At the heart of the encore movement is the importance of purpose and the desire to make a difference. We know that the most predominant encore pathway is starting your own business. Encore.org conducted a survey in 2014 of adults ages 44-70, and found that one quarter; approximately 25 million people were interested in starting their own business. Surprised by the high level of interest in entrepreneurship, Encore.org conducted another survey to see how many of those entrepreneurs were focused on addressing social or community needs. They found that nearly half were seeking to meet a need in the community, meet a social challenge or provide a service to others.

The Rise of Social Entrepreneurship

There are several reasons for this rise of social entrepreneurs:

• It turns out the role of experience has been shifting the focus to social problems for the encore entrepreneurs. Boomers are ready to take matters into their own hands, and they believe there might be a better solution based on their own personal experience.
• Social entrepreneurship signals the importance of driving social change as there are so many critical social issues facing our country such as; education, hunger, homelessness and care giving. This is a big reason we are seeing the rise of Social entrepreneurs in our country today.
• We also know that the fastest growing age group of entrepreneurs continues to ages 55-65 and over 45% of all entrepreneurs are ages 45-65!

Definitions

Ashoka, a leading social entrepreneur think tank has defined social entrepreneurs as enterprising individuals who apply business practices to solving societal problems. Social entrepreneurs act as change agents, seizing the opportunities to improve systems, invent new approaches and create solutions to change society for the better.

Schwab Foundation of Social Entrepreneurship has identified the four main criteria when looking for leading social entrepreneurs: innovation, sustainability, reach and social impact. They differentiate business entrepreneurs from social entrepreneurs primarily in how they define their “market or problem” and also how they measure impact quantitatively, as well as qualitatively. There are several different organizational models that evolve as a result of social entrepreneurship:

1. Non-Profit Ventures (depending primarily on philanthropic funding)
2. Hybrid Non-Profits
3. Social Business Ventures.

Our Opportunity to make a change

Last January, I was honored to be a part of the Regional White House Conference on Aging. This event made a significant impact on my life. As I sat and listened to the country’s leading experts report on the current realities for aging in America, the number one issue that came up throughout the day was around care giving and aging in place. It became clear to me and many others who were there that day that we can no longer wait until our federal government figures out a way to address the already broken and inadequate resources, tools and programs to address the millions who need to be cared for. This is a crisis that not only impacts the people who need to be cared for but the caregivers themselves. It became clear to me that the answer to this crisis is right in front of us – encore entrepreneurs!

Last week, Encore Tampa Bay and a team of local social entrepreneurs (Reunioncare) received a grant from National AARP to launch a Tampa Bay Caregiver Accelerator project. National AARP has identified caregiving as a number one priority and challenge to be addressed. They have also recognized social innovation as the key to addressing this challenge. This funding will provide individuals in our community who may have a potential solution, or service that could help the millions of caregivers in Tampa Bay.

Do you have a caregiving solution that is ready to become a business??

Thanks to AARP we are able to offer an incredible 9 week pre-incubation workshop that will take your idea to a business. Our first round of classes begin in early January and another round beginning in March. We will be with you all the way, including giving you a chance to pitch your well developed business idea in several different arenas. For more information about the program and how you can apply, go to the Tampa Bay Caregiver Accelerator website and attend our information session on Monday, November 30, 2015 at the Greenhouse in St. Petersburg, FL at 5:00pm.

Be inspired by all kinds of social entrepreneurs

One major strategy for Encore Tampa Bay is to raise awareness and encourage more individuals to follow this path of social entrepreneurship. We are partnering with Hillsborough Community College with a series of speaking events that shine the light on some of our own great social entrepreneurs. On Friday, November 20, 2015 we will be hearing from 6 local social entrepreneurs on their reasons for being a social entrepreneur. Join us for the Power of Purpose.

Last week I went to the movies to see The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro and Ann Hathaway. Ben, DeNiro’s character, is 70 and gets an intern position at Ann Hathaway’s fashion start up. It was an enjoyable movie, although predictable. But the scene where Ben comes to work the first day really encapsulated the digital and cultural divide between post-boomers, boomers, millennials, and Gen Xers.

Ben comes in a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase, pencils and pens at the ready. Everyone else is in jeans and T-shirts, buried in digital devices, with no writing implements in sight. Ben talks to everyone, everyone else texts or tweets or instagrams, uses IM, face time or Skype to communicate with each other. Different generations, different ways of working and living.

According to Jacob Morgan in The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization , the workforce has already changed, and that change is driving the change in the workplace. From his book and an Ernst and Young study that Morgan cites, we know that

• 63.3% of US executives will be eligible to retire in the next five years, and 33% are currently eligible to retire.
• More millennials are moving into management. Close to two-thirds (65%) of Gen X full-time employees manage the work of others, followed closely by millennials (62%). Coming in a distant third, less than half (46%) of boomers say they manage the work of others. This shift has taken place in the last five years, or 2009–2014 — 85% of millennial managers say they moved into management during this time.

Morgan goes on to say:

“This means that in the next few years we will end up seeing a natural shift of new managers entering the workplace who will bring about new behaviors and new approaches to leading and running organizations. It will take a few years for this to happen but it will be a natural progression.”

What do these new behaviors and approaches look like?

• Work anywhere – more flexible work hours and places. The office is no longer a requirement or even a physical place.
• Use any device – smartphone, tablet, or computer. No longer does the company provide you with a mandated, designated computer. You bring your own device (BYOD).
• The quality of your work counts for everything. Seat time or having to show up as a performance requirement is no longer valued, but what you contribute is. Performance reviews become frequent, informal check-ins with team members and project managers, as supports to getting work done instead of yearly meetings with human resource managers to convince them you deserve a raise.
• There is no corporate ladder, as sharing information and ideas belong to everyone. Everyone is a leader and can influence the nature and direction of work.
• Choose your own work projects – whether as part of the growing contingent workforce or on work teams that form around specific projects, team members coalesce to do specific work and then go on to other projects with other teams.
• Share information – leaders emerge from the quality and usefulness of the resources they share, not the position they hold.
• Rely on collaborative technologies to do work – working in the cloud, over web conferencing platforms, and using smartphone and tablet apps.
• Work is learning – with everyone sharing information, ideas, resources, and suggestions for new ways of looking at work problems, everyone benefits from the new knowledge shared. Working out loud is the new norm.

All of these trends require the ability to fluently use digital technology in multiple ways. Like Ben, boomers have to learn the work culture of a networked world.

Can you compete with the millennial managerial work force? Want to know more?

The Women’s Learning Studio in partnership with Encore Tampa Bay is offering ECO (Encore Tampa Bay Online) Bytes, a series of FREE, short (75 minutes) online sessions about the workplace trends mentioned above. Get started on your digital path by joining us in a web-based collaborative meeting space for each session.

While you are waiting, jump over to The Women’s Learning Studio blog and find out more about future and present workplace trends, such as BYOD (+SD) to Freelance When and Where You Want; Hollywood Project Model: New Work Norm?; The New Economy of Contingent Workers: Will it Work for You?; Book Review: The Future of Work by Jacob Morgan.