About ten thousand Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age every day in the United States. At least two-thirds of these Boomers must generate funds in order to financially survive. Many more simply wish to continue working, even if it is part-time. Many are planning to start a home-based business and are asking themselves, “What type of home-based business should I pursue?” An important aspect of this decision should be a feasible exit strategy that allows transition to full retirement at some point.The obvious way to launch a home-based business is to leverage one’s work experience, contacts and expertise to create an enterprise that can be run from a home office. In most cases, this is the fastest path to success. If you enjoy what you did career-wise, this approach is an easy extension of your prior job. Planning ahead, one can even establish consulting contracts with an employer or his clients. The result can be a smooth transition with minimal cash flow impact.Many Boomers, however, wish to launch a second career in a new arena, such as opening a bed and breakfast or becoming a teacher. This takes more investigation and planning, ideally accomplished well in advance of retirement. There are ample resources on the Internet (much of it free!) to assist with this process.For older Boomers who have found themselves suddenly unemployed, time is usually of the essence. Typically, they are seeking a source of income with little start-up time. Unfortunately, finding another job is difficult for 50-plus Boomers.Many laid-off Boomers compensate by putting up a quick website and trying to leverage their experience into a consultancy business, but soon realize that this road too has a start-up period while clients are procured. Others seek “instant businesses” in the form of established multi-level marketing operations or franchises, only to discover that these too are not “slam dunks.”There is rarely an easy road to riches. Moreover, launching a home-based business is a process that is usually accompanied by anxiety and mounting credit card debt.For those who make a successful transition to operating a home-based business, there is one more important consideration. At some point, they will want to really retire or at least cut back on their involvement in the business. Then, it would be nice to have something that provides ongoing residual or passive income. This goal should be part of the upfront planning in establishing a home-based business. Otherwise, it can be a costly and often devastating afterthought.If a home-based business or franchise establishes a profitable, verifiable revenue stream from contented customers, it can usually be sold. The profits can then be invested for passive income during retirement. Again, the business plan must include this as an ultimate objective and be implemented accordingly. If the business does not generate satisfied return customers, its “good will” value is minimal and finding a buyer or achieving a good sales price will prove difficult.There are other ways to generate passive income from home-based businesses. Membership and subscription-type businesses are good ongoing revenue generators. So are royalties from self-published eBooks. And carefully-screened MLM opportunities can yield continuing income streams as well. So achieving “retirement” may be as simple as transitioning the daily operation to a buyer or someone who is hired to manage it.The lesson is clear. If you create or purchase a business, do so with the objective of creating intrinsic value that makes it possible to sell – or step back from – the operation at some point. An “exit strategy” is an important consideration for any home-based business, and older Baby Boomers should plan for this.

Just as owning a home was assumed to be a positive financial strategy for individuals, small companies owning commercial real estate was typically seen as a routine and constructive piece of their commercial financing during the period leading up to the most recent financial crisis. Both of these assumptions start to fall apart very quickly when it is difficult or impossible to obtain the underlying real estate loans from banks. Real estate continues to be a major component of the overall economy, and ongoing difficulties involving either obtaining or refinancing commercial mortgage loans presents severe problems for both societal economics in general and small business economics in particular.Did the Bank Bailout Help Small Businesses?One of the primary arguments made in favor of bailing out banks in 2008 was that it would permit the restoration of “normal financing” to businesses of all sizes everywhere. Seven years later most small businesses are still waiting for bailout funding to “trickle down” to them. Working capital loans and commercial mortgages are missing in action for many commercial borrowers.Real estate has regularly been in economic news for both good reasons and bad reasons during the past several decades. Starting around 2005, concerns began appearing about the financial health of both real estate and the overall economy. What we did not know at the time was that banks began making speculative investments in financial derivatives tied to real property at about the same time. Some of these investment practices produced massive losses that precipitated the public banking crisis emerging in 2007 and resulting in a widespread bank bailout program in 2008. Even the few instances in which these derivatives produced profits for the banks proved to be controversial because the profitable investing was frequently at the expense of banking customers.Zombie Banks and Troubled BanksHere are two of the real estate and banking problems that are still very actively impairing the small business economy:

Zombie Banks are still operating – a Zombie Bank is one with a negative net worth (liabilities exceeding assets).

The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) Troubled Banks List still has more than 200 banking institutions on the list.
It is worth noting that the FDIC does not publicize the problem bank list or name specific banks on the list – probably fearing a “run on the banks” if they did so. The recent “bank holiday” in Greece illustrates how quickly bank depositors can lose confidence in banking institutions. But the FDIC does release the number of banks on their troubled bank list on a quarterly basis. For example, the March 2015 total of problem banks as defined by the FDIC was 253. In comparison, the total was more than 850 banks at the peak of the recent financial crisis – but there were less than 50 troubled banks before the 2008 bank bailouts.What to Do When Banks Say NoSmall business owners must draw their own conclusions about the current financial health of banks, but it seems unlikely that a “Troubled Bank” will be able to make a “normal” level of small business loans. If banks are still saying “No” to routine commercial financing for creditworthy small businesses, what is the recommended response? Small business owners should actively review alternatives that include non-bank financing, reducing business debt and increasing sales with cost-effective solutions such as business proposal writing. At some point the practical need to fire their bank and banker will by necessity become one of the realistic actions by a commercial borrower in need of business financing but unable to obtain it from their current banking institution. In such a scenario, “You’re fired” can quickly become another example of life imitating art.

Many businesses, both large and small, spend abundance on advertising on newspapers and other local business advertising. Even more money is spent when it comes to advertising on a popular channel on TV. Yet, many businesses aren’t aware or simply ignore the fact that the internet is a very powerful marketing tool with many benefits and little costs.

The main benefit of online advertising is its price. Typically, the form of online advertising that is most often used is pay-per-click. This is where a company pays a certain amount of money whenever an ad is clicked on. Doing large advertising campaigns may become a little pricey, but it is often nothing when compared to the amount paid for television advertising. The price of online advertising is brought lower every day, which means less money spent by businesses trying to market their products and services.

Online advertising can be easily targeted to ensure better results. You can make it where a different advertisement will be shown to potential customers on a gardening site than on a gaming site. Advertisements that are more relevant to a person are more likely to entice. This means more people clicking on your advertisements, and more people purchasing your products and services, or at least being aware of them.

Most offline advertising is limited to only local business advertising. Or, the advertising may only show during specific times. Yet, online advertising is shown to potential customers and clients every day at every time of day. It doesn’t matter if these potential customers live in the USA or if they live in China. Because of this, you will find that more people are being exposed to your products. You will also receive a wider variety of customers or clients with different personalities and interests.

For small businesses that don’t have much money to invest in advertising, they can easily use email marketing to garner more customers or clients. Email marketing is where companies send useful emails that both inform the reader and entice the reader into purchasing their products or services. Companies may need to hire someone to write emails that encourage converts, but other than that, there are no other major costs.