Practice retirement before you retire

The thought of retiring normally scares the heck out of entrepreneurs and managers. They are so fearful that if they stop working, there will be nothing for them to do and no purpose for their life.

For most people, retirement age creeps up very quickly. In my case, it felt as though one day I was celebrating my 40th birthday and the next I was 67 and retired. Those years in between really seemed to pass over night.

There is so much written advice out there about preparing for retirement. Everything you read tells you how important it is to plan for your retirement early, but I think most of these resources take too simplistic a view on what you need to prepare for.

When I retired, I thought I had everything all planned out. Financially speaking, I did, but otherwise, I failed miserably. I struggled with the extreme transition between full-time college professor and retiree.

I was saved by an opportunity that opened up to me at FSU. They needed me to work with minority entrepreneurs in South Florida on a half-time basis for three years. This gradual transition allowed me to clearly see that I wanted to go from being a full-time college professor to having a small but vibrant consulting business.

This time allowed me to test the waters and hone my consulting skills. It gave me the opportunity to try different things before I had to completely leave the umbrella of the university.

Based on my own personal experience, I always tell the entrepreneurs I work with that they should give themselves an opportunity to try out the things they think might interest them before they retire. Just thinking it might be wonderful to do such-and-such in retirement is vastly different from getting to try several possibilities and see which is the best fit.

In one such case, I was called in to assist an entrepreneur who had been running the same business for 30 years. He was planning to retire in two years, and he wanted my help developing his exit strategy.

During one of our discussions, I asked him several times what he wanted to do when he retired, and he did not have an answer. All he said was that he knew he had to retire.

It took some convincing, but I was finally able to get him to agree to exploring some avenues for retirement now rather than waiting to do so once he was retired. He had always had a passion for music, so that was one avenue. A second was hiking.

He wanted to explore his interests before he retired, but he just did not have the time. He decided he would need to hire a manager who could handle operations and give him some time off. This would also increase the value of the business since it would no longer be completely reliant on him.

Before you retire, find the things you are passionate about and see what resonates with you. Spend time exploring these interests to ensure they are viable alternatives that really light your fire.

You can do this!

Dr. Osteryoung has directly has assisted over 3,000 firms. He is the Jim Moran Professor of Entrepreneurship (Emeritus) and Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at Florida State University. He was the founding Executive Director of The Jim Moran Institute and served in that position from 1995 through 2008. His newest book co-authored with Tim O'Brien, "If You Have Employees, You Really Need This Book," is a bestseller on Amazon.com. He can be reached by e-mail at jerry.osteryoung@gmail.com.

Tags: Florida Small Business