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Her boyfriend suggested that she collect Employment Insurance while she tried to map out her next step. She also joined a touring children's dance company for awhile, and continued to design websites.

Then, as the EI finished up, she had another serendipitous suggestion. Her boyfriend's mother had come across the SEB program, which was directed at helping people who had received EI launch their own businesses, and she suggested Calvert check it out.

Out of some 700 applicants, 24 made the final cut. Calvert was one of them. The program paid her close to $20,000 to live on, while helping her develop a business plan and providing training in such business essentials as financing, administration and marketing.

"It's hard to start a business when you have the weight of the world on your shoulders," says Calvert. "Knowing you have to make money to pay rent and feed yourself takes away from the focus. The money really helped."

And the program convinced her she could chart her own course.

"Honestly while I was going through it, I was wondering if I was actually going to make a go of this once I finished the school," she says. But as she progressed through the program and researched her business plan, she discovered that there was a definite niche in offering both website design and public relations to smaller, grassroots companies. "I realized I could actually make a living doing it," she says.

The program also helped her recognize that her rates were too low, and she was able to begin making a better living simply by bringing them in line with industry standards.

Since she had already been designing websites for years, she was able to pick up clients immediately. But gradually the work has shifted so the public relations end of things is busier than the web design. And Calvert relishes the ability to work with companies she believes in. "I'm loving the ability to pick and choose my clients," she says. "I'm whole heartedly into each and every account I'm working on, and I'm very picky about who I work with."

Go from dreaming to doing it
Six steps to self-employment success

Keep your ear to the ground
Calvert heard about the SEB program from her boyfriend's mother. "I was really lucky with the sequence of events, but it was really word of mouth that let me know about the program." Most government programs aren't extensively advertised, so it pays to do your research and to let your friends, family and colleagues know what you're looking for.

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