Doing it for ourselves

With everything from big banks to much-loved high street stores feeling the pinch, Sunil Peck has been taking the economic temperatures of businesses run by disabled entrepreneurs

Economists fear that it could take years for the UK’s economy to recover. But as unemployment creeps towards three million and personal debt mounts, does self-employment provide a viable option for disabled people who are made redundant or who struggle to get jobs even when the economy is buoyant?

Or, as the Federation of Small Businesses has said, although times are tough for entrepreneurs now, could businesses like these even help to kick start the economy?

Adrian Carter set up Carter’s Caters as the economy began to collapse last year. Business is quiet at the moment and Carter admits to feeling disheartened. But he has no regrets about setting up his Caribbean cooking business because he had dreamt about running his own business for years.

“I would have set up the business regardless of the recession – even though it has become much more of a struggle because nobody wants to spend. If you have got a good idea, and you believe in your business, you can achieve.”

He was studying for an NVQ in business studies in 2001 when a motorbike accident left him disabled.

Carter’s mum taught him to cook when he was five and he has been preparing food for family functions and parties ever since.

He decided to turn his love of cooking into a business in 2005 while he was recuperating. He handed out flyers and leaflets in his local area. He also went to university to brush up on his business skills and study for business qualifications.

“You have got to put in one hundred per cent. You have got to eat, sleep and breathe your business. If you don’t believe in it then who else is going to believe in it and make it happen for you?”

Carter operates from his flat to save money. He hopes to drum up enough work to be able to lease somewhere bigger, but he will not take out a loan to do so in case he can not meet the repayments.

Kath Sutherland, the Development Officer at the Association of Disabled Professionals (ADP), advises disabled people on setting up in business and those who have already done so. She says that people need to be realistic and not overstretch themselves by, for instance, securing their accessible home against a loan.

Sutherland is a facilitator and provides support to disabled people on a number of issues. She set up during the last recession in 1990. Despite high unemployment and interest rates, Sutherland spotted a gap in the market for a vital service that was not being provided by anyone else in the area.

She says that the state of the economy is important but that self-employment can be the only way for disabled people to make money.

“The implications of disabled people being long-term unemployed and having difficulties finding a job are such that they see self-employment as a way of enabling them to work when they have no other option.”

Businesses she says can be up and running in about six months, but it can take up to five years if you have to gain extra skills or training first. Welfare rights organisations can advise people on what benefits they are entitled to claim in the meantime.

Richard Grieve set up Phoenix Metalcraft in 2006. He always loved working with metal, but realised that there was a possibility that he could turn his love into a business during a prolonged period of unemployment, when he had spent years pottering around in too much pain to do much apart from sitting at a workbench.

He would go to his friend’s workshop for a cup of tea and a chat. His friend is a furniture restorer and Grieve would strike up conversations with his clients. When he told them about his metalworking skills, they would offer him odd jobs. Eventually, he had enough work and had built up enough potential customers that setting up a business was an attractive option. Grieve would urge disabled people to do the same today, regardless of the recession.

“If it is something that you have always wanted to do and you are made redundant for instance, see that as an opportunity. It is a major decision to go self-employed even if you are not working.”

Self-employment is ideal for Grieve because he can fit his work around hospital appointments and do something else like paperwork if he is in too much pain to work with metal.

He has his own workshop and makes boot scrapers, candlesticks, chandeliers, gates and doorknobs.

He says that the effects of the recession have not hit him yet and he is managing to turn a small profit.

And he counts himself lucky to have friends who have helped him out with loans, but says that disabled entrepreneurs would do well to talk about their business whenever they get the opportunity, whether that be to people in the pub or Jobcentre staff.

“If people know where you come from and that you have hit rock bottom and that you are crawling your way back, they will generally help you and give you advice.”

Kath Sutherland says that as well as organisations like ADP, the government’s own advice and support service Business Link is a useful source of support, as are the business support teams at HM Revenue & Customs.

For its part, the government says that it recognises that self-employment can be a way for disabled people to achieve greater independence. A spokeswoman from the Department of Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform told Disability Now that the government is working to ensure that business support services are accessible and meet disabled peoples’ individual needs.

Jayne Mason opened The Fancy Dance Shop in York in 2004 selling dance-ware. She opened her second shop in Harrogate in 2006. She says that given the chance, she would do the same thing today. But she warns that entrepreneurs should be aware that they might not make a profit for a couple of years.

She began to think about setting up her own business when an employment adviser put the idea into her head. She got sick of being turned down for call centre jobs and decided that if she had her own business and was her own boss, nobody could turn her down.

She came across an empty sandwich shop in York one day and thought about moving in and selling beauty products. But her daughter, a dancer, suggested opening up a shop selling dance clothes.

“I have got two left feet! I still can’t dance. Everyone thinks that I am a bit of a fraud!”

But Mason did some research and contacted local dance schools to see if there would be a demand for a shop. After an encouraging response, she took over the shop, painted it and began to trade.

“Stocking the shop was a problem at first. There was another dance shop in York and a lot of suppliers were supplying stock to it and they did not want to supply me.”

Mason managed to buy up stock from a dance-ware shop that closed down and, eventually, she was able to win over more suppliers.

She’s only just begun to turn a profit. But the popularity of programmes like Strictly Come Dancing has meant that she is seeing more customers coming into her shops. Mason is also introducing measures to counter the recession such as developing her website, introducing a loyalty scheme and developing contacts with local drama groups.

She says that she is never complacent and is always checking out competitors and looking at ways of reaching more customers.

Penny Hefferan is Projects and Administrative Manager at the Blind Business Association Charitable Trust which gave Mason grants when she was starting out. Hefferan says that starting a business today is not as ludicrous as you might think. She says that one benefit of the economic climate in terms of retail is that there are a lot of empty shops. Entrepreneurs are now in a position to negotiate with landlords to rent shops at a lower rate. Hefferan says that as long as people do not over-stretch themselves by taking out large loans that they will have trouble paying back, there is no reason why they cannot make a good go at running a business.

“As long as somebody does all the things that one should do when starting a business, knows their market, does research and realises that there is the potential for that business to thrive, then the current climate is no different to any other climate.”