null Getty It was my birthday this week, and I confess that I’m into my sixth decade. By no means am I slowing down in my writing or enthusiasm for the freelance revolution and the potential for remote work. But there’s a new focus area with amazing potential for the freelance revolution – something that creates extraordinary opportunity for freelancers. And, it’s hardly received the publicity it deserves. It’s what my mentor and solopreneur par excellence Keren Etkin calls Age Tech . Keren has become an important global influencer and a unique thought leader both in mobilizing interest in age tech, and identifying new areas combining both service to the elderly and significant commercial prospects. More about Keren in a moment, but here’s what age tech means for the freelance revolution. In every area of tech, and broadly across professional disciplines, there are large and growing opportunities for freelancers to participate in a new area that combines technology innovation and financial opportunity. Here’s the bottom line as described by investor Dominic Endicott in an interview with my Forbes colleague Tina Woods: “Age-Tech spending is poised to grow fast. Older people are the fastest growing demographic group; digitization is growing across all sectors and digitization in aging is converging towards the global average. I project the global Aging Economy will reach $27 Trillion in 2025, with digitization at 10%, for an Age-Tech potential of $2.7 Trillion by 2025. This would imply 21% annual growth in the global Age-Tech market.” In other words, significant rewards are available to those freelancers who help build the age tech economy. Wood’s article describes a number of areas where age tech is growing fast: PROMOTED 1. Services purchased by older people . Services used by seniors are in many cases not just purchased by the elderly, but they are significant beneficiaries. Ride sharing is one example: Lyft, for example provides access to their network through a partnership that doesn’t depend on senior comfort with smart phones. Or Amazon and other companies that assembles all medications to improve convenience and safety. A study by Charles Schewe of the University of Massachusetts points out the importance of services to the elderly: “(t)he physical and life style changes of the elderly produce an emphasis on services over goods … the need for such services as home security, car maintenance and repair, and lawn care and also found high interest in “no-frills” products and services.” On demand services from Task Rabbit to Instacart are of particular value to seniors and individuals with physical limitations, and in future can be customized to the needs of elderly customers. All Trails , for example, provides hikers with information on children friendly paths. It would take little effort to provide hiking trail intel that was more specific to seniors. 2. Services offered on behalf of older people . Technology is rapidly expanding both the breadth and quality of services provided for seniors. Healthcare is an obvious area for innovation. As a recent article […]
