Getting Inspired to Start a New Business After Layoff

What made you start your business? Was it being laid off from a job? If so, you're in good company, according to a couple of recent surveys commissioned by USA Today.

USA Today asked CEO organization Vistage International to survey its membership. Of the 2,441 respondents, one-third said they had been laid off or fired before becoming a company founder or CEO. Of those, 78 percent said that losing a job turned out to be beneficial in the long run; only 2 percent said it turned out badly. USA Today also asked enewsletter company "SmartBrief" to survey CEOs and business owners. Of the 626 respondents, 61 percent said they had been laid off or fired and half of those said it was the best thing that ever happened to them.

Among the recognizable names who started companies after getting laid off: Tom Stemberg, who launched office supply giant Staples after being laid off from a supermarket chain, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was fired by investment bank Salomon Bros. and then started the Bloomberg financial news service that made him a billionaire.

Beyond these big names, the article features dozens of examples of smaller entrepreneurial launches by people who started businesses after being laid off in past recessions.

Julie Northcutt, who was laid off in 2001 — just before the September 11 attacks — started a senior-care agency, then sold it and now runs a website that matches employees with senior-care services. Northcutt says the best time to start a business is when everyone else believes it's the worst time. When others use the economic downturn as an excuse to do nothing, you face less competition.

George Burke, co-founder of BookSwim, a book-rental company structured similarly to the NetFlix model, says being fired in 2006 was a "breath of fresh air" for him. "Sometimes we need that extra push when a great idea is upon us, but we're too comfortable to pull the trigger," says Burke, who doubts he would have launched BookSwim if he hadn't been fired. "I probably would have continued to plan and plan until the concept got old or until I talked myself out of it."

Was your business venture inspired by a layoff?