US News and World Report:
Five o’clock used to mean happy hour, soccer practice, or a few hours in front of the tube. But for an increasing number of professionals, powering down the computer at the office now means powering up the laptop at home.
With new technologies that make it cheaper to start your own business and a widespread need to earn additional income during the recession, more professionals are taking on paying projects in addition to their day jobs. Whether you’re selling a service or promoting a product or driving traffic to a website, juggling a business on the side is the new nine-to-five.
“There is this brand new phenomenon,” says Paul Kedrosky, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on entrepreneurship. “People [are] being entrepreneurs almost in their spare time, which you could never do before, at least never do in a way that was profitable.”