Office job ends – will creative entrepreneur opportunities triumph or will it be back to fluorescent lights and stale office air?

A good week ago I learned that at the end of the year, my casual, work-at-home office job for Canada Life (Great West Life technically) will come to an end after almost ten years! Work has been so low that I’ve only worked 10 hours/week (instead of my usual 25ish) for months. And since some of our work has been moved to an India team a few years ago, our headcount had to come down. Not sure what they have in store for the permanent full-timers in the long run, but right now it’s the end of the line for the three casuals who were still on board 🙁 We saw it coming, but it still sucks!

My brain immediately went into overdrive and I’m researching my creative options first (like expanding my website business and starting a web store for crafty/artsy stuff), as I’m dreading to give up my freedom and would prefer to do home-based jobs. I realize though that I may just have to dust off my dressier clothes and look for ‘normal’ part-time or casual (preferably data-entry non-phone) jobs out there…