Recently we have heard of two "retirement business" projects. This is when retirees decide to use some or all of their retirement savings to go into a business to generate ongoing retirement income and keep them busy. In both of these cases, the businesses did not survive and these retirees lost their funds invested in the project. 

We have seen this happen before and the key risks are:

1. Experience: banks will not lend money to buy a business in which the owner does not have significant experience in and for this same reason neither should you. Often people get a romantic idea about running a little business, but without experience in that kind of business they are setting themselves up for failure.
2. Credentials: qualifications in an industry or business sector are another factor banks take into consideration before investing their funds or loaning money and lack of training in the fundamentals of that type of business venture is another key risk.

We see the best results in businesses where it is a natural progression either from a hobby or another business and deciding to suddenly change careers close to or post-retirement is a huge risk.