It is no secret baby boomers are flocking to start-up new businesses. Unfortunately in the new economy, business success is about merging your offline and online systems…but baby boomers come from an offline world! So what is a baby boomer to do? Here comes the virtual business strategy.

Before we go over what a virtual business strategy is, let’s discuss the three main reasons this trend is taking place. First some baby boomers got hit the hardest with the downturn of the economy and now they have to start over again. Second, many of them are empty-nesters and now they have time to do what they love. Lastly, a lot of them can financially afford it, since they no longer have the expenses of mortgages, kids, college and other financial responsibilities.

Regardless of the reason, the fact of the matter is, baby boomers are starting businesses faster than any other age bracket. According to a 2009 Kauffman Foundation Study: “Contrary to popularly held assumptions, it turns out that over the past decade or so, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity belongs to the 55-64 age group. The 20-34 age bracket, meanwhile, which we usually identify with swashbuckling and risk-taking youth (think Facebook and Google), has the lowest rate.”

This is a very interesting statistic. However, because the main difference between baby boomers and the younger generation is the use of technology, baby boomers will have to catch up very fast if they are to succeed. Therefore if baby boomers learn to adapt to the new way of doing business, combined with their years of knowledge, this may actually be the greatest entrepreneurial trend this country has ever seen.

Why is it so important to morph your small business into a virtual business; or to start a new business with a virtual business strategy? Well, in the current economy, businesses are getting massacred with overhead expenses, lack of funding, relentless competition, changes happening faster and faster, and a global economy. Therefore, the benefits of a virtual business are endless.

Here are the 7 top virtual business strategies:
1. The cost to entry is very low. A virtual business can be set up using mainly free open source applications.
2. It makes you more efficient. Once the virtual business systems are in place, you eliminate a lot of inefficiencies and duplicity.
3. It makes your more effective. You can accomplish in minutes what used to take you hours, maybe even weeks.
4. You can expand your market globally.
5. You can have employees, vendors and clients located just about in any place in the globe and manage them from the comfort of your home.
6. You can be up and running in a few days, if not hours. Once you understand how to set up the virtual business applications (and you don’t even need to know programming), you can have your business totally live in minutes. No offices to rent, no long term leases, no furniture to buy, no expensive utility bills!
7. You can run your virtual business remotely (even in between golf games). You can accomplish this by either having virtual assistants that run your daily operations or by simply managing your clients from your Blackberry or laptop

…it really does not get any easier than that!

I’d love to hear from some entrepreneurs who started a business at age 50+. What challenges did you confront? What is it a good move? Are you happy or do you regret it? What would you have done differently? Please post your comments below.

Planning for the future takes time. So to help you out here, I wrote a FREE REPORT: “New Business Success Is All About Merging Your Offline & Online Systems…Learn How to Leave Your Competition in the Dust!” … click here to visit the Virtual Business Dashboard and get your FREE report.

Business Bootstrap, Virtual Business