provided by
Stephanie Aucoin got a job offer the same day she
was stopped in an elevator by an executive who
noticed her new yellow wristband with "Laid Off
Need a Job.com" embossed with black letters.
The executive, who was a chief financial officer
at an alternative energy company, was looking for an
assistant and told her to stop in to meet with him.
"I did," says Ms. Aucoin, 48 years old,
who started the new job in March after being laid
off from an executive-assistant position at a local
accounting firm last September.
The silicone bracelet -- think of Lance
Armstrong's Livestrong original version -- was an
idea Ms. Aucoin, of Sarasota, Fla., developed with
Barbara Bourn, 59, a former colleague.
Spotlight on Jobless Plight
Hopeful entrepreneurs, most of whom have lost
their jobs, are capitalizing on layoffs while also
highlighting the plight of the jobless. They are
dreaming up layoff-related merchandise, offering
wristbands, mugs, T-shirts, board games and more to
the recently unemployed -- whose ranks are growing.
More than 5.1 million jobs have been lost since
December 2007, and more cuts are expected in the
coming months.
Padding dwindling bank accounts is what
originally motivated Ms. Aucoin and Ms. Bourn.
"We needed to find a gimmick" to earn
money, says Ms. Bourn, who was forced to sell
her house after her hours in an interior-design
sales position were cut back.
The idea of the bracelets came after Ms.
Aucoin had depleted her entire savings and still
hadn't had a job interview. The two women
thought starting their own business might be the
only way to earn a living, so they began to
brainstorm ideas until the wristband came up.
"We researched the cost and decided it was
doable for our budget," says Ms. Bourn.
Ms. Bourn used $1,000 of her savings to
invest in the business, and Ms. Aucoin built a
Web site for the product. The pair found a
manufacturer that would customize the bracelets
and ordered 500 Laid Off bracelets. Within
weeks, the pair launched the Web site laidoffneedajob.com
and began hawking the wristbands for $3 each.
They used Ms. Bourn's apartment as a makeshift
mail depot while spreading the word about their
venture via social-networking site Twitter,
which helped spark sales. Last week, their Web
site averaged 500 visitors a day. After about
five weeks in business, the pair has sold 4,500
bracelets, broken even on their investment and
pocketed $8,900.
Jim Hart, a former sales manager for a
pharmaceutical-equipment company in Arlington,
Texas, ordered three bracelets after seeing
someone with one at an airport. So far, it has
stirred interest. "Just by seeing this,
people start asking me questions," he says.
And one of his bracelet-wearing friends already
has landed an interview.
Offbeat Ideas
Other entrepreneurs have been stepping in
with their own offbeat ideas for the laid off.
Daniel Brabson, 38, launched RecessionJunction.com
after seeing his freelance contracts as a
benefit coordinator for insurance companies
disappear. The site sells beer mugs, T-shirts
and bumper stickers with humorous sayings about
the economy and layoffs. Bestsellers include a
coffee mug with "Alms for the Poor" on
it, and a pint glass that says "This Beer
is Going Down Like the Stock Market."
"I just hope [people] are able to kind
of laugh at themselves -- it's tough for a lot
of people," say Mr. Brabson, who took out a
$3,000 bank loan to start the business and
launched the site in February. He uses several
local vendors to customize designs for each
product. Mr. Branson so far has sold 150 items,
which are priced between $4 and $14 each, and
hopes to break even in the next two months.
Cover Letter Tee
After his own layoff in 2005, Larry Dinsmore,
an information-technology professional, started
a Web site called Damn
I Need a Job, which offers T-shirts with a
customer's cover letter printed on it. Each
customized T-shirt costs $25. Mr. Dinsmore, who
is now employed, says Web-site traffic has
increased by about 30% in the past few months,
but that sales are steady. "The target
audience doesn't have a lot of money to
blow," he says.
Job Search: The Game
Some layoff-related products take a little
more work. Stay-at-home mom Traci Sanders
revived a homemade idea she'd dreamt up in the
last recession. Back then she made a poster
resembling a job-search-themed game inspired by
Candyland as a Christmas present for her
unemployed husband. Ms. Sanders, 42, has since
taken the game idea back out and will start
selling it on her site, jobsearchagameoffrustration.com
next month.
She is in talks with two local bookstores
that are interested in offering the game, titled
"Job Search! A Game of Frustration."
(The poster that inspired the game is on sale on
the Web and in a local bookstore.) Players draw
cards with messages like "Unemployment rate
drops -- first time in three months, move ahead
two spaces" and "Wonder when friend
will get job so he can hire you, lose one
turn."
Ms. Sanders hopes the game will cheer up job
seekers. "Even if you move one step forward
and two steps back, it shows that there's
actually a path," says Ms. Sanders.
As for the bracelet venture, Ms. Aucoin and
Ms. Bourn are focused on their business and have
even handed out free bracelets at the local
unemployment office. Ms. Bourn says they're
negotiating with a district manager from a
retail chain who is interested in stocking the
bracelets in 37 locations. Right now, neither
are banking on an economic upturn and, even when
that comes, the pair don't have plans to change
the bracelet's message.
"We just want to get everyone to wear
one," says Ms. Bourn.
Write to Alina Dizik at alina.dizik@dowjones.com
