WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Life After Layoffs, Part 1
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Lebanon, New Hampshire - May 13, 2009
Katie Chase is hard at work, a month before her new job will actually start.
She's opening her own business in June -- a children's resale store in Lebanon she's named Abby's Closet.
"Abigail, my daughter, flies through clothes," Chase said of her one-year-old. "She has a closet full of clothes and I keep waiting for my friends to get pregnant so I can pass them on."
She decided that passion for collecting and passing on children's clothes could be a business. It's a career path she never imagined for herself.
"Never! No," she laughed. "I knew I was going to work with kids, animals, horses or something like that."
But her career working with kids at Hartford Middle School is ending. In January, she learned federal funding for her position was cut and she'd be laid off in June.
"It was awful," she said. "It was a big blow. I thought, oh my gosh, now I'm going to have to jump into the rat race."
Chase said the job search was daunting in a down economy, and her family's priorities changed since the birth of her daughter.
"We also started looking into jobs in the schools and thought my salary's going to be cut in half, so we're going to be poor anyway," she said. "Let's be poor and open a store and hopefully someday that return will come back to us."
"There are lots of pitfalls," said Robert Bloch, who runs the BYOBiz program at Champlain College. "Obviously the first one is your personal financial situation."
BYOBiz teaches entrepreneurs how to launch and succeed in their own businesses. Bloch says the uncertainty of branching out on your own can be difficult. Every situation is unique and there are no easy answers. But research and creative thinking can turn a passion into an opportunity.
"Passion is on the one hand, the ability to advocate for your company," Bloch said, "but it's also having the grit to hang in there and do the tough things and sit there on the precipice -- financial or otherwise -- and sit there and say we're going to get through this."
"Now that I'm losing my job," Chase said, "it's like all roads have pointed to this direction."
Chase says she's excited -- but she never would have made this move without getting laid off.
"It's scary because now my husband and I have to finance our own health insurance. He's a self-employed contractor so the economy is hurting him too," she said. "So this is a huge, huge leap of faith."
The down economy actually offered some advantages. With a soft real estate market, Chase got a break on the rent and did not have to sign a multi-year lease.
"I never pictured me owning a second-hand clothing store," she said. "Never. But now it's clear as day. It's in my heart."
If you're thinking of starting your own business Robert Bloch says first, think about what you like to do. Take an inventory of your experiences and skills. Then ask a mentor or friend to do the same.
"A friend will have six dimensions you don't think of," he said. "Especially when you've been laid off, it's hard to think of how much you have to offer."
Next, talk to people. Share your idea, and gauge the reaction. Katie Chase says she talked to moms in the park and grocery store and found a lot of excitement. That convinced her there was a market for a children's resale shop in Lebanon.
Kate Duffy - WCAX News
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