I live in Franklin, Tennessee, which is located just south of Nashville in Williamson County.
Williamson County has traditionally had a much higher than average percentage of its workforce who are entrepreneurs. We are now seeing a significant spike in self-employment and of ‘accidental entrepreneurs.’ Rather than sit around and wait for a job to come their way, they are taking a proactive approach and finding their own opportunity in the market.
In fact, I am seeing people who are still employed looking at ways to forge out on their own because they have no long-term confidence that their current employer can be relied on for a job.
The Nashville Business Journal ran a story on this trend in our county:
As the overall economy worsened, new business starts in Williamson County continued to grow throughout 2008. In December, for instance, the number of new business licenses was more than four times higher than the licenses pulled in December 2007.
“We have a very resourceful workforce in Williamson County who still see opportunity and are willing to take a risk,” says Matt Largen, economic development director for Williamson County. “They likely have access to capital through their savings or from family and friends.”
[Randy] Blue is a perfect example.
The Brentwood resident had been director of IT portfolio management at HCA and spent months searching for a new job. With nine years of experience in management and consulting and 11 years in corporate management roles, Blue had never been unemployed previously for more than six months.
But he realized the severity of the recession limited his options. So he seized the opportunity to do something he’d always thought about — start his own business.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we are running a business plan boot camp down in Williamson County. It is full of both aspiring and accidental entrepreneurs. The people taking this seminar are incredibly optimistic — even those who had no intention of ever becoming an entrepreneur before the current economic mess.
As I stated to the author of the Nashville Business Journal article, these folks understand that this is a good time to start a business:
While conventional wisdom might be that recessions are bad times to start a business, Cornwall says many businesses were started during downturns. Recessions mean cheaper rent, equipment and start-up costs.