How To Turn Your Talents Into A Business

On a tight budget and wondering how you can earn extra money from your hobby, passion, or interest? AARP Foundation Work for Yourself@50+ can help you get started, with expert guidance and insider tips.

Charlotte Bishop, a retired professor with a passion for organization and helping other seniors, turned to Work for Yourself@50+ to fill in the blanks. The AARP Foundation program was designed to help older adults living with limited income explore options for self-employment and increase their financial stability.

As a single working mother in the Bronx, NY, she sent two sons through college — and, to hear her tell it, outstanding organizational skills were the key.

“Organization is not a luxury; it’s a lifestyle,” she likes to say. In fact, that’s the motto for her business, Life Files Professionals. Charlotte and her son, Evan, officially launched the company in September 2012, offering organizing systems that integrate environmentally friendly practices.

After she retired from her position as a professor at the City University of New York, she found that many of her friends and neighbors were asking her to help them organize their documents. “I had a reputation,” she says. And so Life Files Professionals was born.

But even though Charlotte had launched her business, she didn’t have a business plan and wasn’t sure she was on the right track. She didn’t know how to apply her skills in an entrepreneurial setting. 

In early 2018, she brought her concerns to the Work for Yourself@50+ program at the Harlem Business Alliance. Work for Yourself@50+ helped her find valuable resources and avoid common pitfalls, offering practical guidance on how to use her skills to increase her income.

Like many Work for Yourself@50+ participants, Charlotte felt the obstacles she was experiencing were unique to her. “It is so comforting to know that these experiences are not mine alone,” she explains. “I now realize they are what many new entrepreneurs experience.”

“AARP Foundation gave me a roadmap to review the steps we had already taken,” she says. “Work for Yourself@50+ has given me the confidence to trust my instincts” — instincts, she notes, that are often supported by solid research.

At age 73, Charlotte understands what her peers are going through. She loves helping older adults digitize their important documents, reduce their clutter, and reclaim their living spaces.

Because Charlotte knows it can be difficult to reach seniors like herself, she’s continuing to take advantage of the program’s coaching to help her be strategic with marketing and communication efforts.

With more than six years of entrepreneurship under her belt, Charlotte now has clients across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and is a model of success for current and future Work for Yourself@50+ participants. Aside from the guidance and resources she’s gained from the program, she’s found it beneficial in one other, crucial respect.

“I don’t feel as isolated as I have in the past,” she says. “I feel that I’m not doing this alone.”