I graduated with an MBA in 2008 from a top 10-ish school, just before the Great Recession

This seems like it boils down to "if you can't find someone willing to hire you, start a company and find someone willing to hire it"? Which solves the problem of not having a job, I suppose, but doesn't necessarily solve the problem of not having an income. Contract manufacturing sounds like a very specific field. Were you working in contract manufacturing before, or did you basically make a career pivot into manufacturing because that's where the opportunities were? (If so, very savvy!)

In about 2004 Business Week had an article that said 'the value of an MBA is simply the salary of the job that your school gets for you on graduation'. No job, no value. Some schools have much better placement departments than others.

One of the best parts of running your own company one-person or small consulting company is to decide when and how you pay taxes. So, for example, you can work for a while, build up capital in the company and then not work for a while still paying yourself a salary. Basically using the company as your savings account. If you don't mind paying yourself a lower salary you can take advantage of progressive tax as well. It is about minimizing how much you work, it doesn't really help you to maximize how much you earn if you want to work full time with no pauses. It essentially levels out your tax burden across multiple years.