Silver start-ups for our golden oldies

Published on Tuesday 3 April 2007 01:02

WHEN it comes to business, life at 50 is only just beginning for some. While others may travel the world or take up a hobby, more people are taking the plunge into business and setting up their own company after a lifetime working for others.

Scotland's silver entrepreneurs are set to multiply as the baby boomer generation moves into the official retirement age. The population aged 50 in Scotland is projected to increase by 28 per cent over the next 25 years, taking the total to 1.78 million in 2005. The number aged 45 to 59 in Scotland's population rose 14 per cent from 1995.

And the number aged 75 and over is also expected to jump far faster than the 14 per cent it rose from 1995, standing in 2005 at 376,390.

Last month, Rhona Brankin, the communities minister, launched a strategy to help Scotland meet the challenges of an ageing population.

Jack McConnell, the First Minister, said he could imagine a world "where older Scots entrepreneurs are leading the way in providing the products and services that their generation requires, using the skills they developed over a lifetime; where older Scots are taking youngsters under their wings, giving them the benefit of their wisdom and their insight, investing in the next generation".

This profound change, he added, "can be a force for progress".

One person who has already taken the plunge to set up a company late in life is Jack Hamilton.

The Gorbals-born former maritime services expert started his own business for the first time - just months before his 62nd birthday.

For years, Hamilton had been a consultant on lighthouses and navigation buoys, working mainly in the Far East. He set up Vessel Traffic Management Systems six years ago to supply and maintain floating buoys and other navigational aids around the UK's coastline. Based initially in Leicester, the company quickly expanded, with support yards opening in Burntisland, Fife, and more recently in South Wales.

The firm now has contracts with Associated British Ports to operate in the Severn Channel in South Wales and with Forth Ports to look after the Firth of Forth and the River Tay.

"I was working out of London for a company based in Hounslow," he recalls. "When I got to 61, my son Billy had finished his gap year and was wondering what to do with himself.

"That's when we decided to set up an agency for marine aids to navigation."

Now 68, Hamilton does not believe his age has set him back in running his own business. It employs 15 people and has a turnover of about 1.5 million.

"Harbourmasters in all the ports we deal with around the UK - between 100 and 200 ports - are all guys that have been to sea as master of their ship," he explains.

"I get a lot of respect from them for setting up a business, as the majority were retired navy captains."

Despite his age, Hamilton says he has no intention of retiring, although he admits he may start to look for a managing director to run the everyday side of the business.

"I can't see me retiring, as long as I am fit enough."

A younger pair, Julie McTaggart and May Marcus, set up Premier Car Check in January last year after they were made redundant a month earlier.

They had previously worked for a vehicle data checking company and decided to see if they could set up a firm doing a similar job.

Because of the costs McTaggart and Marcus, both in their early fifties, teamed up with a former boss to provide customer services for their new firm. McTaggart said: "When we were told we were redundant, we thought: where do we go from here? We were earning good salaries. There was nothing around that we wanted to do.

"We wanted to stay in the same line of work. It was nice to be able to continue doing that."

Dumbarton-based Premier Car Check's vehicle data checking service uses information provided directly from the DVLA and gives a full description of the vehicle, plate transfers, keeper changes and whether the car has been scrapped, exported or imported.

McTaggart said: "Since we started, we have taken on more and more work. We are guaranteed a wage at the end of the month and are paying all the bills."

The two believe they have at least another ten years before they start to think about drawing their pensions. "Hopefully the business will see us through until we are ready to retire and we will have people working for us by that time," said McTaggart.

"It will provide us with a pension in later years."

Another silver entrepreneur is Brenda Ferguson, of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, who is in her late fifties. She set up the Mouse Hole, a small internet caf used by visitors, foreign workers and fishermen as well as local people. The caf has become something of a social hub.