Wasted Youth

• Thermal Paper
• Thermal Paper Rolls
• POS Paper
• Printer Ribbons
• Plotter Paper
• Engineering Paper
• Thermal Fax Paper
• Epson Printer Ribbons
• Okidata Ribbons
• Colored Thermal Paper

In times of recession, seeds of future success are often sown. Recessions are usually accompanied by large increases in unemployment rates and reduced hiring by existing companies, large and small. That leaves thousands and thousands of displaced workers without a job and without immediate prospects for employment. They can choose to wait it out and collect unemployment insurance, or they can start building their own success.

For many motivated Americans, becoming unemployed is just the kick in the pants they have been waiting for to start their own business. They may have had a business idea percolating in their minds for some time, but hesitated to give up the security of a full time job. Losing that job removes that obstacle and grants them the freedom to act.

Others may find that they simply can’t make ends meet with unemployment benefits so they scramble for other revenue producing opportunities to keep the bills paid. This might be taking odd jobs, developing a lawn care service, or just about anything that provides them with some income. Others will start larger scale businesses, a restaurant, a retail store, or other business that requires an initial capital investment. Leaving a job they have held for some time means they may need to roll over a 401k or other retirement account, and many choose to use this as start-up capital instead, even though they may face a tax penalty for early withdrawal of the funds.

As with any new business, there is a risk that some of these businesses will fail. Many, however, will succeed. Not only with they last through the recession, but when the economy comes around again, improved business conditions may propel them to even greater heights. For these daring entrepreneurs, losing their jobs may be the best thing that ever happened to them.

Those small businesses which do succeed will also help to fuel a recovery. As they hire people, they help reduce the unemployment rolls. As they purchase the basic necessities needed to run their businesses, they help supply chain businesses like suppliers of POS machines, cash register receipt paper and other providers of business supplies to increase their sales, as well. Eventually, the best of these new businesses can become a significant part of America’s greater economic engine.

Millionaires will be made, while some will lose their retirement funds by investing in flawed business ideas. Not everyone who takes on a new business will succeed. Some will only be richer in terms of experience. Compare this to those who spend their lives working for someone else always dreaming of their own business, but never daring to take the chance. There can be a kind of poverty of the spirit in that sort of career as well. Those with true entrepreneurial spirit understand the risks involved in striking out on their own, and face it willingly. For them, a failure is a temporary setback and a stepping stone for future success.

Every lost job, failed business or other setback, can be viewed as an opportunity to try something else. Success happens, but only for those who reach for it.