In my day job, I sell a marketing service to Information Technology companies who market to businesses in the US.  It’s impossible not to be a little uneasy if you’re involved in marketing these days because with the steadily eroding economy, anyone who has spent any time in this field knows that the spending is going to be way off at least for the next 6 months.

The last few months have been a pretty rough ride for a lot of people and not just those who are in fear or losing their jobs.  Consider if you will the huge swell of boomers who have played by the rules. They’ve been stashing money away for their retirement all their working lives only to watch the bottom fall out of the market and their retirement savings in the last few months.  I have many friends – technically between 5-10 years out from their retirement who have in one move lost between a third and half of the retirement savings they’ve been building for 30 years.

But say what you want about the baby boom generation, the truth is we have turned the world on its head since we hit our teens and we haven’t finished yet. Welcome to the age of the almost senior online entrepreneur.  Why do I say that?  It’s quite simple really, unless my friends and I want to work for someone else until we’re in our late 70’s, it’s time for ‘Plan B’.

Just you watch! In the next few years you’ll see many more people turning their attention towards supplementing their incomes/savings with their own businesses. They won’t be creating businesses that they expect to make millions on.  They’ll be setting things up to help them simply live a life where the ends have just a chance of meeting.

For the first time in the history of history, we have a tool at our disposal that makes it relatively easy to get a small business up and running and make it work where it never could have before. Obviously, I’m talking about the internet and these are just a few of the reasons why it’s the magic tool that is about to save a lot of retiring boomers.

The internet supports a myriad of different business models.  You can open an ecommerce storefront, or start a club or create an information product in a one-off format or as a series. You can hunt down collectables and sell them on Amazon or auction them off on eBay.

The internet opens you up to a virtually unlimited range of interests and ideas. It’s what makes the unique experiences or obscure hobby of any one person infinitely more marketable than ever before.  You’re not restricted to the interests and attitude that will sell on Main Street where you live. You can reach out to the whole world.

As there is a virtually unlimited range of interests you can tap into and market to there are millions and millions of people you can try to sell to.  What that means is that the tiny niche product that could never have supported you before can find a big enough market to make a financial difference in your life.  Maybe it won’t make you rich, but who’s talking about rich? Been there- done that – sort of.

Relatively speaking, many internet business models have what is described as low barriers to entry.  What that means is that you don’t need a lot of money, a massive infrastructure, a building, or a workforce.  You can get a business up and running – literally in your spare time. Yes, you always have to spend some money, but in this instance, depending on what type of business you choose, you’re probably looking at between one to five thousand dollars. It’s not free, but it’s workable and there are opportunities to do it for less.

That’s just the first hand full of reasons I can spit out off the top of my head.  There are many more.  OK not everyone has a computer and a high speed connection, but they are not insurmountable obstacles for most people – and if you have a computer- and some time- and a little bit of money and the gumption to try (and if you’re a boomer – you’ve already proven your up for anything) you can start a business on the internet.

Do not despair. It’s time to make some lemonade!