Michigan, Hard Hit by Economic Recession, Turns to Entrepreneurship

Michigan’s economy has taken some severe blows in recent years as deindustrialization takes its toll across the mid-west. As a result, many Michiganders are turning to entrepreneurship:

The perceived risk in joining a small company or starting your own business is rapidly shrinking in Michigan as many large corporations - where job security was long-assumed- are laying off workers in the thousands.

The shift appears to be closing the gap between the uncertainty of starting a company and loss of stability in corporate positions.

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Michigan has long been defined by a culture that is wary of entrepreneurialism and cautious about starting a company, several experts have said.

But contraction at the domestic automakers and the supplier community, job cuts in the pharmaceutical industry and the sluggish housing market are prompting some Michigan workers to reconsider entrepreneurialism as a livelihood.

"One of the positive effects of this horrible downturn that we're in is you do get that sense of, 'Well I have nothing to lose now. I can do what I've always wanted to do,'" Durance said. "I see people pursuing their dreams."

As Michigan's culture becomes more receptive of entrepreneurialism, local economic development officials believe the economy will become stronger.

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As historically successful companies like Microsoft cut thousands of jobs, it's becoming increasingly clear that keeping a job at a large company isn't a sure thing, he said.

Job security has "long been abandoned in most companies," Adox said. "You really have to understand where the risk is."

But jumping from a large corporation such as General Motors or Chrysler to a small company isn't always a smooth transition.

In fact, small tech companies in the Ann Arbor region have occasionally been reluctant to hire employees and executives from large corporations.

[Michigan economic group] SPARK is hoping to help large company executives retool their skills and prep for an entrepreneurial environment by offering a new program called Shifting Gears… [because] large-company employees with very specific job descriptions sometimes are surprised by the broader list of tasks they have to tackle at a small firm.

And what of the future generation?

Risk aside, [one expert] said entrepreneurialism is among the most interesting topics for young people.

"When I was in business school 30 years ago, we didn't have any courses on entrepreneurship. The word didn't even come up. Nobody even thought about it," ... "Now it's not just the business schools, it's across campus. Entrepreneurship is what everybody is talking about."