The Self Employment Chronicles

“The Self Employment Chronicles” began as a therapeutic post written on the progressive political blog “Jack and Jill Politics” several days after the author was laid off from a job he had held for more than five years. He had gone to work that morning as a well-paid employee of the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office. Not quite 45 minutes later he was unemployed after having been informed by his boss that budget cuts were forcing him to effectively erase his position – and his full-time income and his health benefits. So what is the first thing you do when you become unemployed? How do you talk yourself down from the ledge? What are the most important steps you need to take to ‘keep it all together’ and to keep yourself moving forward? No doubt the answer to those questions may vary depending on individual circumstance, and what works for one person may not necessarily work for the next. Still, in an economy that by all measures has been described as nothing short of brutal on the vast majority of Americans, a growing number of those unemployed Americans have chosen to create their own jobs rather than wading back into a job market where they felt the odds were considerably more stacked against them than in years past. Keith Owens has counted himself among that number ever since August 1, 2011 when he first learned that his job was a thing of the past. Since that time he has chronicled both the highs and the lows of becoming self-employed which continues right up to this particular day. Although by no means opposed to full-time work with benefits (who would be?), one thing Mr. Owens has learned and learned well is that, especially at the age of 54, any offer of full-time work that pays what it should is likely to either be temporary or illusory. The only employer who won’t fire you is yourself, and no employer on Earth will work as hard to pay you what you’re worth as you. This is the ongoing journey of one man, but it may be yours as well.