In-depth: the valuable skillset of the growing 'midlife entrepreneur' category

It’s a tempting narrative – the born entrepreneur who shuns a conventional career path and starts a business young, endorsed by an array of support and awards aimed at founders with fewer than three decades since birth.

But a growing demographic in entrepreneurship – the “rise of the midlife entrepreneur” – has a few more miles on the clock in what is seen by many as offering many advantages, including more life experience, a bigger contacts book, and even perhaps more crucial capital.

New research published by Easy Offices, which is focused on office and co-working spaces to rent, shows the number of companies registered by those aged 50 and over increased significantly last year across Scotland’s cities and beyond.

The firm analysed Companies House data, and found that across the UK, around 217,000 start-ups were registered by those aged 50 and over in 2022, up from around 58,000 the previous year.

North of the Border, Glasgow was found to have the most at 2,644, from just 104 in 2021. In terms of specific sectors, the biggest rise year on year in Scotland’s largest city was for licensed restaurants, with 62 companies registered by this age bracket, compared with 27 in 2019. Second-highest for start-ups altogether was Edinburgh, at 1,403, up from 52.

Easy Offices say the findings overall dovetail with wider research highlighting the pandemic as the main driver behind the explosion in entrepreneurship, while there has famously been a post-Covid exodus from the workforce by the over 50s for reasons including seeking a better work-life balance.

John Williams, chief marketing officer at Easy Offices, which has previously highlighted the rise in young Scots starting businesses, said midlife entrepreneurs bring a “wealth” of experience.

Trend

Easy Offices says the rise of the midlife entrepreneur is 'similar to that we saw in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008'. Picture: Getty Images.

He added: “We have seen the number of sole traders and small businesses looking for office space leap year on year. This trend is based on a lot of more experienced workers leaving behind their white-collar jobs with blue-chip companies and looking to start their own ventures after the pandemic. It is the rise of the midlife entrepreneur, similar to that we saw in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008.”

Well qualified to comment on the subject is Victoria Tomlinson, chief executive of Next-Up that she founded in 2018, and which inspires employees with ideas as to what they can do in “unretirement” (people who have retired from full-time work but want to do other interesting things) such as starting a business.

She told The Scotsman: “I am 67 and have become a tech entrepreneur – even though I am not a ‘techie’. What I see is that people aged 50-plus bring a lot of wisdom and experience to start-ups – but above all, a vast network of contacts, which we have the confidence to use. Anyone over 50 has been through several recessions – that teaches you resilience, you learn (a bit) of patience and [how] things always take longer than you hope, but also you have good judgement about people.”

City	Number of businesses launched in 2022 by those aged 50 and over	Number of businesses launched in 2021 by those aged 50 and over	Number of businesses launched in 2019 by those aged 50 and over
Aberdeen	505	18	229
Dundee	315	13	139
Dunfermline	448	5	44
Edinburgh	1,403	52	516
Glasgow	2,644	104	985
Inverness	137	3	68
Perth	103	1	43
Stirling	94	4	35

Victoria Tomlinson, CEO and founder of Next-Up, says people aged 50-plus crucially 'bring a vast network of contacts, which we have the confidence to use'. Picture: Giles Rocholl Photography.

Another big advantage she sees for older founders is that they may have built up a nest egg, adding: “I am investing my own savings in this business so I am not beholden to banks or private equity. That gives space to experiment.”

Starting out with cash in the bank contrasts with the lack of funding reported by some younger peers, who may find themselves having to initially repeatedly go cap in hand to potential investors.

Also raising the issue of finance is Sheila Hogan, who founded digital legacy vault Biscuit Tin to help individuals get organised at all stages of life and feel more in control of their affairs and life administration, including planning for end of life.

Freedom

She said she used a “substantial” part of her pension pot to start the tech firm that went on to secure funds from the likes of Velocity Capital, Scottish Enterprise, and private investors. The businesswoman believes the entrepreneurial journey is not for the faint-hearted, and while “later in life there is a huge risk that if it fails there will not be enough time left to recover financially”, the autonomy such a path provides is “liberating”.

Hogan also said a key differentiation in starting a business at a later age is that it “will be driven from passion... combined with really valuable muscles of resilience and self-awareness built with years of life experience”.

Also stressing how passion is a key factor prompting people in this age group to start a business is Dumfries-based Mike Reid, 50-something chief executive and founder of Goldster, a digital platform focused on helping people in this age bracket to stay healthy and active.

He also believes creating a business is a great way to ensure purpose and social stimulation, which “increasingly look like the biggest single driver of healthy ageing”. And while he shies away from singling out the over-50s as unusual in starting businesses, he acknowledges that this group “makes much smarter choices about how you fit into the world, and therefore what kind of business would work for you and the world”.

Hogan is certainly aware of doing something with social purpose as the clock ticks. “The drive to make a difference is like rocket fuel for me. There is no way I could go to my deathbed without giving it my best shot,” she said. “[I am] determined to make a difference with the rest of my life by making death a little easier for all of us in the future.”