As a senior, I enjoy working with and helping my older clients. Recently, some personal and business experiences have made me realize that some advice is in order.

The first adopters of e-commerce websites are to be commended and I love that there were so many forward thinking individuals out there that made the internet their home store. Now, though, these individuals are both trying to maintain their web presence and income while fighting a variety of issues, whether that be personal medical problems, taking care of their parents or grown disabled children. It gets harder to maintain one’s website while being frequently pulled away from business.

So I have a few words of advice (that I’m always good for!).

1. Accept the fact that your attention is divided. It can be harder to make decisions and the need for advice rises. Choosing the best someone to help you with the business may not be your son or daughter. It should be someone is is internet saavy and open to learning about ecommerce and specifically Zen Cart.
2. The pace of change for servers, hosting, and websites has massively accelerated in recent years. Keeping up with the changes is challenging even for someone working in the industry. Again, an advisor who can shepherd you through the necessary changes is imperative.
3. Please understand that, though you may not have felt the need to make changes in the past, there are some that have to happen now – unfortunately when you might feel less able to manage the changes and/or make decisions.
4. Change does get harder as you age. I totally understand! But resisting something because it’s a change and “not the way we’ve always done business” may well be counter-productive.
5. Your business is likely to suffer as a result of this faster pace if you don’t put some pieces in place but just upgrading and or even a new template may not increase your sales either. Industries have a shelf life and it’s quite possible so does your website.
6. For many of my customers who have been in business for years, that personal touch is one of the keys to their success. If that principal person is no longer able to tend to business as before, the business most likely will suffer. It’s sad and I personally experienced the same phenomenon during a series of surgeries a few years ago.
7. So if a family member is now involved and trying to pick up the pieces, it is highly unlikely he or she can return the business to its prior success. I have seen adult children who are more likely to blame the web person while experiencing their own distress due to the new circumstances rather than face this reality.
8. Entrepreneurs have to be bold – that’s how most folks got into their ecommerce websites to begin with. Many who try to step into their shoes are more interested in protecting what’s there and also resist needed changes. Make sure your instincts for protection do not discount the need for change.
9. Finding a web person who can be trusted is just plain hard for anyone. If you are looking at zen cart needs, there are questions that you need to ask a potential web person. (that’s another post entirely). You have to recognize that developers believe they can do anything if they can code. Too often I have to clean up website messes created by competent and well-meaning developers who simply don’t know how Zen Cart works. In other words, choose someone with provable Zen Cart experience and recommendations. The question is not can you work on my site but how much experience do you have with Zen Cart?