The National Association for the Self-Employed ((NASE) and AARP this week announced a joint effort under NASE’s Growth Grant Program to expand available capital and business expertise to small businesses owned by older Americans, particularly those owned and operated by people of color.
As part of their collaboration, AARP will sponsor 12 small business financial grants targeting NASE members age 45 and older in the next year. Meanwhile, beginning in October 2022 NASE will award a total of seven Growth Grants of $4,000 to active members each quarter, including three sponsored by AARP and one by DELL Small Businesshttps://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwjHg6OF49P5AhVoyJQJHcEoBi4YABARGgJ5bQ&sig=AOD64_1Att5-dQAgK7jDB0Nk5aBJ5T8DTw&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwisxZuF49P5AhWNEmIAHZmxAkIQ0Qx6BAgDEAE.
Each AARP-sponsored Growth Grant of $4,000 will help to address the specific business needs for business owners ages 45 and older. Grants can be used for office equipment, marketing, advertising, hiring employees, expanding facilities and other business needs.
“AARP is excited to work with NASE to help further the success of older entrepreneurs of color,” said Felicia Brown, senior advisor for Financial Resilience at AARP. “We are committed to helping older adults gain the skills needed to start, grow, and manage a business, and achieve financial security through entrepreneurship.”
More older Americans are turning to self-employment, with people age 55 and older making up 45 percent of small business owners in 2022, research shows.
“As more Americans step out on their own into self-employment, including older Americans starting a second career or managing an existing business, it is crucial we support their ability to achieve long-term success,” said Keith Hall, president and CEO of NASE. “As the nation’s leading advocate for the self-employed and micro-business community, we recognize the challenges of opening and growing a small business and the specific needs of those older small business owners.”
An article published as part of Next Avenue’s series on America’s Entrepreneurs states that the vast majority of new businesses and social enterprises started by those 50 years and older are mostly self-funded, with a handful of employees at most.
“The enterprise provides a paycheck to help pay the bills and provide purpose in the latter stages of life,” the article notes.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). In 2021, a record number of employees left their jobs as part of the so-called Great Resignation. Reasons include a desire for more flexibility; not feeling safe from COVID-19 at work; not wishing to comply with vaccine mandates; and re-evaluating of life and deciding they’d be happier not returning to their jobs.
However, a primary reason is that many employees are ready to become their own bosses, SHRM states.
The U.S. Labor Department reports the number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by more than 500,000 since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 4.5 million new businesses applied for federal tax-identification numbers from January through October of 2021, a 56 percent surge from the same period in 2019.
In fact, since the pandemic began, an average of 380 out of every 100,000 adults became new entrepreneurs each month, research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation shows. The Hechinger Report, which covers innovation and inequality in education, says that’s by far the highest level of new entrepreneurship in the 25 years the foundation has tracked this data.
The entrepreneurship rate is highest among Latino and Black Americans, the report found.
Generally, NASE’s Growth Grant Program is intended for businesses planning to take the next step in their venture. It provides available capital for small businesses and sole proprietors to be able to hire and train additional employees, market their business in new and existing ways or invest in new equipment or software.
Applications for membership in the organization are considered on a rolling basis throughout the year.
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