Albert Thomson was awarded Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year at Radar’s People of the Year awards.
The People of the Year Awards are a pan-disability event celebrating the achievements of individuals and organisations, who together are making the UK a better place for all.
Albert formed Action Amps in 2005 after becoming severely injured, which resulted in the loss of his left leg above knee, while serving in action. He left the Army as a Colour Sergeant in October 2005 having served 18 years.
Albert used his recovery time in hospital contemplating how he could turn this life-changing negative impact on his life into a positive. He was aware that without the quick-thinking and level-headedness of the Army medics and doctors, who were first on the scene, following the horrific injuries he sustained, he would not be here today. Read the rest of this entry »
Business awards are organized by various national and local organisations to honour and recognize the achievements of businesses and the people behind them.
Have you overlooked awards as a marketing tool to promote your business? If you haven’t considered putting your business forward for award nomination you may be missing a trick.
Entering an award usually requires a brief essay and description of your business, some contests may require financial records.
Even if you don’t win, there are benefits to be gained by being a finalist. Here are our top reasons to enter:
1. Entering an award as part of a marketing strategy is an untapped marketing tool by small business owners.
2. An award win or nomination often acts as a 3rd party endorsement, added credibility which can be very powerful within your business.
3. Award success presents a great story for all types of the media.
Many award organisers actively arrange press coverage on your behalf, opening up your business to new audiences.
There are lots of awards celebrating the achievements of people who have taken the plunge. They are many and varied, and cover everything from starting up to lifetime achievements.
The awards season is upon us and there are lots of ceremonies taking place. disabled entrepreneurs are promoting their businesses by achieving award success.
The Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs
This highly prestigious business award is being sponsored by Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou of Easy Jet fame who is known globally for being a serial entrepreneur.
The purpose of this award is a genuine desire on the part of Stelios to help support disabled people in business and with ÂŁ50,000 it is well worth applying for.
RADAR People of the Year Awards 2008
For over 40 years RADAR’s People of the Year awards have recognised the tremendous work of both individuals and organisations striving for equality for disabled people.
The People of the Year Awards celebrate these contributions, and included is a Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year award.
When I set up my first business I knew the importance of networking but knew very little else! My inexperience and lack of knowledge, coupled with my disability made my attempts hit and miss, heavy on the miss!
I found networking events really difficult initially and my sight loss did not help. I would now go as far as to say that I am better at it than many of my sighted counterparts these days. I have learned ways to make it work for me and I would like to share them.
Obviously, I don’t have all the answers and different disabilities pose different challenges but a disability need not always be a barrier and can sometimes be turned into an advantage.
Firstly, if you don’t like networking you are probably in good company. It is worth remembering that few people are natural networkers, like anything it requires some preparation and experience .
Before you begin any kind of networking it is important to understand that networking is more about giving than receiving and it is all about building relationships. Once you realise that networking is not all about direct selling it seems instantly a lot less painful.
I used to think that if I didn’t leave a networking event with someone prepared to book my services then my time had been wasted and I had failed. Once I understood the principle of using networking events, and generally meeting people, as an opportunity to begin to build a relationship with a potential client then the pressure immediately disappeared and I began to create real opportunities for my business.
Here are my top ten tips on getting networking working:
1. You Are Your Business
Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust. Because networking is all about building relationships, people are often buying into you rather than into your business. You are likely to be the person they deal with so you need to think carefully how you present yourself and you should consider what potential clients expectations are.
The amount you can earn whilst on Permitted Work has increased from October 2008. Previously a disabled entrepreneur on Permitted Work could earn ÂŁ88.50 profit without it affecting their benefits. Now the amount has been increase to ÂŁ92.00 to fall inline with the national minimum wage increase.
This extra £3.50 is only a small rise, but it’s worth remembering that it is profit and not earnings.
Example;- Now, if a disabled person’s business expenses (rent, materials, staff wages) were ÂŁ100.00, they would be able to earn ÂŁ192.00 without it affecting their benefits. Read the rest of this entry »
Today I have launched the Disability Means Business, business directory, open to any disabled entrepreneur. The purpose of the directory is to promote the businesses disabled people operate and if you have a website it will give you a free link.
You can list your business contact details, website and services you offer by clicking this link or clicking the directory tab at the top of the page. Feel free to put your disability in the keywords section. This way other entrepreneurs with a similar disability will be able to find you in the directory e.g. blind, visually impaired, cataracts, deaf, hearing impaired etc.
If you find the information helpful on my blog then please feel free to give me a link on your website in return.
In my experience the fear of failure is the number one reason why disabled people do not embark on self employment. Breaking this down further, they are worried about the business not making enough money to pay their bills, how will they manage with the accounts? Will they be able to cope with there disability and if they can afford to start up in business?
But what is the real cost of failing in business? Does it really matter? Will people laugh and mock me for the rest of my days? Well speaking from experience the answer is no!
When I was 22 I started my own business, well I had my own business thrusted upon me. I was working for a company which suddenly closed. I was left with no job and no finance to start up my self. Left with the prospect of being unemployed, I went to the Prince’s Trust and got a loan and grant for £2000 and started my own clothing shop.
After 3 years of working 6 days a week I realised that it was not going to buy me the house and car I wanted and decide to call it a day. I tried to sell the business and get out of my lease, but it ended up costing me ÂŁ3000 to leave.
The loss of money did not really bother me at the time my major concern was the dent in my ego. Coming from a small town, I dreaded bumping into old aquatances and customers and being mocked for failing. As I said, this did not happen, in fact the opposite happened. People would say “Hey, didn’t you have that shop. I wish I had the bottle to start my own business” or “I’m thinking of starting my own business, can you give me some advice”
Running my own business tort me skills in, negotiations, finances, penny pinching, DIY, travel, importing, advertising, security, time management, I.T., project management, networking, creative accountancy, point of sale and a whole load more.
Failing in business has made me realise that I could have done all these skills a whole load better. But, where could I have learned all these skills and put them into practical use in such a short period of time? Not from being employed, that’s one thing I am sure of.
I feel running my own business has made me a better person and failing in business made me a better adviser. I can understand people’s worries about financial pressures and the day to day running of the business, especially with a disability. These worries should be tackled head on and addressed before you start up in business, ignore them at your peril.
If you are worried about if your business will be successful enough to pay the bills, Test Trade, go on Permitted Work or Working Tax Credits. If you are worried about the accounts, do a free course. If you are worried about, if you will be able to manage because of your disability, contact Access to Work. If you are worried about failing, join the club, but from my experience it’s not such a bad thing.
Working with entrepreneurs, it never ceases to amaze me how many of them get taken for a ride when it comes to advertising. Like all businesses, when it comes to advertising companies there are the good, bad and downright ugly! The problem is that there are no regulative bodies governing advertisers. Nowadays anyone can set up as an advertising company, ranging from a local magazine to an internet marketing agency, but what do you really know about them?
Most entrepreneurs’ first point of contact with an advertiser comes via the telephone. Here you will be given all sorts of promises, from the number of readers their publication gets, or how high they can get you up on Google search results or the number of leads your advert will generate. But, can you really believe their businesses claims? How do you know if they are telling the truth? The answer is you can’t and you don’t! There is only one way to be sure that you’re not handing your money over to a crook and that is to do your own research!
The first thing you need to do is request a copy of the thing they want you to advertise in, whether it be a brochure, magazine, calendar, menu or whatever crazy thing they have come up with. If they don’t have one or it’s, “brand new” then be very wary. Personally if they were a new company, I would not use them.
The next thing to do is have a look for an advert which is similar to your business, but not in direct competition e.g. if I was a plumber I would look for an electrician’s advert. I would then contact the electrician and say to him that I was thinking about advertising in the magazine and does he get much business from it? I have used this method time and time again and have had numerous responses from “We get loads of business from it, our customers always mention the magazine” to “Oh my God, don’t use them, we are taking them to court!”. See why this method can be useful?
One thing is constant; I always get a friendly response and have even got business from the conversation. As long as you are not in direct competition with them I find people are willing to help and have even recommended other advertising companies they use.
When starting a new business most people will need some sort of capital to pay for things like, advertising, equipment and stock. They will either finance it themselves by using savings, borrowing it from family or through personal/business loans. My favourite way is through grants, simply because if things don’t work out you don’t have to pay them back.
When starting your business and looking for grants you must remember one thing. The vast majority of grants available are for business start up. After you start up in business there is virtually no financial support available. A lot of disabled entrepreneurs I work with have trouble with this concept. They write their business plan, list the items they need and look for the grants to buy them. Once they have matched the grants to the equipment they need, they stop looking.
This is a big mistake, pre-business start up gives you the greatest chance of getting your hands on some free money. Many entrepreneurs don’t look ahead and think about the things they might need in the future. A year down the line they might want a website, PC or newspaper advertising. These are all expenses they will now have to fund themselves which will come out of their profits. If they thought about how their business might develop they could have put a grant application in for these items and got them when they started up.
So, before making that leap into self employment make sure that you have fully exhausted any grants available, because once you start your business, you might find that financially, you are on your own.
Access to Work is a Government organisation that can provide equipment or support to enable a disabled person to run their business, so long as it is for disability needs.
For example, it would be essential for a visually impaired plumber to transport himself and his equipment to a client. It would be almost impossible for the plumber to take all of his equipment, materials and the client’s new boiler on a bus or put it in the back of a taxi. Therefore Access to Work would consider funding a driver to take the plumber to the client.
Likewise Access to Work would not fund the support worker to help lift the boiler out of the van, as a plumber would need an employee to do that anyway. An employee for this job would be considered a business need and not a disability need.
As a disabled entrepreneur you may be eligible for assistive technology to enable you to carry out your daily work duties. There is a vast array of equipment out there, from electronic magnifiers to help the visually impaired to sophisticated hearing loop systems for the hearing impaired.
For example, due to the plumber’s eyesight he might have problems reading the instructions to fit the new boiler. Access to Work might then consider funding a hand held electronic magnifier so he can read the instructions.
Access to Work is unlikely to fund a computer, as the majority of businesses would need a computer anyway. A computer would be considered a business need and not a disability need.
To apply to Access to Work contact your local job centre.