Art Wells, 42
Portland, Ore.
Laid off from: Rejuvenation, October 2008
New venture: Artwells Services
Last year's profile
Where he is now: Art Wells is busier than he expected to be with his freelance Web design business. "Since July, I've turned down more jobs than I've taken," he says. He's also rejected two full-time job offers, partly because he says working for himself is emotionally much better than the work environment at his old employer. Wells says he's making more money as well. His revenue in 2009 was $95,000, which included some thin months with little work, and he says his total income for the year exceeded his old salary. Wells also enjoys working with new technology and designing the front end of Web sites rather than just back-end programming—opportunities he didn't have at his old job.
