Following his acceptance of a buyout from General Motors’ Willow Run Plant, Greg Badger parked himself on the couch.

It was a stark change from the fast-paced environment in the plant where he was a 34-year veteran and union rep at the end of his tenure. Cabin fever quickly set in, prompting the 56-year-old to put out several resumes, which yielded no offers.

Dale Badger stands on a deck he built after taking a buyout from GM and starting his own company. Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

Thus, when his wife’s friend needed a set of modular cabinets built, Badger jumped at the opportunity to start working on a project. Soon after the cabinets were built, he completed a dry-walling job for another friend, and spent several weeks remodeling his brother-in-law’s kitchen.

Through word of mouth, the jobs continued to roll in, and within months, Badger had established Badger’s Complete Remodeling and Reconstruction.

“This is something I wanted to do the whole time I was at GM,” Badger, who comes from a family of electricians, plumbers and general contractors, said. “After I retired I was getting real depressed and thinking ‘Oh, my God, is this what life is going to be? Is this how I am going to die?”

Badger's choice to establish a new business in one option that some other former and soon-to-be-former Willow Run employees can choose as the plant - now down to fewer than 700 employees - heads toward closing by December.

Amy Cell, vice president for talent enhancement and entrepreneurial education at Ann Arbor SPARK, said stories like Badger’s are increasingly common in southeast Michigan.

“Entrepreneurialism is kind of going through the roof right now,” she said.

Cell runs a class called “Starting Your Own Business” through SPARK, which began as a quarterly offering in February 2007, but is now held monthly due to demand. Cell said no agencies keep track of how many people are starting new businesses, but estimates more than 500 people have attended the course. She said agencies with similar programs anecdotally report the same interest levels.

Cell partly attributes the interest in self-employment to Ann Arbor’s large base of creativity through the university, but says a broad change in views on job security in southeast Michigan have created a new breed of entrepreneur.

She says the job security offered by the Big Three and their large suppliers is not what it used to be.

“In the past, having a job at a large company was viewed as secure, lifetime employment,” she explained. “Now starting your own company is seen as no more risky than working at a big company. It’s a cultural shift that we’re seeing in Michigan.”

Badger said he could have continued working for GM in a number of capacities, including transferring to Toledo or another plant outside Michigan, but he no longer wanted to work for GM and has laid roots in the area.

Although the economy has has been hit harder in Michigan than in other regions, Badger believes he can stay busy. The company is still in its infancy, but Badger has already hired a life-long friend and fellow union rep, Sterling Mullins, who took a buyout at the same time, and the duo have several larger projects on the horizon.

“The people at the plant have kept me pretty busy doing things, and it started as a handyman thing, but it’s developing into a construction company,” Badger, who also cuts and sells firewood, said.

He further pointed to an element of satisfaction in his new businesses, which he never found in his old trade.

“When you build a transmission, you never see that project again,” Badger said. “There’s decks and projects I did 15 years ago and can still look at them. For anybody who builds something, to still see their projects -- that’s a testament to their ability as a craftsman.”

Cell said among other reasons why so many people who are forced out of work in Michigan choose to stay to start up their own business is because there is a spouse earning a second income. She also said people express how much they enjoy living in the state.

Mullins, whose wife works at an insurance company, turned down a job offer in Virginia for those exact reasons.

“My wife loves her job and we love Michigan,” he said. “We like the seasonal changes, we are outdoors people, we take advantage of the Michigan winter and we’re just going to stick it out here. This is where we call home.”

Cell said others have started businesses before being laid off or taking buyouts at large companies because of uncertainty.

Jerry Gardner, who took the Aug. 1 buyout package after 33 years at the GM Willow Plant, felt anxiety about the future several years before leaving the automaker.

Two years ago, he was approached by a friend from church about starting up an interactive commerce Web site, which Gardner quickly disregarded as a pyramid scheme.

But upon further investigating the offer, he found it could be a secure out from a company on shaky ground. He said his friend gave him what he considers sage advice.

“He said ‘Jerry, you better dig a well before you’re thirsty,’” Gardner recalls. “I saw the writing on the wall with GM - one day you've got a job, the next day you don’t. Everybody should have a backup plan and have something in place. I’m not the type of person who wants to sit around and collect unemployment for a year.”

Gardner now has his own e-commerce site in which he links buyers to sellers, specializing in high-end vitamins and makeup. He said he also works with larger stores such as Sears, Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy.

Whatever a customer needs, Gardner says he can get.

His business is marketed strictly through word of mouth, and the stores write Gardner a check out of their advertising budget based on how many transactions he helps them make.

He has built up a steady customer base over the last several years, and says the income through his new endeavor is nearly equal to the $70,000 per year he earned when he quit his job at GM.

Gardner calls it the “perfect business.”

“I haven’t had to change my lifestyle at all,” he says.

Like Badger and Mullins, he underscored the advantages to being in business for himself. He decides when he works and when he takes vacation and reports to himself.

“It’s just nice having total control,” he said.

With business doing so well, he has hopes that his wife can soon retire and join him at his home business.

Mullins summed up his contentment with his new life and work outside the factory: “Every night is a Friday night and every morning is Sunday morning,” he said.