Some lose a job and become an entrepreneur

— -- Get ready to see more baked goods, custom-designed clothes, jewelry — and even horse saddle pads — on the market.

Those are some of the products that laid-off workers are hawking as they try to grow small businesses. And many more goods and services are likely to come as jobs disappear and the government encourages entrepreneurial ventures.

More than 5 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007. In March, the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high of 8.5%.

Faced with bleak job prospects, many of the unemployed are hanging out shingles. One in four workers who have not found jobs is considering launching a business, according to a new CareerBuilder.com survey. (CareerBuilder is jointly owned by Tribune, McClatchy, Microsoft and USA TODAY parent Gannett.)

Among the budding entrepreneurs: Royce Evans. The former job recruiter had dabbled with the idea of selling shock-absorbing saddle pads, but once she was laid off in December, she went full-force into the venture. So far, she's sold about 150 pads — $85 to $185 — but needs to sell an additional 300 before she can turn a profit.

She's invested about $15,000 of her own cash in her venture, Equinity Performance, but is considering a small-business loan in the next three to six months.

Getting that money should be a bit easier given recent governmental changes. In March, President Obama announced a small-business financing plan that included reduced loan fees and incentives for banks to do more lending.

Since then, there has been an increase in SBA 7(a) and 504 loans. The 7(a) loans, SBA's largest loan program, offer working capital that can be used for a range of purposes. The 504 loans help businesses expand and can be used only to purchase real estate and other fixed assets, such as new machines.

In March alone, 234 lenders that had previously not made a 7(a) loan since September made such loans, according to the SBA.

But running a small business can be daunting.