My interest is the exit and retirement of business owners. I am not only an academic, but I also own a manufacturing company with my spouse. So my research is at times “me” search. I noticed that discussions about retirement rarely if ever include business owners, except in their role as facilitator of their employees’ retirements. But how does the owner retire when there is a business to exit as well? This is not talked about, by anyone. There is wide variation among entrepreneurs but all owners will exit their businesses, and for many, retirement is their one and only exit.

As a ‘pracademic,’ I actively combine research and practice. Alongside my involvement in new ventures, I support URI’s Age-Friendly University by conducting workshops on ageism in entrepreneurship for OLLI members. Additionally, using my research on ENDrepreneurship and mortality, I collaborate with the RISBDC to offer workshops for family-owned businesses.

I would like to have the conversation, early and often. I mashed up “ent” in entrepreneur with “end” (literally, the end) to get endrepreneur (“end-ruh-preneur”). I define it, and its variant, endrepreneurship as the intersection of business exit and retirement.

Let’s get started.

endrepreneur@gmail.com