For many these days, a corporate career is increasingly becoming a prelude to an entrepreneurial second act. Every year untold thousands shed their corporate skins and begin life anew as entrepreneurs. These “second acts’ vary, as do the motivations for them. For some, it’s the right combination of time and money, while for others it takes a confluence of events that finally steers them toward being their own bosses.Given the cycles of economic and labor-market volatility, the last gasp of job security, and the growing number of baby boomers who prefer to roll up their sleeves rather than quietly retire, entrepreneurialism is becoming an attractive choice for corporate refugees. “There is no question about it,” says John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based international outplacement-consulting firm. “More people today are striking out on their own, either involuntarily or voluntarily.”
“Unemployment has dropped to [the] 5% level, turning this into a sellers’ market. People are more in demand, and companies are having a hard time [finding] people,” Challenger notes. “If [someone decides to] go out on their own and it doesn’t work, they can go back to another job. They aren’t going out on their own in the middle of a period where the economy is in tatters.”
Photo by A is for Angie.
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