a qualified outside source.

Learn more aboutStarting an Adult Daycare Business.

Senior Citizens Internet Center

One possibility is through the Internet. The number of senior citizens with Internet access can also be expected to grow rapidly. The baby boomers, particularly the retired ones, have lots of time on their hands. They also have a strong need to communicate with their families, who oftentimes live far from them.

Many of them, however, especially those who are not computer literate (vast majority), feel overwhelmed by the seemingly complex online world. As their mobility becomes more restricted, the convenience offered by online shopping will be a great attraction to the world of e commerce.

Using the premise that the older generation is not averse to new technology but rather is just unfamiliar with it, you can create a site targeting the baby boomer generation. This site can take the form of a Senior Citizens Internet Center, where you provide basic Internet information and terminology, extensive set of links, troubleshooting lists, consultation through chat programs, virtual store for special devices and items for senior citizens.

You can develop a content rich site focusing on concerns such as health, fraud and scam information, investing information, among others. Start up costs of this kind of venture may be from $5,000 to $25,000 (depending on the cost of creating the web site), but you can generate revenues from advertising and sale of goods. Tie up with merchandisers focusing on this demographic group and get commission from every sales of goods from flowers, long distance calls, medical products, computer software, and many more.

Fitness Organization Promoting Healthy Aging

Health clubs, fitness organizations and even the Senior Olympics are presently seeing a surge in numbers of members over 50 years old. The whole concept of aging is changing: seniors are now actively taking part in sports and fitness activities to keep them physically fit and mentally younger. Definitely, seniors now refuse to be curtailed. Even the AARP website offers a guide to adventure vacations from sea kayaking in Belize to white water rafting in Upper Yangtze, and climbing in Ecuador.

There Cheap Oakleys are several ways to tap this growing number of health conscious seniors. You can start your own Senior Fitness Club offering health and fitness program to the older adult exerciser. You can transform a big room in your house, or rent a large room to serve as the workout area of your older clients. If you are presently operating a health club, you can add a fitness program geared specifically for the seniors.

You can also opt to do away with the gym. Instead, you can serve as an exercise leader working with frail and disabled elderly clients in nursing homes, congregate living facilities and adult day care centers. You need to learn how to conduct the most productive and enjoyable functional and restorative fitness activities for the very old and physically restricted populations. This business entails you to provide safe and effective group fitness classes in settings requiring gentle seated, adaptive physical activity for elderly and disabled participants.

For the more adventurous seniors, you can establish a club offering tours on extreme sports. Experts even say that the focus on strenuous sports will increase as baby boomers near retirement, as more and more seniors are replacing their golf clubs for sports such as surfing, heli skiing and triathlons. Your target market for this kind of business includes high income individuals such as managers, executives and owners of companies who are also highly athletic. Here are some additional business ideas:

Elderly employment service to help those who still want to work at least on a part time basis

Geriatric care management for those with professional degrees such as nursing, social work, gerontology, psychology and social work