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When Mikala Mahoney was laid off from her marketing job last summer, first she was shocked. Then the anxiety flooded in. I realized that over the past few years in my career I had created a false sense of steadiness, she tells Fast Company. Friends had regularly told Mahoney she was fortunate to have landed a good, stable job as a marketing coordinator at Paramount+. In a moment, that illusion was in pieces. Mahoney threw herself into the job hunt, quickly landing her next role. A few months later, she was laid off again. After losing her job twice in less than a year, this time she decided to bet on herself. Following the traditional path as a salaried employee with a steady paycheck, healthcare, and benefits had long been viewed as the safe bet. But with many peoples paychecks from their 9-to-5 barely covering the cost of housing and groceries, layoffs at their highest in the U.S. since 2020, and nearly 26% of unemployed people having been jobless for more than six months, the unemployed-to-self-employed pipeline has never been stronger. Mahoney spent two months unemployed before she made the decision to go all in on her content creation business. She has also been documenting the process for her following on TikTok. Ive always been making content, Mahoney tells Fast Company. Still, she never envisioned herself as a solopreneur, or what that might look like in practice. I think there’s a different sense of hustle that you need to have in your self-employment, that you aren’t necessarily forced to confront when you are working with a consistent paycheck, she says. Mahoney is not alone. The unemployed-to-self-employed pipeline has become its own content niche on TikTok. This sits within a wider trend of solopreneurship in the U.S.: Nearly 36% of traditional workers now have side gigs, according to MBO Partners’s 15th annual State of Independence in America Report. Whether a backup plan in the face of forever layoffs or a first step toward breaking free from the shackles of a boss, the rising number of people wanting to go it solo and run their own company of one reflects a shift in the balance of power from companies to workersespecially as the social contract has broken down. Increasingly, workers are turning their side gigs into full-time gigs, either taking the leap to solopreneurship on their own initiative, or as a result of factors outside their control. Then, there are those who have yet to experience traditional employment in the first place. Recent college graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobs and, while the overall unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%, for younger workers ages 16 to 24, unemployment in September 2025 was 10.4%. When 24-year-old Sophia Stern graduated from college in 2024 she spent hours scouring LinkedIn each day, an effort she kept up for roughly six months. I was desperate for anything, she tells Fast Company, noting that all she received in return were rejection emails from AI bots. At the time, she started a side hustle helping local businesses with their social media marketing. I realized, like, oh, this doesn’t need to be a middle ground in between different jobs. This can be a job. If it didnt work out, she would at least gain valuable experience in an industry she was hoping to break into. And it honestly might be better than continuing to search for a job, because the job market is just so terrible right now, she recalls thinking. After launching a website for SoSo Social, offering social media management and community outreach to small businesses around New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia, Stern landed her first two clients within a month. Less than a year on, her client base has quadrupled. From launching an online business or monetizing a social media account, to selling templates or paid subscriptions, it has never been easier for workers to take their talents back into their own hands and find ways to monetize them. In fact, the MBO Partners report counted 72.9 million independent workers in the U.S., 5.6 million of whom reported earning more than $100,000 annually. Still, being pushed into self-employment before youre ready, versus taking the leap on your own timeline, makes a big difference. That was never what I envisioned for myself, Mahoney admits. My goal has always been to grow my platform, but I always wanted to do it alongside a steady and stable job. Stern, too, wouldnt have considered starting out on her own this early in her career if other options had presented themselves. I really was forced into it, but in the best way possible, she says. Whether a side hustle, stopgap, or entire career pivot, solopreneurship often offers a lifeline in a job market increasingly throttled by hiring slowdowns, increased competition, and economic uncertainty. Not dedicating 40 hours a week to one employer protects workers from the powers that be. But solopreneurship, with its unpredictable income and lack of benefits, is not the panacea for all corporate illsjust ask any self-employed person. Mahoney and Stern are not closing the door on full-time employment. Both are still open to the right role if it comes along. Ive learned the big lesson that nothing is permanent, Mahoney says. This time, however, she has a safety net of her own making to fall back on.
Category:
E-Commerce
Need a break from the news? We thought so. After days of dealing with Winter Storm Fernwhich has left 600,000 homes without power in the South, and thousands others digging themselves out from under more than snow (especially here in New England)overwhelmed and exhausted people everywhere have discovered one, rather dark meme that has the internet obsessed: the nihilist penguin. What exactly is the nihilistic penguin meme? This clip, from Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary “Encounters at the End of the World,” of a lone penguin walking out into what looks like a never-ending tundra after stubbornly choosing to leave his penguin colony, went viral at the beginning of the year. Doomed, he seems to saunter on by himself, into his unknown fate toward the mountains. “One of them caught our eye, the one in the center,” Herzog explains as he narrates the documentary. “He would neither go toward the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterward, we saw him heading straight for the mountains, some 70 kilometers away. Doctor Ainslie explained even if he caught him, and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains. But, why?” Well, by the looks of it, many people relate to the clip, with TikTokers sharing, commenting, and making their own version of the video. Why do they relate? According to social media posts, there seem to be two interpretations of the clip: One, bleak as it is, is that we are all that penguin, going toward our certain deaths. (According to the Doomsday clock, we are all one step closer to destruction.) A second is more optimistic: that the penguin’s actions are a symbol of endurance. As one TikTok user explains, “if this penguin doesn’t penetrate your psyche so deeply that you are compelled to finally drop everything & chase your dreams. then you’re doomed forever bro.” Doomed forever bruh, indeed.
Category:
E-Commerce
Fans of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen will be sad to learn that more than a dozen locations have shuttered this month across two Southeastern states. The closures come after Sailormen Inc., a major Popeyes franchisee, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida on January 15. Once the bankruptcy proceedings began, Sailormen immediately moved to shutter 17 Popeyes restaurants in Georgia and Florida, according to court records. The company is now seeking to reject the leases at those locations where the beloved fried chicken fast-food restaurants formerly operated. The closures took place as recently as this week, according to a January 26 court docket. It’s unclear if more restaurants will close. Fast Company reached out to Sailormen and Popeyes for comment. Why did Sailormen file for bankruptcy? As Fast Company reported earlier this month, Sailormen cited a number of factors that led up to its bankruptcy petition, including high inflation and borrowing rates, and foot traffic that never fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which owns Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen along with major chains such as Burger King and Tim Hortons, has faced increasing competition in the so-called fast food chicken wars. Notably, younger generations are turning to fast-growing brands like Raising Canes and Daves Hot Chicken. With more than 5,000 locations worldwide, Popeyes is still the far larger chain, but RBI reported a decline in same-store sales for the brand for three consecutive quarters last year. Which Popeyes have closed? Sailormen said in a court filing that it closed eight locations on January 19, five locations on January 20, and four locations on January 22. It characterized the restaurants as “underperforming.” The full list of locations is below: Florida 2005 Ohio Avenue North Live Oak, FL 32064 1601 South US Highway Ft. Pierce, FL 34950 5156 S. Dale Mabry Highway Tampa, FL 33611 2729 S.E. Highway 70 Arcadia, FL 34266 175 South Highway 17 East Palatka, FL 32131 649 S. McDuff Avenue Jacksonville, FL 32205 1124 N. Young Boulevard Chiefland, FL 32626 27740 US 27 Leesburg, FL 34748 200 Green Way Keystone Heights, FL 32656 812 South 6th Street Macclenny, FL 32063 1833 Kings Road Jacksonville, FL 32209 2015 North Wickham Road Melbourne, FL 32935 Georgia 401 N. 1st Street, Jesup, GA 31545 2106 Memorial Drive Waycross, GA 31501 1610 S. Georgia Parkway West Waycross, GA 31503 68 West Coffee Street Hazlehurst, GA 31539 3319 Altama Avenue Brunswick, GA 31520
Category:
E-Commerce
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