International Disabled Entrepreneurs

Becoming self-employed in this economic environment is not easy for anyone.but it is more difficult for someone with a disability because they have not worked long enough to establish credit to qualify for loans from a bank.

Unless you are familiar with starting and planning a business, you need assistance to help you eat, successful, because unless you know what you were doing it is not an easy task. The purpose of this organization is to help people with disabilities, to not only start a business, but to grow their business.

I have cerebral palsy and have been self-employed for 25 years, because at the time we had the rehabilitation act of 1973, but it was still 12 years before ADA became law. Unless a company at that time recede $10,000 in funding from the federal government they were not under any obligation to high your people with disabilities to fill positions available. Today even though we are under the ADA, because of our economy in the bad shape that our economy is in jobs are hard to come by for people without disabilities, therefore, we need to look outside the box and for alternatives for employment.

People who are able-bodied, who choose to become self-employed after working with a business for a number of years have the opportunity to establish credit for themselves so they can get a line of credit for their business from a bank. People with disabilities who have not had the same opportunities in the workplace, have not had the opportunity to establish credit or qualify for business loans.

Through the American Association for people with disabilities they have a program of grants to help people with disabilities who is self employed, but they have had over 300 applications per year and give out only five grants. My organization would be available to all people with disabilities who want to have their own business and assist them with a mentoring and classes on how to build and grow a business.I would also like to set up as part of this program a way to help them with seed money to build and grow their business. The seed money would be in the form of low interest loans that would be paid back over time, and as part of the stipulation for receiving these loans they would also be required to mentor other people with disabilities to start their own business.

My board would consist of both people with disabilities who are in the workforce or have their own business plus I would also want some people from corporations who could also assist with writing grants and getting the funding.

In the beginning I would request people to help me with mentoring who themselves are self employed and can coach people with disabilities on what it will take to become self-employed and how to grow their business.

The reason I chose to establish this is a nonprofit organization is so that it would be available for all people around the world with disabilities who need assistance to grow their own business. Since a AAPD is the only organization available for people with disabilities to get assistance, I felt there was a need for an organization of this nature.

I've found that when I started my business there was no resources available to help me in growing and building my business. Therefore, I wanted an organization to fill that niche and help other people with disabilities to find success for themselves, and the satisfaction of having their own business if they so chose. Not only that, but people with disabilities who have their own business would be more likely to hire other people with disabilities to work for them and help them become self-employed in the future.

This will also help with some of the issues that people with disabilities have of finding gainful and pointed in the workplace. Companies do not always want to in the invest and adaptive equipment to help people with disabilities do their job better since they feel it is an unnecessary expense.most people with disabilities need adaptive equipment for themselves and both their own work and in their business that they would be more likely to invest in it to help others do their jobs better.

As part of the process of becoming self employed, I would also encourage participants to have life skills coaching because society has often discouraged people with disabilities from becoming gainfully employed and given them a negative self image about themselves. Also people with disabilities grow up in families that are non-supportive or discourage them from becoming independent.

To give you a little bit of my background--I was educated before the Individual Disability Education act became law in 1977. By the time this became law was in graduate school. Because I have cervical palsy and it affects how the brain processes information or that I learned differently, both my parents and my teachers did not expect me to have or achieve high goals for myself.

Only because I studied both the mental health and psychology in college that I learned to change my mindset from a negative one to a more positive one. I also studied both Transactional Analysis and Psychodrama, to help me overcome some of my personal issues that was affecting my belief in my own success for myself.I also studied rehabilitation counseling which is an employment of people with disabilities at the Masters level.

Because my father died when I was entering college and we were under Social Security disability benefits, I was referred to rehabilitation services because they are the financial on to help people with disabilities to gain the skills needed for gainful employment in the future. At first they paid for my education with no problems, but later,since I had problems with some of my core courses early on and struggled to get out of these classes and because I had a low grade point average I often had to stay out for a quarter or two before I could go back in take more classes.during this time at rehabilitation services told me if I got put on suspension one more time they would not pay for my education. Therefore, my mother paid for my education because she wanted to keep me busy not because she saw it as a means to an end, which would be in employment.

My mother would also do everything she could to sabotage reaching my final goal of gainful employment in the workplace, because she wanted to control every aspect of my life and because she did not want to be left alone. It was only because I worked on myself and learned to believe in myself and because I learned to distance myself from my family and the relationship that we have that I have been able to achieve the goals that I have set for myself.

Once I had established my own business, I eventually reestablished my case with rehabilitation services so they could purchase for me all the equipment I needed for my business and the adaptive equipment that I needed as well. So as part of this organization we would be a resource for people with disabilities on where they could go to get the equipment they needed for their business.

I am now in the process of establishing a board and having to put together grants for this organization so anyone who can help me find the right people to put on my board would be greatly appreciated. Also if you would be able to assist with funding this organization and know of any sources of grants that are available you can contact me.