Free Agent Nation is out there, and parts of it are growing fast.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that 14.4 million Americans were self-employed in January. Of those, 9.2 million were unincorporated self-employed workers and another 5.2 million were incorporated.
Continue reading… “Where are all of the self-employed?”
With pensions shrinking, many retired people are starting a small business.
At 63, entrepreneur Sam Taylor was retired. All of his life he had worked hard. He had a company that floated on the stock market and made enough money to live a life of leisure in southern Spain. So why, eight years later, did he swap sipping sangria’s in the sun for starting an online art business in his native Scotland?
Continue reading… “More over-50’s starting their own businesses”
The decline in the self-employed is a “troubling” trend.
Fewer Americans are choosing to be self-employed. 14.5 million people were self-employed in August. That number is down 2.1 million from the most recent peak in December 2006, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Continue reading… “Number of self-employed Americans is shrinking”
Start-up activity plummets in first half of 2010.
A new survey shows that start- up activity plummeted in the first half of 2010 as would-be entrepreneurs were either scooped up by employers or scared off by fragile economic conditions, a tight lending market and uncertainty over the sustainability of the recovery.
Continue reading… “Start-up Rate Plummets as Fragile Economy Deters Entrepreneurship”
Cinde Dolphin, at age 55, started a public relations firm that helps winemakers
Cinde Dolphin, after 24 years as a marketing manager for Coors, knew what was coming — Miller and Coors had just merged their United States beer operations, and hundreds of jobs were sure to be eliminated.
Worried that these youth-oriented companies might lay off an old-timer like her, Ms. Dolphin decided to take a buyout and relax. She sunned on the beaches of New Zealand, went whitewater rafting on the Yampa River in Colorado and saw friends and Broadway shows in New York.
Continue reading… “Growing Number of People 55 and Over Starting Their Own Businesses”
We will miss the workplace when it’s gone
By the end of the month, a company called txteagle will be the largest employer in Kenya. The firm, started in its original form in 2008 by a young computer engineer named Nathan Eagle and, as of this coming June, based in Boston, will have 10,000 people working for it in Kenya. Txteagle does not rent office space for these workers, nor do the company’s officers interview them, or ever talk to most of them.
Continue reading… “The Future of Work”
It’s a common lament in America that we spend too much time working for “the man.” But these days, more and more of us are the man.
Continue reading… “Boss Nation – Growing Number Of Self-Employed In US”