Job Action Day is technically over for this year, but there’s no reason its message about taking positive action for your career can’t continue — especially since I received so many great stories about laid-off workers who found new opportunities. These three applied their experiences — their stories — to entrepreneurial ventures that enabled them to work at their passions:

Denise LaBuda I have recently reinvented my work path. I have spent the first 25+ yrs of my career working for large companies in marketing positions or consulting to those organizations. I was laid off in December 2008, and I am now building a business following one of my passions.

I am deeply troubled by the almost complete lack of training offered to our citizens around money. Over many years of watching the pain brought about in the adults around me because they did not have foundational skills in budgeting (let alone borrowing and investing), I have started a business to work with families to teach their kids budgeting skills before they leave home for college or work after high school — and hopefully begin to break this bad cycle.

For me, it is very exciting, scary, overwhelming, and deeply satisfying work. I know that it is time for me to give back to the great society in which I live, and finding work that has significant impact is now very important to me. Are my shifting priorities due to my age, my experiences, the sick economy? Probably all three.

Cindy Clawson
After 20 years working as a human-resources professional in the financial, healthcare and advertising industries, my HR position was eliminated. As I pondered what to do next, I spent time talking to friends, family and colleagues about my passions and goals in life. It was during these conversations that a I decided to venture into the entrepreneurial world and pursue my own business as a Professional Organizer. I have always loved to organize “stuff” and streamline processes, so helping others do this just comes naturally. You can read more about me and my business, Ideas in Organizing, by visiting my web site.

I love what I do, and I have already touched people’s lives in ways that I never thought I could. I have learned more about the world of small businesses and have a much greater respect for the small business owner. My priorities have changed in life — I no longer have a six-figure income, work long hours, play politics, and have no control over decisions made by the CEO or the board. It’s more about finding what makes me and my family happy, persevering and making it work. Life is good.

Michael Ambrose
In March of 2009, I unexpectedly lost my job working for a manufacturing company due to the economic downturn. I was paid very well and had worked with the company for the better part of 15 years when the cut occurred. While I knew the business was suffering, and cuts would be made, it still came as a complete shock because of the critical nature of my position. I would later find out that a previous employee who had been laid-off from his job made contact with the company and is now making substantially less money doing the work I once enjoyed.

Having only a high-school education with some additional college, I was very realistic about my chances of getting a job in the manufacturing sector at the premium salary I had been earning. I was prepared not to let that hinder me from finding any reasonable
employment, almost no matter the pay. What I was unprepared for was just how bleak the job outlook would be.

Still, I did not let this deter me from also working to make a change in my life to something that was potentially more rewarding and outside of “the usual.” With the help of my partner, Lexi, we set about turning the very difficult divorce and custody experience I had endured into a job that would serve to help others. I’ve actually been doing that for free via a successful personal blog I maintain. I did this out of the desire to see others avoid mistakes I had made during the long journey through the Family Court System, which continues today.

In an effort to turn this successful effort into a paying job, we created a new website to help others who are going through a high-conflict divorce and custody situations. The website is called Mr. Custody Coach. I utilized my research and writing skills to create a web-based business that is chock-full of helpful information and dedicate my time to helping our clients prepare meaningful parenting plans. Then, they can take their plan to an attorney and work to its implementation.

Since embarking on this project back in the spring of 2009 and a launch at the end of the summer of 2009, our business is continuing to grow. The best part of this endeavor? It’s a topic about which I’m passionate and serves to help people while saving them substantial amounts of money in legal fees — savings that can be earmarked for the most important parts of their cases while we assist them in planning wisely. It’s a job I can truly say is exciting and rewarding in a way that no other job has been in my life.