I am trying not to be afraid right now. Like many of you, I am facing job uncertainty. The self-employed are no less at risk of a loss of income right now than anyone else. And because my business is freelance based I do not qualify for unemployment when my clients decide to pull contracts because they can’t pay me. (I’m not whining, but this is a reality for many small business owners.)

I very vividly remember the day I lost my job. The company I was working for closed. I packed up my desk, loaded everything in the back of my car and drove home.

I was working for a small newspaper outside of Atlanta in the summer of 2008. One afternoon our paychecks were handed to us. But when my coworkers and I went to deposit the checks we were told there were insufficient funds to deposit. Our paychecks had bounced.