🚀 go-pugleaf

I was not going to chime in on this thread, but you sound like you are in the same road I found myself in 5 years ago. I worked in printing for about 18 years. During that time I did everything you could imagine from prepress, press operator, tech support, desktop support, customer support and finally ended up in computer systems.

Here, I felt alive and learned things very fast, networking, troubleshooting, systems management, archival, building computers to working with relay frames and on and on. That was until the rug was pulled out from under me for outsourcing. I was unemployed for the first time in my life. No one seemed interested in me without certifications and such. I was self taught.

I tried to get back into printing, but the 13 and 14 buck an hour prepress job just didn't seem to be enough money after what I had got accustomed to. I truely felt without a place. I finally took a design position with a small company for small money. The owner was a horses behind. After a few months I got tired of her mouth and quit.

With my skills sets in customer service, design and printing. I started studying up on marketing, took some courses on business development all free through the local SBA. Made a small investment (large to me at the time), remortgaged my home and put that money into opening my own design studio and print shop.

That was the best move I ever made. I branched out from there to Macintosh support and teaching classes on software at a local community college. I got experience teaching at a Comp USA believe it or not.

I still own and operate my shop, but now I do systems and print consulting as well. I do offer my time voluntarily at the local SBA that helped me out in the beginning.

It is a tough road at first, but you might be an entrepreneur and only need a push to realize it.

Ken