Hi Brenda,

I'm new to the board and trying to get some insite myself on starting a senior based business or a senior educational consulting firm. Here is some food for thought for you.

If you have been in your industry for at least 30 years, I'm guessing that you are probably in your 50's or nearing it. Have you ever encounted problems yourself in reading certain marketing materials because the print is just too small or the background is way to busy and opening the darn thing may even present challenges? Imagine what it might be like if you were 75 years, who had arthritic fingers and failing eyesite. How easy would it be to turn the page of a flyer or even read if you were looking at extremely small print. That expensive advertising might not reach this audience.

I bring this up because it is projected that by 2020, 1 in 6 Americans will be seniors over the age of 65. By the way the fastest growing population of that group are the 85 year olds. By 2050 on a GLOBAL scale it is estimated that there will be 2 billion 60 year olds. That is a huge number not to market to.

I say all this, because this is definitely a target group that all businesses should be marketing their products to.

I have a background in Social Work but I am currently taking this certification course to be a Certified Senior Advisor. It is no substitute for professional credentials in gerontology, but the one thing the program does do is make you aware of the health, financial and social issues that impact our growing senior population. They even discuss how to market to seniors the fonts to use fonts, using only contrasting colors, and how even you can insult seniors in your presentation if the print is TOO BIG. All industries could benefit from this understanding of our elderly.

What is my point...any person that is thinking about going into a business should have in the back of their minds that Seniors comprise a huge growth industry and that they should gear their marketing to it. Failing eyesight, limited abilities and failing hearing, are considerations when communicating with this audience.

That's my two sense. Good luck to ya!