Everyone daydreams about starting their own business. Working from home, setting their own hours, being their own boss. But being self employed can also mean having no guaranteed paycheck, retirement account or health insurance. About 13% of Lane County's workforce is said to be self-employed. According to the state, that's about 19,000 people.
 
As part of our Special Issues Series on Jobs and Economy - KLCC's Angela Kellner met a few entrepreneurs who, despite the uncertainties, are making it work.
 

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Reporter:
Back in 2009, 32-year-old Chason McClelland was one of many unemployed construction workers. He'd spent nearly all of his savings.
 
Chason McClelland: "Everybody I knew was out of work and I know a bunch of contractors and carpenters here in town and it looked like not there wasn't a lot going to happen. I had to make a full change."
 
McClelland turned to his four kids for motivation and inspiration - he used his carpentry skills to build toy kitchens, potty chairs, and other products made from solid wood. Heartwood Natural Toys was born.
 
McClelland: "And I made fliers and a website and put them on Craigslist - basically just created a business overnight."
 
The Eugene native converted his garage into a workshop. He likes being near the house, where his wife home schools the kids. McClelland puts in about seventy hours a week, more than he ever did doing construction, and he's making enough to support his family. His most popular and expensive item retails for $260.
 
McClelland: "This is the play kitchen. Here's a little faucet that I made out of poplar. And the burners are padauk. I use oak little knobs, they all turn, everything moves. Couple of doors, got a little oven. And I use all natural glue, non-toxic."
 
With orders coming in from across the country, McClelland hopes to soon be a job creator.
 
Last fall the owner of the Heron Building in downtown Eugene asked McClelland to set up an artists' co-op.
 
Several paintings in the gallery are by Wendi Kai, a single mom and college student. She doesn't make much selling her artwork, except when it's permanently etched into someone's skin.
 
Kai works about 20 hours a week at The Annex tattoo in Springfield. She went to a professional career school and did an apprenticeship to become licensed. She's been doing it about three years and earns between one and two thousand dollars a month. The shop takes a third of what she brings in.
 
Wendi Kai: "Business has just slowed down a lot. It seems to be like even for people that have been tattooing a long time in town, there's more downtime than there was even three or four years ago." 
 
Kai only makes money when a client is in her chair. Today it's her friend Gillian Smithline, who is getting more work done on her upper left arm. Kai does a lot of it freehand.
 
Kai: "This and this were the only things I did on paper really. From here I drew this on with a marker."
 
While she's adding hints of blue and purple to a beetle design on Gillian's arm, a potential customer comes in for a consultation.
 
Customer: "I want this brighter, just more alive."
 
Kai: "Yeah, if you can sit for like 2 or 3 hours, you can get it done all at once."
 
Customer: "So I got some work for you to do."
 
Kai: "Sweet!"
 
She's snagged a new client, booking him for an appointment two days later. He wants a rose over his heart and to have Kai correct the work of a different tatoo artist.
 
Kai: "That's a huge part of our business and unfortunately we count on it."
 
Kai's employer doesn't provide health insurance, nor does she earn enough to buy it herself.
 
Not having insurance, a retirement account or even the ability to file an unemployment claim are a few of the challenges facing self-employed people.
 
Vic Swartout: "It's definitely scary. I mean I try not to think about it and I hope every day that we get through it to the point where we can afford health insurance."
 
31-year-old Vic Swartout is a married father of two. He and his 34-year-old brother Hugh are co-owners of Full Color Ink. About ten years ago, Hugh was promoting martial arts events. He bought a heat press to screen print the t-shirts for participants. Then the brothers did a few more events together.
 
Hugh Swartout: "And we looked at each other and we were just like you know what, I think we should this. I don't want to work out in the rain anymore. We'd both grown up doing construction with our dad and very valuable and I'm glad that we did that and know that, but I like being inside, especially since it's the northwest."
 
The brothers do customized on-site screen printing of apparel at sporting events around the northwest. The promoter gets a cut, usually about 15%. Vic says when they first started their grandparents helped them purchase about $14,000 in equipment, including a screen printer.
 
Vic Swartout: "This is what we learned on, the 8-color press. I manually have to do it. Squeegee, so you push the ink through. There you have a print below it. This is my flash unit I use to shrink the paper. From there it would go onto the press. You would print..."
 
More steps are involved in making the transfers that will eventually be melted onto the clothing at the events. The brothers say it's been a combination of art and chemistry to find the right mixture of ink and heat. But through trial and error, the Swartouts have figured out how to make a quality product - and a profit.
 
Vic Swartout: "If it was gonna fail it would have failed a long time ago. I believe we're there. Now it's just the race of trying to make everything that you've worked so hard for, pay off."
 
They say one milestone for them will be when they can hire people to do the grunt work so they can
take a weekend off.