Retirees combine enterprise, the Web

Some retirees are turning their hobbies into work they love.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Jim Walters retired from Bank of America in December 2001 after decades in the business, he thought of looking for a similar job. He was just 56, after all.

But in the months after Sept. 11, 2001, few companies were hiring.

“The headhunters Bank of America connected me to said, ‘Don’t bother,”’ said Walters, who lives in south Charlotte. “I had a year’s pay coming to me, and I couldn’t play golf in the winter. So I taught myself how to build a Web site.”

A short time later, Great Golf Memories, a company that sells golf equipment, accessories and novelties, was born.

“I wanted something that could keep me occupied into my 70s,” Walters said, “and still allow me to play golf.”

As people retire earlier and live longer, many are going back to work to pass the time or pay the bills.

Some, like Walters, are making that work fun, starting Internet businesses based on hunting, fishing, golfing or the beach.

These entrepreneurs say the work combines their talents from the corporate world with the leisure activities they want to enjoy in retirement.

And because such businesses can be both successful and easy to maintain, they give retirees the money to afford their hobbies and the time to enjoy them.

There are 76 million baby boomers in the U.S., and as many as 80 percent of them plan to work into their retirement years, according to AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons.

In an AARP contest called “My Dream Job,” people have shared their visions of the perfect job for workers 50 and older.

“Ninety percent of what we’re seeing is people wanting to turn their hobbies into some kind of viable business,” said Deborah Russell, the organization’s director of work-force issues. “It’s easier than trying to start a company with a product you know little about.”

The formula has worked for Walters, now 62.

He started small, with one or two products on his Web site, he said. Now, Walters gets orders from across the country and has employed a full-time staff to handle customer service.

Others have followed his lead, like Harvey Grasty, Walters’ brother-in-law, who worked on Great Golf Memories before leaving to create his own Web site, which sells nautical gifts and decor, in 2006.

“Part of the success and gratification of having a business like this is, we all have different themes that match up with our past and hobbies,” said Grasty, who worked as a manager at Apple Computer and in the commercial printing ink industry before retiring. “We have a passion for the products and [know] how they’ll do in the marketplace, based on our past experiences.”

Walters, Grasty and other Charlotte retirees who have started Internet businesses have been meeting for breakfast weekly since 2004.

The sites aren’t difficult to maintain, the men said on a recent morning. But starting them can be time-consuming, often requiring 12-hour days in front of the computer, they said.

Now, most spend about two to six hours a day online, they said.