Wow! What a time to be alive. Between the growth of technology in the past twenty years, the political climate, environment issues, and the Internet, there's a lot going on. Guess who is a major part of it? Baby boomers! This amazing generation is middle aged or more now and they are in the thick of everything. Just think about what they have seen in their lifetime. The first baby boomers were born in the mid 1940's which means technology we take for granted wasn't even thought of in science fiction magazines. Everything has changed for them. Some of them didn't even know what it was like to have a TV in their house because it wasn't available to consumers yet.



So what's my point? If you own a small business, baby boomers are a great demographic to market to. Some traditional strategies say to market to younger generations and get them on board for life with your product or service. However, now it's almost impossible to get someone on board for life with a product given all the choices out there today. Marketing exclusively to the younger generation can certainly yield results but may be limiting. You've got to diversify your marketing to include baby boomers as well.

Think about this for a second. Baby boomers have not just been a witness to change over the years; they have been the agents of change itself! Between the social changes in the 60's to being elected officials and CEO's of major companies, boomers have proven to have flexible viewpoints and can stand their ground at the same time. The most remarkable thing about these folks is their ability to adapt on all levels of life including politics, technology, family and finances.

Finances play a large roll because some baby boomers have a large amount of cash! This means they are a great source of potential business. With retirement looming on the horizon, they will be drawing out cash from investments and start to live very differently. They'll become spenders instead of earners, making them an even stronger demographic to market to.

Also, in contrast to the generation older than them, boomers have embraced technological changes despite their age. In fact, some of them helped invent things like the Internet and computer programming. They are definitely more in line with the younger population as far as technology usage goes. In some categories, they are ahead of the population. They excel the most at looking up information online. Concerning healthcare, the baby boomer generation is 11% more likely to look up their needs on line than their younger counterparts the Gen Xer's. The obvious business opportunity here is to optimize your small business websites' search ability. Make sure your site is easy to find and has a clear message about what you are offering and boomers will get interested.

In short, baby boomers could be a boom for your small business. There are millions of them so don't count them out! They have a varied and progressive level of interest that can turn profits for any kind of business or service you may provide.