With 54% of founders experiencing burnout, midlife entrepreneurs are pivoting strategically, driven by insight, not desperation.
What’s Happening: Established founders are increasingly pivoting their businesses in midlife, driven by values misalignment, burnout concerns, and lifestyle changes rather than failure. This trend coincides with mature Australians 45+ contributing over $12 billion annually across more than 380,000 businesses.
Why This Matters: Recent data shows 54% of founders experienced burnout in the past year, with 75% reporting anxiety. As entrepreneurship demographics shift toward older age groups, strategic reinvention offers a sustainable alternative to traditional expansion models, prioritising wellbeing alongside profitability.
The narrative around business reinvention typically focuses on young disruptors pivoting their way to success. But a growing movement of midlife founders is rewriting the script, choosing strategic reinvention driven not by failure, but by hard-earned insight.
Lisa Burling, Founder and CEO of Grass Is Greener Marketing Communications, exemplifies this trend. After more than a decade running a successful, multi-award-winning marketing communications agency, she has rebranded, relaunched, and restructured her business model multiple times: each pivot born from clarity rather than crisis.
“Each pivot wasn’t born from collapse, but from clarity: clarity about my values, my lifestyle, my energy, and the kind of business I wanted to build for the next decade of my life,” Burling explains.
Values misalignment
Values misalignment frequently sparks midlife reinvention, Burling observes. What feels thrilling in your thirties can start to feel hollow in your forties, as founders realise that early drivers (prestige, revenue, rapid expansion, external accolades) no longer align with evolving priorities.
“In midlife, the awareness that time and energy are finite often crystallises, and many founders choose to spend both more purposefully,” she notes.
This shift aligns with broader research showing the average age of successful startup founders is 45, while over-50s represent Australia’s fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs, with one-third of new businesses founded by mature-aged Australians.
Burnout statistics
Mental health pressures provide another critical catalyst for midlife pivots. A 2025 survey of European-based founders by Sifted found that 54% had experienced burnout in the past year, while three-quarters reported anxiety, and nearly half described their mental health as “bad” or “very bad”.
For women founders, the pressures intensify further. One study found that 83 per cent experience high stress, 78 per cent suffer persistent anxiety, and 54 per cent face burnout, with most participants aged between 35 and 54.
Additional research indicates 72% of founders report mental health impacts, including anxiety, burnout, and depression, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable business models.
Lifestyle change represents a third critical driver. In Australia, people aged 45 years and older are increasingly turning to entrepreneurship, contributing over $12 billion annually across more than 380,000 businesses. Many leave traditional roles to regain flexibility, reclaim autonomy, and live more aligned lives.
Strategic testing
Burling’s journey demonstrates how thoughtful reinvention can deliver both personal satisfaction and improved business metrics. Her transformation began with rebranding from a PR agency to full marketing communications- a shift that wasn’t cosmetic but brought clarity, reignited enthusiasm, and strengthened client trust.
She then redesigned her entire business model, dismantling a large in-house structure and rebuilding around a leaner, contractor-led team anchored by one full-time right-hand person. This restructuring delivered improved margins, flexibility, and mental space while doubling profit margins.
“Every reinvention I’ve made has been less about chasing something new and more about shedding what no longer served me,” Burling reflects. “I’ve launched, closed, restructured, rebranded, but always from a place of insight, not desperation.”
Her approach follows three key principles for risk mitigation:
Test before shifting: Start with small pilots, refreshed brand statements, or partial restructuring rather than overnight overhauls. When moving from PR to marketing communications, Burling began with conversations and soft repositioning.
Be financially savvy: Understanding the numbers remains essential. Downsizing team structure can slash overheads but must preserve revenue streams. She restructured so that every contractor engagement had defined ROI, ensuring profitability as overheads dropped.
Anchor in your why: Without deeply felt purpose, pivots become transient. When reinvention is grounded in meaningful values (autonomy, balance, authenticity) each strategic decision becomes clearer and more sustainable.
Smarter starts
This approach contrasts sharply with traditional startup culture that glorifies rapid scaling and external validation. Data shows the average age of successful entrepreneurs is 42 years, with peak success rates occurring in the 40s and 50s age range, suggesting experience provides crucial advantages over youthful enthusiasm alone.
“Midlife reinvention isn’t about starting over; it’s about starting smarter,” Burling explains. “Founders embracing this shift are discovering healthier, more profitable, and deeply fulfilling work. They are redefining success to include alignment, sustainability, and wellbeing, not just scale.”
With more than one in five small business owners (22 per cent) aged 60 and over, Australia’s demographic trends support this strategic approach to business building.
The combination of Australia’s booming cohort of mature entrepreneurs and concerning global burnout statistics paints a clear picture: strategic reinvention at midlife is becoming not just necessary, but the new normal.
“With clarity, courage, and care, pivots can be among the most visionary moves a founder makes,” Burling concludes.
As more established founders prioritise values alignment over aggressive growth, they’re demonstrating that business success doesn’t require sacrificing personal wellbeing- it requires redefining what success means in the first place.
Editorial note: This article is contributed content by Lisa Burling, Founder & CEO of Grass Is Greener Marketing Communications, based on her personal experience and industry observations.
Sources & Links
- Sifted Founders Burnout Survey 2025: https://sifted.eu/articles/founders-mental-health-2025
- Positive Entrepreneurship “The True Cost of Female Entrepreneurship” Report
- La Trobe University research on mature-age entrepreneurs (September 2022)
- Lisa Burling contact: www.gigmarketing.com.au
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