Are you Tired? Run Down? Listless? A good dose of self-employment may be just what you need

Are you taking a few too many mental health holidays lately? Are you giving a lackluster performance at work these days? Are you finding it increasingly difficult to get out of bed and into the office everyday? Chances are you’re suffering from employee discontent, an all-too-common disorder that may affect us all one day – if we’re lucky.

Twittering, texting, multitasking, assuming roles of wife, mother, significant-other, dealing with both kids and parents, and not to mention bringing home the bacon and frying it up in the pan: We’re all moving at the speed of light, and each day brings with it a new challenge that either makes us speed up and run with it, or makes us stop dead in our tracks and say, “What’s my motivation?”

Like rats in a maze, we just keep moving forward because that’s what we do. We just keep running, don’t look back and don’t stop. This is the only way to go, isn’t it? I mean, I have a good job – which, let’s face it, is a great blessing these days. And I love my boss, I really do. And that’s why I just don’t have the heart to tell her that I am looking to do something else.

Now is the time
It would seem that now is not the time to think about self-employment, what with bank bailouts, massive layoffs, and rising costs leading the news lately. Well, that’s one way to look at it. On the other hand, now may be the most perfect time to make the move to entrepreneurship. With the economy now turned upside down, there’s a new perspective in business and all the old rules may be out the window. This may be the best opportunity in our lifetime to get creative and try something new. In his recent Harvard Business Publishing blog post, 2009 Will Be an Economic Engine for Change, entrepreneur and brain scientist Jeff Stibel points out that times of economic turmoil are historically and notably times of great creativity and successful business innovation. Economic downturns have generated great ideas, like the cotton gin, the telephone and (ironically) the Small Business Administration. So if you start right now, the odds of success are in your favor. What are you waiting for?

Find your passion
“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” -- Anna Quindlen
Find your passion. If you start with something you’re passionate about, be it making cupcakes, frosting donuts or pole dancing, you’ll already have a leg up on success. Pink Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Good wrote in a recent article about women who took a chance, followed their passion, created their own definition of success and live in that happy place every day. If you spend two hours a day getting back and forth to work you don’t like anymore, eight hours working at fulfilling someone else’s dreams, and the rest of your time thinking about all the things you’d rather be doing, then it’s time to stop and find your passion. Ask yourself the tough questions: What do I like doing? What could I do that would serve a purpose and fulfill my spirit? And can I make a business out of it? Chances are, if you keep digging you’ll find the answers, and you’ll find a way to make it work. And then you can live in that happy place – every day.

Help from Uncle Sam
You may not want to hear this, and if you’ve recently been laid off/let go/downsized, you might not be ready to think about this. But if you’re ready to look at the glass as half full, by all means read on. Uncle Sam wants you to explore entrepreneurship. Yes, you read correctly. If you are reading this and you are unemployed, you should check out the Self-Employment Assistance program link on the United States Department of Labor, Education and Training Administration’s Web site. If you live in a state that participates in this program, and you meet certain eligibility requirements, your unemployment could lead you down the path to self-employment. Basically, enrollment in this program provides you with a weekly allowance while you get your business off the ground. If you’re unemployed, meet eligibility requirements, have access to this program and have a business idea, pursuing self-employment should be a no-brainer. Unemployment to self-employment? Sounds like a win-win scenario.

If you’ve been sitting in the dingy cubicle waiting for the boss to give you a shot, -- or if you’re the boss in the corner office dreaming about making cupcakes, frosting donuts or pole dancing – what are you waiting for? While there’s never an ideal time to have a baby, there’s never been a more perfect time to explore self employment. Find your passion, take that leap of faith and go get it.