Axed by a big business? Start your own.

“As much as I loved my clients on Wall Street, they were never jumping up and down when they saw me like my clients today,” she says.
Some former executives are using their severance money to fund their startups. That’s the case at Jobvana.com, whose founders used to work for Washington Mutual, the bank that is now part of JP Morgan Chase.

Jobvana, a social-networking website, matches people with services, such as an electrician with a homeowner. “eBay created a huge market for goods; what if we could do that for services,” says Peter Olson, chief marketing officer of the Seattle-based company.

Helping other people get work also appeals to Betsy Libby of Oakland, Calif., who started a website called Giveamomajob.com earlier this month. The former consultant dropped out of the work force and to start a family five years ago. She already has 120 moms signed up who are looking for work with flexible schedules.Many new entrepreneurs set up shop in a familiar place – their homes. According to the SBA Office of Advocacy, of the estimated 27.2 million small businesses, 52 percent are home-based.

That would certainly be true of Brad Dinerman of Ashland, Mass., who used to be the vice president of information technology (IT) at a Boston-area company but was laid off in October.

In mid-November, he formed Fieldbrook Solutions, which provides IT support and backup to small- and medium-size businesses.

Because Mr. Dinerman has virtually no overhead, he can charge less than his competitors. “It’s going pretty well,” he says. “Some days I have more work than I can handle.”

For those starting a business that’s aimed at serving other businesses during a recession, finding a diverse roster of clients is a good idea, says Matthew Cheng, founder of eCoupons.com in New York City.

“You just don’t know who will survive all this,” he says.

Peter Rinnig, who worked for the Internet search company Lycos.com during the dotcom boom, bought QRST’s, a screen printing and embroidery company outside of Boston.

He advises budding entrepreneurs to prepare for tough times. “I took no salary for the first six months to make sure the bills got paid, and then a minimum salary for the next six months,” he recalls. “I didn’t get up to my Lycos salary for two years.”

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