Aware Brain

Last year, I wrote an outline of a life strategy which included the critical step of creating one’s own personal business venture. Whether this was in place of a regular job, or as a supplement to it, having a self-run businesss is one of the most powerful steps in developing a secure and content life. In December I related a story of a man I met in the mid 1990′s, who left his six-figure corporate job to do just that, and went on to greater success.

It seems that the decline of the US economy makes this idea more attractive. With less available jobs in the marketplace, more Americans are opting to create their own jobs. The recession has, in fact, spawned a new generation of self-employed microbusiness entrepreneurs.

Staci Byers, a Hartland CT mother of eight, was recently laid off by her employer. Byers is now throwing all of her time and money into making and selling herbal medicine and teas — a hobby she’d taken up over the years. More than 10,549 people registered businesses in Connecticut last month, and the Hartford City Clerk reports a large increase in new filings. “We’re seeing a lot of activity — people kind of out on their own, starting new businesses. Some just don’t want to wait for unemployment, and that’s not a bad thing,” City Clerk Daniel M. Carey said. “They’re all small businesses — cleaners, housekeepers, auto detailers, things of that nature.”

At the same time, graduating college students and even high school kids are turning to starting their own enterprises as jobs are hard to find. Amid shrinking job opportunities (the 16-to-19-year-old unemployment rate in April was 21.5%), many teens are embracing their inner industrialist. “Kids are actively considering starting their own businesses,” says Junior Achievement USA President Jack Kosakowski. “It might be out of necessity, since there aren’t a lot of jobs out there. But they’re also seeing parents and other adults that have been loyal to companies for years … getting laid off, so these kids might be thinking, ‘Hey, I might be better off being my own boss.’ “

Jasmine Lawrence founded a body-care company when at age 11, her locks fell out after she used a chemical relaxer. Soon after, she was mixing up her own natural products. At age 13, with savings from her allowance and a $2,000 loan from her parents, she started her small business, now called Eden BodyWorks. Lawrence, now 17, says her company sells more than 20,000 units a month through a website alone. The products, which are produced at a facility in Harvey, Ill., have also been sold at retailers such as Wal-Mart. She won’t disclose sales numbers, but Dun & Bradstreet puts them at $740,000, and Hoover’s pegs revenue at $700,000.

This rise has Jim DeBetta’s phone ringing off the hook. The Marietta, Ga., business consultant, who coaches start-up business owners, said he’s been so swamped with calls from people who have lost their jobs that he hired an assistant to “handle the flow.” The newly unemployed have been pitching everything to DeBetta, he said, from solar-powered water heaters to custom-designed coffee mugs. DeBetta can relate — it wasn’t too long ago that his own job at a start-up company was in jeopardy. That’s when he became a self-employed consultant.

If the trend continues, his business should benefit in the forseeable future.

~ by Dave on June 1, 2009.

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