33.5 million Americans file for unemployment in 7 weeks...

In a quick hit to jobs, never before seen in American history, we now have 33.5 million+ new unemployment claims in tha tlast 7 weeks (as of today, May 7 2020).  This number doesn't include people who've had their hours reduced, had their pay cut, or independent contractors and gig workers who have less work.  Here's the CNBC report on today's unemployment numbers. 

30 Million Americans Unemployed in Six Weeks... Now What?

This MSNBC report relays the continuing huge number of people who have filed for unemployment in the last six weeks.  It's Sunday, May 3rd, as I'm writing this post, this report is from last Thursday.  

To put this 30 million number in perspective, in "normal" times, about 200,000 people a week fall file for unemployment.  So instead of 1.2 million people filing in the last six weeks, 25 times as many people are laid off and looking to unemployment checks.  There are roughly 160 million people of working age in the U.S., so 18.75% of that number have lost their jobs in just six weeks, on top of the official 3.5%  (roughly 4.5 million people) that were counted as unemployed.  So that's 34 1/2 million people, out of 160 million, not working right now.  Yes, most of these recent layoffs are expected to be short term, but we're in a situation where everything happening is largely unexpected.  There are also 7 million + more people who are unemployed, but not looking for work, but that's a whole separate issue.

So now what? Huge numbers, well beyond anything seen in most people's memory, are expected to keep being laid off, due to the Covid-19 virus pandemic.  What happens now?  One obvious thing is that millions of people will be looking for some other way to make some income, either temporarily, or perhaps from now on.  That's what this blog is about.  Finding new, and legitimate, ways to earn extra cash, find a side hustle, gig work, or start a micro business (1 person operation) or small business. 

I've got a long, but not epic, head start on all these people.  I was a taxi driver years ago (2000-2007), when that industry took a dive, even before Uber and Lyft entered the picture.  After filling out over 140 online applications over a couple of years, with no job offers at all, I started focusing on a weird, but unique, form of artwork I do, to earn money.  I've scraped by, sold a lot of drawings, but am not making a real living yet.  But I've learned a lot in that process. 

Yes, this post is pretty boring, but I wanted to set the tone, I'm someone who is also working on building a new way to make a living, I've had some successes, and made a lot of mistakes.  I'll share what I've learned, and also share videos and ideas from people who've been successful on many different fronts, and people who have good ideas.  Stay tuned, lots of ideas to come...

The economy is nuts... I need to make money somehow... now what?

Here's one of the many reports  about the 22 million Americans that have filed for unemployment in the last four weeks, as the Covid-19 shitdown goes on.  It's Sunday, March 19th, as I write this.

In November of 2015, I was living with my mom, at 49 years old, in a small apartment, in a small town, in central North Carolina.  It was a toxic living environment, in a town where I couldn't even get a restaurant or cashier job, in a part of the country I hated being in.  My life sucked on pretty much every level.  The only thing that made me any money then was doing drawings with Sharpie markers, in a unique way that I invented, that I call "scribble style."  Unable to get hired for any job, after filling out around 140 applications in a couple of years there, I decided to create my own job.

Here's a drawing I did of Kurt Cobain, that was in the first, and only solo, art show I've done, in November 2017.  The owner of Earshot Music turned it into an online flyer. This drawing sold the day before the show, an hour after going up on the wall, which was awesome from my perspective.  Several sales came from that one inty show.

So, like most things, that didn't go as  planned.  I started, literally, without a dime.  I had some art supplies, a bedroom to draw in, a $65 refurbished laptop (still running Windows XP), and a following in the Old School BMX freestyle world, from my blog.  That has been my main customer base.  I've become a working artist, if not a profitable one.  I've scraped by, homeless most of the time, but working drawing, and blogging and continually learning about online and social media marketing, to promote my work.  In 4 1/2 years, I've sold over 80 large, original drawings, each of which takes 35-45 hours to draw.  I've also sold 100 or so small prints.  While this is by no means a raging success, most artists don't sell that much work in their entire careers.

I've done some things right, and made plenty of mistakes.  I've had a lot of headwinds from outside sources that have slowed my progress down dramatically.  Now, about 4 1/2 years later, I'm back out in Southern California, the place I call home.  Still homeless, but I'm able to keep working, to some degree, even while the Covid-19 shutdown goes on, and while the long anticipated "next recession" takes hold.

I've been blogging about the loss of jobs to new technology since at least mid-2017, maybe before.  This post, from June 2017, is the first remember doing on the subject.  I've been an amateur futurist my whole life, and have watched the big house of cards of our current economy stack up into place.  It was obvious, to the few watching closely, that this "recession" would be a bad one, at least as bad as 2007-2009.  I personally think it will be much worse.  But I also know that recessions are the greatest times of opportunity for many businesses, and especially for starting new businesses.

While I work to build my own little business in today's high tech enabled, hyper-connected world, this blog is going to be things I've learned, and ideas from others about how to start a micro (1 person) or small business, in today's world, how grow a small business, and hopefully how to thrive in the craziness of the next few years.  That's the basic idea.  I've done several blogs, fairly consistently since late 2008, and they always wind up going in directions I didn't expect at the beginning.  So we'll see where this one leads.

My main blog over the last 2 1/2 years, Steve Emig: The White Bear, is creeping up on 100,000 page views, and I thought it was time for a change of pace.  I have a couple different directions I want to work in now, and helping people (and myself) start and build small businesses is what this one is about.  Lots more to come...