By FrankMcGonagle managing director Wholeschool

I'm very much of the mindset that it's never too late to learn - and those were my thoughts exactly when I decided to start up my own business in my 50s. There's often a misconception that today's entrepreneurs are young, trendy 18-35 year olds, yet, the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK 2013 Report has found more people than ever before are starting a business beyond the age of 50 - a reversal of historically low entrepreneurial activity in this age bracket.

I truly believe that people of any age or stature can come up with a great business idea, and more importantly, execute it. But more often than not, people of my age consider themselves incapable of attracting investors and markets, and lay their business ideas to rest. But I'm a living example of why the over-50s make great entrepreneurs.

Plugging into gaming

My own journey began when gaming was being considered in the business environment. In recent years, gaming software has enjoyed astonishing media spotlight, with its all-consuming nature inspiring new levels of student engagement and learning.  But I couldn't help notice the growing excitement over software tools' power on the other side of the classroom, helping head teachers and senior staff to harness both their learning management systems and physical resources to uplift their institutions' performance.

I started my education entrepreneurship with a school project in 1990s Northern Ireland, helping teachers identify and then get to grips with classroom teaching software. Schools are often overwhelmed by integrating the array of new buildings, curriculum requirements and the huge choice of IT and learning software.

Most schools yearn for a way to bring these assets together more systematically ‒ and gain optimum performance from the investments made in them. We're now seeing the dawn of school management dashboards - where heads and IT teams can host cloud-based information sources and knit together both branded and open source learning management systems (LMSs). These cutting edge management platforms enable schools to track individual student attainment, teaching performance, analyse alumni success levels, and make necessary changes in real time rather than waiting until end of term or year end. 

Age is just a number, but experience counts for everything

My career as a consultant-turned-entrepreneur has given me conviction that people of any age can successfully bring an idea to the table and get buy in from businesses that will benefit, which in my case, was primary and secondary schools.

After the corporate management consultancy route, I was offered redundancy in the late 1990s. This encouraged me to focus my time on a long-cherished start-up idea I had, and thankfully, I was able to use the financial and sales management skills I picked up in my career to secure growth for an education-focused consultancy start-up. As an older entrepreneur, I also found that my IP base and business networks have been invaluable in growth-building aspects such as partnering with other companies and carefully-phased fund-raising; more so than I would have imagined.

I'd urge any older entrepreneur to consider the skillsets they've attained throughout their previous careers - whether in financial services, legal, buying, selling, marketing, etc. - and apply their personal and professional experiences to their own business. In addition, older entrepreneurs should also use the networks of invaluable contacts they've built up over the years to their advantage too.

Continued success through collaboration

After collaborating on my own start-up's tenders for government LMS projects, software giant, IBM, was so impressed with the potential of school management platforms in the UK and Ireland that its local team invited us to join its Global Entrepreneur Programme, offering expert support to help commercialise our school management offerings more widely.

By joining the programme's business accelerator, IBM SmartCamp Kick Start Ireland, we gained expert mentoring and access to innovation labs. Senior executives fired our ambition, introducing us to other countries' educators to showcase the LMSs' potential and how they might be replicated: national-scale contracts in Ireland soon followed.

Start-ups are driving economic growth in the UK and are also helping boost the hunger for innovation and growth among investors and larger corporations. Regardless of age, entrepreneurs with great business ideas must make the most of the networks and skills they've already acquired in order to build new networks and skillsets to take their business idea to market. My own experiences show in a small way how commercial skills ‒ at whatever age they are acquired ‒ help start-up firms innovate and deliver business growth.