Life coach helps clients develop retirement strategies.

Not too long ago we wrote about the marketing opportunities in coaching baby-boomers getting ready to retire. Life coach David B. Bohl is already working with that market and is advising clients that retirement can be the “the worst of times or the best of times.” It all depends on planning and a person’s attitudes.

As David puts it:

How you live out your retirement years is totally up to you. It can be the best years of your life or the worst. Of course, barring any serious illness, how you spend these years after leaving the work force can be filled with passion and promise. Your choice of attitude and actions can make the difference between boring or brilliant years.

In his blog article, “Is There Life After Retirement? 5 Secrets to Living Successfully Ever After,” he offers five steps that people can take to ensure a retirement is “the best of times.” Those steps include:

1. Set goals. Take this time to reassess your life. Maybe you’d like to revisit goals you previously set but didn’t accomplish. Goals give you something to look forward to and a reason to get up in the morning, now that you’re not punching a time clock.

2. Develop new interests. These can be activities you’ve never done and always wanted to attempt, or pursuing passions you already had but didn’t have enough time to pursue.

3. Give back. There are myriad opportunities to serve at a variety of different charities.

4. Start a business at home. You may still have a lot of physical and mental energy after you retire and have always wanted to run your own business.

5. Become a teacher, coach, or mentor. You were probably an expert at several things before you retired. There are plenty of opportunities through organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs, the YMCA, Big brother or sister, as well as local public and private schools, adult school, or community colleges.

You can read David’s complete article here.

As more “boomers” get close to retirement, a new coaching market emerges.

A recent post by Matthew Scott at The Life’s Work Group confirms what most of us already know: many baby boomers, getting close to retirement, have spent a lifetime doing work they don’t like doing.

Among their dreams for retirement? Finally doing something they want to do, and that includes starting their “dream business” or working in a totally different industry. More revealing: some 67% of boomers say they plan to work in some capacity. That’s more the result of poor retirement planning than anything else.

Matthew notes another disturbing statistic. Fifty-three percent of adults 55 – 74 spend the greatest amount of their leisure time watching television. That’s not exactly the dream that most people had in mind when they thought about their retirement.

Matthew’s advice:

1. Find the work that matters and you will never work another day for the rest of your life.

2. Retirement is a myth for overworked people who feel they earned a break from work that seemed like work and begin to take up the passions and hobbies they wished they would have pursued during their working years.

Of course, there’s a silver lining in all this for coaches. Many boomers need help setting retirement goals, defining late-life career paths, putting their plans into action. Coaches looking for a new niche market or a way of expanding their current practices would do well to consider how they can serve this growing and “needy” market.

If there’s a barrier to the sale, it’s the “I can do it all myself” mentality of many boomers. We were raised to be self-reliant and usually are. However, as with many sales objections, the objection itself is the reason for the sale: coaching can help boomers achieve the self-reliance they are seeking.

We just need to show them how.

Business opportunity for baby boomers: coaching.

According to Forbes magazine, coaching is an excellent option for baby boomers looking for new business opportunities as they approach their retirement years. One of their primary target markets: other baby boomers.

Along with other businesses with low start-up costs and seemingly boundless income opportunities such as “professional organizer” and driving older clients to appointments, the article points to coaching as a lucrative choice:

Wellness coaching is another boomer-friendly option. Wellness coaches guide people through some of their tougher challenges, from dropping weight to quitting smoking. Typical rate: $100 per hour. Coaches with corporate experience can boost rates to $300 an hour by adding “executive coaching” to their repertoires.

To read the complete Forbes article, click here.