Turning a Layoff Into Lemonade

December 2008

For a few years, Christine Marchuska was living the high life. After graduating from Cornell University in 2002, she worked as a day trader and eventually landed a plum job at a major investment bank. But last winter she, like many Americans, began to feel the economic squeeze. "I had learned from my time as a trader that one day you could be up and the next day you could lose everything," says Marchuska. She was right to worry; she was laid off in May. She wasn't the only one. Since January, more than 1.9 million Americans have lost their jobs. About 533,000 of those jobs were lost in November alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

But rather than linger among the ranks of the growing unemployed, Marchuska has found a way to turn her layoff into lemonade. When her pink slip finally arrived in May, she lumped her savings together with her severance pay and some seed capital from her brother—altogether about $40,000. With that, she took a flurry of classes, networked with anyone who would speak with her, and ultimately launched her dream business, Marchuska, a line of sustainable clothing that donates 5 percent of its profits to charitable causes. Despite the broader economic downturn, the fledgling company, based in Endicott, N.Y., has gained the attention of a few Manhattan boutiques and may rack up $100,000 in sales this year. And according to Marchuska, there's one invaluable benefit: "I'm not at the mercy of some corporation that can get rid of my job at any time."