Not yet ready to rest, retirees take on new challenges and new risks in entrepreneurship
Fighting for social justice
After more than 50 years as a Catholic priest, Fr. Joe Mattern wasn’t about to sit still when he “retired” from St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Omro two years ago at the age of 75.
A self-described bleeding heart liberal with a penchant for social justice, Fr. Mattern spent much of his career helping the primarily Mexican immigrant farm working population in rural western Winnebago and eastern Waushara counties. When he retired, Mattern knew his work couldn’t retire with him. This growing community had come to rely upon him –primarily because many are devoutly Catholic – and Fr. Mattern is fluent in Spanish and has conducted Spanish-speaking mass for the past decade. He’s also come to acutely understand the challenges this population faces in the schools, in the justice system, an elsewhere in the community.
“There is an inherent racism here – I firmly believe that – and that’s at the root of every problem they face,” Mattern said. “They are the poorest of the poor. They’re living in fear.”
With funding assistance from a trust set up by his sister who sold a technology firm she helped build from the ground up, Fr. Mattern established Casa Esther, a nonprofit Catholic worker house in Omro. Padre Joe, as he’s affectionately called, enrolled in the eSeed Program through the Venture Center at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton where honed his budgeting skills, drafted a formal business plan for Casa Esther, and formed a board of directors for the 501(c) 3 corporation.
Casa Esther currently operates an 11-acre organic vegetable garden and sells its produce at farmer’s markets in Oshkosh and Omro. Additional produce is provided to a handful of food pantries in the area. The entity gives music lessons to children, a personal passion for the still-performing jazz musician in Fr. Mattern, and even equips children with instruments to play. Casa Esther provides interpreting services, English Language Learning classes, provides prison ministry for those who are incarcerated, and actively lobbies for comprehensive immigration reform. His mission is growing as the population of Hispanics in northeast Wisconsin has grown from just over 5,000 in 1990 to more than 33,000 as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
Now 77, Fr. Mattern still conducts three to four masses every weekend. He works out at the gym three times per week, is still an avid golfer, and loves to perform live jazz in front of an engaged audience. But it’s his entrepreneurial efforts toward social justice that fuels his fire to keep battling racism, ignorance and misunderstanding everyday.
“I try to stay healthy, and this stuff all keeps me healthy.”
Not yet ready to rest, retirees take on new challenges and new risks in entrepreneurship
When Joe Vosters’ 88-year-old mother was on the brink of no longer being able to take care of her husband, the furthest thing from Vosters’ mind was starting a business.
At 92 and with limited mobility, Vosters’ father couldn’t maneuver around his bed enough to roll over on his own, and getting in and out of bed by himself was a struggle. Traditional bed railings and suspended trapezes were available from medical device stores for him to grab onto, but they’re flimsy, wobbly and more often than not, couldn’t provide the help his father needed.
Vosters’ background as a mechanical design engineer and 30 years experience in the paper industry encouraged him to come up with a solution of his own. Vosters knew he could develop and design a structure over the bed sturdy enough to withhold more than 400 pounds and accommodate a wide range of motions his father would need to roll over on his own, move more freely around his bed, and even stand up from the bed, stabilize himself and safely maneuver from there.
After Vosters was laid off from a job running the operations of a small plastics machinery manufacturer in his mid-50s, Vosters’ brother-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke which limited his movement in bed as well. Since he wasn’t working at the time, Vosters helped out a few days a week making his brother-in-law more comfortable. Noting the same mobility problems as were evident with his father, Vosters began scratching ideas together for a heavy duty design to provide greater freedom and independence in the bed area.
“I saw the same challenges going on between the two of them,” Vosters said. “In fact, this was even more important for the caregiver.”
Then it struck him – the need for his product idea was more widespread than he thought, and would only increase further as more and more Americans with limited mobility strive to remain in their homes rather than go into an assisted care facility. If he could manufacture and sell these devices – which he dubbed Friendly Beds – he could create quite a thriving business. So he ceased his job search and started his own company, Appleton-based Bill-Ray Home Mobility, which he launched in early 2010.
“The potential market out there for this product is just getting ready to go nuts. All the pieces I’ve ever had in my background are coming together to make something come from nothing,” Vosters said.
A growing trend
Vosters’ story of starting a business toward the end of his career isn’t unique. In fact, leading entrepreneurship think tank Kauffman Foundation indicated rates of entrepreneurship are 50 percent higher for those individuals between 55 and 64 than people between 20 and 34. At the same time, rates of entrepreneurship among that later age demographic have been trending upwards since 2007, while rates for the younger demographic group have remained flat.
That trend might seem somewhat counterintuitive because of the financial risk often associated with an entrepreneurial start up. Younger entrepreneurs, at the very least, can often manage if they lose everything in a worst-case situation should their business goes bottoms up. And often younger entrepreneurs haven’t accumulated a lifetime of wealth and assets, the impact of which is it isn’t all that painful to lose everything when one doesn’t have very much to lose.
Retirees – on the other hand – have often paid off their home mortgages, put their children through college, and accumulated a sizeable nest egg. They own boats, vacation properties, hobby collections, robust investment portfolios, and a whole range of other assets that a failed entrepreneurial endeavor could compromise. And at that stage in life, there’s much less opportunity to lose it all, start from scratch, and rebuild substantial wealth.
Yet, an increasing number of retirees are becoming first-time, start up entrepreneurs rather than hitting the golf links late every morning after watching The Price Is Right and downing a few cups of coffee. The Baby Boomer generation coming into retirement age this decade perhaps accents this trend more than at any other time in the past. And why not? They’re not necessarily looking to rest and relax in their late 50s and early 60s. They’re still extremely active, both cognitively and physically. They’ve collected a lifetime of skills, knowledge, and a network of resources in their industry and in their community. And they may just have accumulated enough wealth working for others during their career to pull off starting their own independent business.
Like many, he spent his 20s, 30s and much of his 40s advancing his career and building businesses along the way. He put off having children until later in life so that he could provide more financial stability for his family.
In 2010, the crisis hit him. In this case, it wasn’t about a fancy sports car or a sudden urge to make a career change. No, this was a crisis about the future — a college education for his son, or a secure retirement for himself.
Moltz suspects this could be a new normal.
“It’s really sad that in America we have to pay $250,000 for a college education, but most of us want the best for our kids,” says Moltz, a business consultant, radio host, author and blogger who has started three companies in his career. “Every dollar we spend on our kids’ college education is a dollar less we have to spend on retirement.”
Moltz recently shared this story during a day-long workshop, “How to Get Your Business Unstuck,” at the Northeast Wisconsin Entrepreneur Networking Day (NEW END) in Appleton. He says he began saving for his children’s education early, noting that for 10 years prior he had made investments that were supposed to double and pay for his son’s education. The Great Recession wiped out 35 percent of that, and with returns now at 1 percent, the outlook is bleak.
For small-business owners, this crisis often has a compounding problem of its own. While many have seen their businesses struggle, the value of the business on paper can make it appear they have additional assets to finance their child’s education.
Since many small-business owners include their business as part of their personal taxes, it can have an adverse effect in determining financial aid by increasing the amount of the federal “expected family contribution” to a child’s education.
But much like tax planning, there are ways to reduce that expected contribution, and to keep the assets of a family business from working against your child when it comes to college financial aid. This is an all-too-common problem for the nation’s small-business owners, says Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid and college planning author who publishes the FastWeb.com and Finaid.org Web sites. Preparation and documentation will be key to reducing that expected contribution, he says. “You will need to have information that shows the assets and income from that business are not available to the family for college,” Kantrowitz says. “It’s all driven by documentation.”
Small-business owners should work with a financial planner, Moltz says, just like they do for retirement and taxes, and utilize strategies for reducing the expected financial contribution wherever they can. Available options range from employing your child or spouse to making sure you have the right kind of retirement plans that aren’t counted as assets.
“Any way we can reduce that contribution to our child’s education, that’s more that we have for retirement,” Moltz says.
MADISON — The state Department of Workforce Development recently presented its 2011 Centennial Awards. Recipients included Sponsor Award winners Manitowoc Co., Manitowoc, and Bassett Mechanical, Kaukauna. This award is given to apprentice program sponsors or employers in the service, construction or industrial sectors who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in apprenticeship training, typically with a long history of working with apprentices. Jeremy Balza, steamfitter, John's Refrigeration, Green Bay Area Steamfitter JAC, Green Bay, and John Jorgensen, business manager/secretary-treasurer, Painters and Allied Trades District Council 7, Big Bend, Kenosha, Madison, Appleton, received Leadership Awards. This award is given to apprentices who have demonstrated outstanding performance throughout the term of their apprenticeship. The nominees are judged on three factors: Related instruction, on-the-job performance and other accomplishments. Mike Merbach, instructor, Fox Valley Technical College, Grand Chute, was named an Education Award winner. This award is given to instructors or technical college apprentice coordinators who have taught apprentices for at least three years or performed as a technical college apprenticeship coordinator for at least five years.
APPLETON — Guy Bytof, an Appleton member of Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group, was awarded the Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager Designation from the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers. The CRB, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, is a professional organization for brokerage management. The council is dedicated to providing quality professional development programs, products and services that continually enhance the management productivity and profitability of its more than 7,000 managers. The CRB Designation is recognized throughout the industry as the highest level of professional achievement — a symbol of excellence in brokerage management. Guy Bytof is a real estate brokerage manager at Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group
DE PERE — C.A. Lawton, the provider of large cast iron components, recently passed its ISO 9001:2008 audit. It earned the certification in December. The certification confirmed that C.A. Lawton's internal quality management system complies with ISO 9001:2008 requirements. The overall objective of the audit is to ensure C.A. Lawton's processes continue to be effective for the company and are being appropriately upheld.
KAUKAUNA — Baisch Engineering, an engineering firm, recently launched its new website www. baisch.com. The redesigned site provides improved navigation and welcomes visitors with new colors and a clean uncluttered design. New additions to the site include Baisch Buzz, which is a section on the homepage that announces current Baisch news, and a blog that reports on the extracurricular happenings at Baisch.
APPLETON — HuHot Mongolian Grill owner and operator David Lindenstruth recently announced he would continue to donate a percentage of his restaurant's total sales to one Appleton area non-profit organization each month. The program, titled Making Community Impacts, is available in five Wisconsin cities including Appleton. The program initially kicked off at Lindenstruth's first HuHot Mongolian Grill location in Appleton. The program has given back an average of more than $3,400 to one Fox Cities nonprofit group every month.
What: Inventors' Network of Wisconsin
What it does: To help independent inventors drive their ideas to market and offer a forum for inventors to meet, learn, present prototypes, share challenges and successes, provide support and inspiration, ask and answer questions, and to give-and-take advice.
Annual membership: Individual: $25 a year (includes admission to all meetings and networking events)
On the Web: www.inventors-network.org
Necessity remains the mother of invention. Scott Francis believes it, as do other members of the Inventors' Network of Wisconsin.
For several years, Fox Cities inventors who have come up with a unique invention or idea have sought out the organization seeking advice on how to make their ideas reality and ultimately turn a profit.
Francis, who is president of Topline Development LLC in Menasha, a consulting business that offers product development and marketing assistance to inventors, also is an active member of the network.
He was recently featured on postcrescent.com's weekly Newsmakers program, which can be replayed at postcrescent.com/livestream. Here are some excerpts:
Tell me about the inventors' network:
It's a networking group. We meet every other month, the second Monday of the month. Our next meeting is in July at the D.J. Bordini Center (in Grand Chute). It generally starts at 6:30 p.m. and we have a speaker who comes in (and) starts at about 7 p.m.
We typically open the floor to inventors to talk about what they're working on. The group helps inventors bring their ideas to market.
A lot of people have ideas, but then they ask themselves, "Now what? How do I bring my product to market?" The network provides a forum for them to come and share ideas and provide them help confidentially.
What kind of attendance do you get at your meetings?
We will get anywhere between 20 and 40 people. We have some email lists of people who have attended. Some people don't attend all the meetings because it depends on where they're at with their projects. It's a membership organization but it's open to the public. It costs $10 to attend a meeting but annual memberships are $25.
Our members are an interesting mix of people. They are from all over the Fox Cities area. We've had people from Fond du Lac, Marinette and Waupaca.
We've had people from as far way as Milwaukee, Madison, the west side of the state and Illinois, depending on our speakers.
Often, people start with an idea that was driven by a problem. Once they think they have a solution for that problem, they then start to think how to protect that idea or how they can bring it to market or sell it.