As older workers reach retirement age, many are not ready, because of personal ambitions or financial needs, to stop working. A growing number are starting their own businesses.
Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.; Apr 18, 2003; Ameet Sachdev, Tribune staff reporter;

Abstract:
After a stint in the Peace Corps following their retirement, [Bob Leventry] and [Marjorie Leventry] returned to Chicago and started a business importing quinoa, a South American grain. The company, Inca Organics, has close to $1 million in annual sales. Retired life insurance salesman [Robert Wells] of Maywood opened a small fast-food place on the West Side in February to supplement his income and help his chef-in-training son.

So much for the golden years.

At 68, Robert Wells spends his days scurrying between the counter and the kitchen of his fast-food takeout place on Chicago's West Side. Bob's Eatery opened in February, so getting the business off the ground has meant some long days for Wells, who retired as a life insurance salesman last year.

After a stint in the Peace Corps following their retirement, Bob and Marjorie Leventry returned to Chicago and started a business importing quinoa, a South American grain. The company, Inca Organics, will have close to $1 million in annual sales this year.

Wells and Leventry are among more than 2 million Americans ages 55 and older who are self-employed. Although a majority have been entrepreneurs most of their lives, Wells and Leventry represent a group that is expected to grow: retirees starting over by starting new businesses.

The movement will be fueled by Baby Boomers who, as they hit retirement, may become entrepreneurs as a way of maintaining the image of themselves as "forever young," said Sara Rix, a senior policy adviser at AARP.

As people live longer, more are worrying that their retirement savings won't maintain their lifestyles. The cash crunch has become more severe during the last three years as the stock market has failed to rebound. With few companies hiring, returning to the workforce is difficult. But that also has helped make self- employment an attractive option for retirees.

For retirees, start-up costs can be a huge gamble.

"There is unfortunately the risk of using up resources that you had been accumulating for retirement if the business goes south," Rix said. Still, older entrepreneurs possess some advantages.

"As far as dealing with people, handling employees, those are the kinds of things are second nature for them," said Dave Woods, an administrator with the Chicago office of SCORE, an association that helps small businesses.

Other retirees say that owning a business can be a hedge against retirement income losses. Although Bob and Marjorie Leventry say their retirement portfolio has lost about one-third of its value, they have peace of mind because they now live off the profits of a food import business they launched in 1997. Its annual sales are approaching $1 million.

Bob Leventry, 64, was chief operating officer of a Peoria insurance company for 18 years when he retired early in 1993. He and Marjorie, 62, wound up in Quito, Ecuador, with the Peace Corps. There they learned about a grain called quinoa, pronounced keen-wa, once a staple food of the Inca civilization.

When boiled, quinoa, which contains more protein than any other grain, looks like couscous, a granular North African pasta. It has a crunchy texture and nutty flavor.

Upon their return three years later, they looked into importing quinoa and selling it to natural-foods and organic retailers.

It took about two years and nearly $300,000 to establish ties with organic farmers in central Ecuador and get the business started. Bob Leventry learned about food regulations and customs requirements, and his wife, a registered dietitian, mailed samples to retailers and came up with different recipes.

"I am the guinea pig," Bob Leventry said. "My favorite is when she mixes in water chestnuts and peas."

The first quinoa shipment of 27 metric tons arrived at the port in Charleston, S.C., in January 1998. Today, the Leventrys' company, Chicago-based Inca Organics, imports 400 metric tons a year and also has sales in England.

At this time in his life, Bob Leventry said, "I thought I would be on the links deciding which iron to use."