The national job market has been improving for many. Unemployment is down to 5.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s nearly half of what it was at this time in 2010. But plenty more people are still struggling to recover. Some are unemployed, others are working for substantially less than before the recession. And the unemployment rate does not include able-bodied persons in the prison system.
So why not start a small business? There are many advantages to starting a business if you have been having difficulty finding work. Who exactly will benefit from starting a business?
1. The long term unemployed. If you are one of these people, starting a business may be the best option available for several reasons. The first is that it immediately makes you employed. This is a requirement of some companies (although several states have passed laws banning ads that require job seekers to be presently employed) and it also allows you to list your self- employment when you apply for jobs. This has been one of the hardest hit groups of people. One big issue has been a strong resistance by employers to hire people who have been unemployed for longer than six months. There are various reasons as to why employers would do this but the most common ones revolve around the belief that a long term unemployed person has not stayed current with the skills to do the job or that that a person who has let go and not been hired by another company must have something wrong with them.
2. People with criminal records, particularly felons or recently incarcerated. Many states have passed a “ban the box” law which removes the check box from job applications that asks if applicants have a criminal background. But the question can still comes up in an interviews, and many companies still run criminal background checks Another issue is that many positions cross legal boundaries that bar a person from seeking employment in certain professions based on the crime they were convicted of (crimes against women or children for example) If you can find an area where your skills and job responsibilities will not be affected or have anything to do with what you served time for, you should be able to use a small business to give yourself the second chance the you are aiming for.
3. Young people, particularly those in the inner cities. Many young people have been struggling in this brutal job market and face the toughest competition. Youth are now competing with experienced out-of-work professionals for jobs where they used to have the opportunity to gain the skills to become successful. Starting a small business especially can help youth because it will give them some money, give them the opportunity to gain experience, and more importantly confidence, which disappears fast when faced with a discouraging job market that allows employers to be as picky as they desire when hiring new employees.
The big thing to remember is that the small business should be something that you need almost no money to begin. Young people can start a small summer business doing things like lawn mowing that requires only a mower to get started. One good thing for youth is they have the social media savvy and experience to use sites like Facebook to market and promote a business and gain customers.
