[djmcmath]

Don't give up on starting your own just yet -- can you do something on the side? Can you start something in your nights and weekends when you're not "designing circles around" your seniors that could turn into something? Can you slowly build that business until you can transition from your "day job" to the alternate?

Or is there something else you can do? Do your creative talents lend themselves to some other job entirely -- not taking your clients and building your own business doing what you do, but doing something else entirely?

Word is that a lot of great businesses have been started in down economies. Smart people with the skills to survive out there are making money.

Good luck.

Dan