There are talent gaps out there. Companies are still short of talent. They're puzzled about where they can find new talent in areas where they need to help people build their skills. So where can they get these talents from? 

There’s this growing pool of talent called the Silver Entrepreneurs that have the accrued experience and expertise just sitting on the sidelines. These are people who have maybe completed or at least had a significant corporate career, and now they're looking for their next step. They may be retiring in their 60s, or maybe they've been released for one reason or another.  

The First Steps of Becoming a Silver Entrepreneur

1. Your expertise and interests

Based on Gay Hendrick's book, The Big Leap, identify your Zone of Genius or where you’re going to make the greatest impact.

Four questions to help identify your Zone of Genius:

1. When have people shown appreciation for how you have helped them?

2. When did you do a task or project that really energized you?

3. What is something that you are really passionate about?

4. What can you do for long stretches of time and not get bored?

2. You value proposition

To help people with money or time, there are 3 elements of what a customer needs:

• Gains - what will improve their business

• Pains - what’s frustrating them or holding them back

• Jobs to be done

Some things to consider:

• Think about your target customer and the problems they want you to solve.

• Is this something people actually will pay for? 

• Think about the competition. Where's the particular piece of genius that you have that isn't held by everybody else?

• Financial liability -  Is it going to be so expensive for you to offer these services that you don't end up making any money? In which case, this becomes more of a passion project, not necessarily a business. 

3. Customer discovery

Based on the concept of the Lean Startup Program, it’s not about selling or even describing your service, it’s about uncovering what they need. 

• Talk to 100 people (it’s a proven number) - as you hit those customer discovery conversations, you start to get some clarity around how their business works and what's going to be needed. 

• Look for patterns of needs and test your hypothesis on what your service will be.

• Use open-ended questions. 

Always remember that you have to be curious about what the customers need, and not you leading them or selling them into your service/product.