The job market faltered
The discouraged workforce is fast becoming a force in its own right
One thing that the economic downturn did was spur on creativity. Many workers were used to the usual 9-to-5 grind and to collecting a paycheck twice a month. The recession has begun to change that as well as the way people conduct their day-to-day lives.
Entrepreneurs in the new economy
In the past, people became entrepreneurs because they had bigger dreams than a 9-to-5 work schedule. In today’s market a new crop of entrepreneurs is growing. This is a group focused on working for themselves because they can’t find work elsewhere. Many suffered layoffs and employer cutbacks. They looked for months for new positions, but they were unsuccessful. Most people’s savings were depleted quickly and with few other options, they began looking into entrepreneurship.
It’s not difficult to start the search for self-employment. Most Americans did it out of necessity due to the 10% or higher unemployment rate. The new entrepreneurs are the people who were willing to take matters into their own hands. As of December 2009, studies showed that there were 2.5% more self-employed Americans in the nation than there were six months earlier. The data suggests that more people are giving up on their job searches. Rather than continue with the dead-end interviewing, they opt for creating their own jobs.
Entrepreneurs and their motivations
Some believe that entrepreneurs are born, but the recession is proving otherwise. In fact, there seems to be little difference between the success rate of businesses whose owners chose to run a business, and those were pushed into it by circumstance. According to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business, three years after forming a business most owners don’t regret the move. They also reported that the businesses are not as lucrative as hoped when they first began operations. Still, taking matters into their own hands has at least provided an income for many people who could not find jobs after being laid off.
Finding a skill to market
The new entrepreneurial mindset involves focusing on something that you’re good at and then marketing it. The National Federation of Independent Business also produced research showing that most people going into business for themselves continue in the same industry they were employed in. For example, a secretary for a large corporation who was laid off oftentimes moves into the field of virtual assistant. A virtual assistant does the same thing as a secretary but does so online. There is no checking in to an office, but rather it’s all done via email and telephone data transfer. They take their best attributes as a worker and parlay them into self-employment.
The future of the self-employed
The recession presented many kinds employment of hardships for many kinds of people. Some of those people spent months looking for work after being laid off and then gave it up. With no other viable options, they went into business for themselves and rather than becoming entrepreneurs voluntarily, they did so involuntarily. Some may return to the job market once the economy improves, but the most successful will remain self-employed.
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