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Disabled people starting up a business
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
I've been talking to another friend about my business idea (selling mobility and living aids which look good and work) who has been chronically ill most of her life, and is also on ESA. She's really interested but starting up your own business is hard, especially if both the partners are disabled! Both of us are very motivated and determined but we are a bit worried about work/life balance and pacing ourselves so we don't make our conditions worse.
Is there a particular organisation that helps disabled business people? Has anyone any advice or tips?
We're trying to go on the next local princes trust enterprise course, but we also want to talk to someone a bit more specialised and see if there are groups we can go to or grants for adaptations for us to able to work better?
Is there a particular organisation that helps disabled business people? Has anyone any advice or tips?
We're trying to go on the next local princes trust enterprise course, but we also want to talk to someone a bit more specialised and see if there are groups we can go to or grants for adaptations for us to able to work better?
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Disability Grants looks like a good mine of info, although they're still on about DLA so it may be out-of-date.
Potentially both, I have lots of designs in the pipeline that I'm almost ready to make prototypes of, but we're also looking for aids which really work and look good too.
http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/business/business-faqs/i-want-to-start-a-new-business.-where-can-i-go-for-help.html
good luck, hope it goes well
Make prototypes how? What testing will you do? What Standards do you have to adhere to? How will you get the kite marking?
When monsieur creamcheese had his own business, it nearly broke us. There was a lot of working through the night.
It still failed.
Research research reasearch x
How do you think is the best way to get people's feedback on whether they actually want what we're thinking of doing and how much they'd be willing to pay and what's most important to them about the product etc? I can write surveys till the cows come home but I need to responses and quality ones at that, and I also need to actually get access to the target market. I'm thinking the local disability action groups, maybe if they'll let me, the ouch message board, various other forums. I know it's difficult because its a fairly small target market, but I'm thinking of broadening it a bit by trying to incorporate the whole easy of use yet stylish side of things to non disabled users. I want to keep the model of the business as consumer led as possible because I think that's the.only way to create sustainable business these days.
Any thoughts on that lot?
2. Proof of concept. You need to see if a) you can source these b) you can get them ready for sale c) you can market them d) you can sell them, and make money doing so and e) you / customers can use them. If you fall on any of these hurdles, chances are the business will fail.
3. Develop a robust business plan, that can attract investors. Might be worth getting some help drafting this together.
Consider putting a focus group together. Hire out a hall for half a day, provide refreshments and food and think out some exercises / discussions. Get a prototype or three and let people play with / destroy them. Could work :-) and might even get yourself some preorders on the books.
That does sound like a good idea! I also need to work on what kind of intellectual property protection is right for these products.
I'm really not sure which is chicken and which is egg in terms of starting up the business. Do I go with all of the theoretical stuff first or do I start with making the prototypes and then get the business plan to follow. If there much point in doing the business plan until I've got proof of concept?
I've done a lot of research on other companies within the same sector and no one seems to be doing anything even close! There are companies making individual products which are along the line of what we want to do (and rather than go into competition I'd rather stock their items), but there is no company which stocks a whole range of items like that. And many of the items are hugely overpriced to the extent that they're very inaccessible to most disabled people.
Maybe look into that and see how their business model works.
Also I think a rough outline of what you are proposing to do is a useful exercise even at the early stages as it allows you to retain a focus on what you are about.
With the sales of things made by other companies, once I find out wholesale prices I can work out what the retail price could be and work from there.