3 Demographic Trends for 2009
With the new year upon us, it’s an opportune time to take a step back and see the bigger picture of the market landscape and corresponding market opportunities. With that in mind, let’s examine three major demographic trends that you can look to leverage in the coming year to grow your business:
Trend #1: Seniors
Americans over 50 years of age represent a staggering 40 percent of the overall population, and those online represent 32 percent of the overall online population.
With more than 78 million Baby Boomers representing approximately 25% of the US population, the continued increase in seniors to our overall population in 2009 will be significant.
Seniors have special needs. How can your business address these needs, or how can you customize your products to serve seniors specifically?
Trend #2: Generation Y
Another growing segment of the population is Generation Y, otherwise known as Millennials or the Net Generation. If the years 1978-2000 are used to define the birth years for this group, then the size of Generation Y in the US is approximately 76 million.
This generation faces a daunting job market, with unemployment expected to increase dramatically in 2009. How can your business help these individuals find work? Or, can you help them start their own home-based, bedroom-based or dorm room-based businesses? Alternatively, can you help the younger segment of this group in preparing for college?
Trend #3: Moms
With the recession, families are going to try to generate additional sources of income. To that end, expect more stay-at-home moms to start new businesses.
There are 10.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States generating $2.5 trillion in annual revenue, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research. Women are starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of men. According to certain industry experts, 85 percent of these businesses are run by mothers.
If you are a mom looking to start a business, you now have many support options that simply did not exist in the past.
Others should explore how their business can potentially help the mom entrepreneur succeed. Moms at home, for example, would be expected to outsource quite a number of materials and services in order to grow –- can you provide flexible outsourced solutions to this growing demographic?
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I think we are going to see a significant impact from stay at home moms as outsourcing is already available through websites such as Guru and eLance.
January 4th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I became a mom entrepreneur in 2000 and had a very difficult time finding support. In 2008, I created The Mom Entrepreneur, which includes an Online Support Group. We have hundreds of members who discuss everything from potty training to how to use Twitter. I invite other mom entrepreneurs to join us. Membership is free. Just click the link above.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Following us (Millennial Generation):
On behalf of the nearly 80 million of us, I’d like to thank you for keeping an eye on us. Younger millennials just love internships and to be mentored, and older millennials (I’m more more in the born 1982 - 2000 camp) are resource/reference-rich and are savvy to what’s authentic (thus sellable) and what is not. These are very broad generalizations, but fortunately there are coming upon thousands of in-the-minds-of-millennials blogs (mine included, though it’s focused more on activist culture - we’re very civically minded). For a peek into the psyche of the working Millennial, check out the must-read, Brazen Careerist:
http://www.brazencareerist.com/
December 15th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Having been a part of the Online Universal Work Marketing team for 4 months now, I’m thankful for my fellow team members who have patiently shown me the ropes along the way and made me feel welcome
http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com
January 7th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
[...] region, industry, and market segment you operate in. Are there specific economic, socioeconomic, demographic, or psychographic trends which are now impacting your space? How will these dynamics affect your [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 2:34 am
[...] region, industry, and market segment you operate in. Are there specific economic, socioeconomic, demographic, or psychographic trends which are now impacting your space? How will these dynamics affect your [...]
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:56 am
Americans over 50 years of age represent a staggering 40 percent of the overall population, and those online represent 32 percent of the overall online population.This generation faces a daunting job market, with unemployment expected to increase dramatically.