How Laid-Off Corporate Workers Are Becoming Free-Thinking EntrepreneursWhat happens when you lose your job in a town where work is scarce? For many, the solution is to become an entrepreneur.

In the fall of 2015, when Marty Mann's boss at General Electric called him into the office, he knew his days at the company were numbered. For seven years, Mann had been a welder at GE's locomotive plant in Erie, Pa. Built just over a century ago, the 340-acre complex originally employed and housed thousands of workers, and defined the city's economic and social life. Butlayoffshad become common, and 2015 saw a downsizing of 1,500 employees. Mann was one. "Yeah, I was mad," he says. "You used me and then got rid of me.But when it's time to go, it's time to go."

Related:3 Tips to Transform Setbacks Into Success