Disabilities Don't Deter Entrepreneurial Spirit

October 31, 2008 --Article Written by-Monte Stewart

But business development groups says roadblocks stalling startup dreams

Will Shannon's first name personifies his desire to succeed.

He has a strong will to excel at the helm of his own business, despite being a double-leg amputee.

After a year and a half in operation, Shannon's company Critical Mass Media, a Vancouver-based film and TV production firm is showing a profit. "I really like working for myself," he says. "It's a great feeling to build something from nothing."

Shannon is among a growing number of disabled entrepreneurs who are launching their own companies.

Business development groups say Canadian entrepreneurs with disabilities are increasing, but the exact number of new companies has never been tabulated. But it's believed to be small compared to the number of people with disabilities who want to - but can't or won't - launch their own firms because of financial roadblocks and discrimination.

"There is a whole market out there of people with disabilities who are not necessarily getting the products and services that they could use," says Katherine Roos, community programs manager for the Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC), which assists entrepreneurs with disabilities. "That's a huge untapped market."

Roos notes statistics show only a fraction of entrepreneurs with disabilities go into business for themselves.

"People want to go to work (for themselves), but they're afraid to go to work," agrees Anthony Little, who operates a Toronto home-based paralegal firm and advocates for the disabled.

Little, a 58-year-old who lives with HIV, says few people with disabilities start businesses because they don't want to be cut off from government benefits that help pay for expensive drugs, wheelchairs and other necessities.

But many entrepreneurs with disabilities are still willing to risk a reduction in government support in return for business success.

"In the next year or year and a half, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get off the disability pension completely," says Shannon, whose legs were amputated in his late 20s following birth-related problems. "The only reason I stay on it is because my prosthetic legs are really expensive, and the components that go with them. It actually adds up to tens of thousands of dollars a year. I'm not really ready to ditch that yet."

Shannon is now enjoying increased independence that life as an entrepreneur offers.

"I worked in a call centre, I was a social worker, recording engineer, went back to school to become a dental hygienist and decided I didn't like that, so I just started working on the skills that I needed," he says.

Gwen Reid, a Toronto-based career counsellor and workshop facilitator who lives with cerebral palsy as well as soft-tissue and nerve damage suffered in a 2004 car accident, says governments can help more disabled entrepreneurs launch businesses just by explaining how much money will be deducted from their disability pensions if they set up shop.

"I think that (explanation of the funding formula) would alleviate some of the stress and anxiety around losing financially," she says.

Reid runs a home-based consulting business and travels in her wheelchair either by subway or with a bus service for people with disabilities.

In addition to providing career counselling, she conducts workshops on work-life balance and assists individuals and organizations on such matters as workplace accommodation for the disabled, disclosure of disability in the workplace, and income reporting to Ontario's provincial disability-support program.

Operating her own business has made it easier to balance life and work, she adds.

"You're able to do your exercises," she says. "You're able to go to your appointments. You're able to make your own schedule ... You can basically create your own dream or passion."

As people with disabilities start companies, non-governmental organizations and financial institutions across the country are providing them with training, help with business planning, networking and access to capital.

While different federal agencies, such as Western Economic Diversification and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, provide startup money in different regions, there is no Canada-wide funding program - or national agency - to assist entrepreneurs with disabilities.

"There's no one striving for (a national organization)," says Brian Aird, executive director of the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Network (EDN), a group that assists about 450 people a year in Nova Scotia.

While many small-business operators have difficulty getting credit, it's even more difficult for entrepreneurs with disabilities, suggests Aird, because they have no credit history or have lost credit because of unexpected health problems.

Some operate businesses "under the table" to ensure they still receive benefits.

Carinna Rosales, director of business-development services at the Winnipeg-based Supporting Employment and Economic Development (SEED), says that a country-wide funding program would be beneficial.

"I do think it would be helpful to see things move to a national approach - while taking into account the unique needs of each province," she says.

Meanwhile, Laurie Beachell, national co-ordinator for the Winnipeg-based Council of Canadians with Disabilities, says more people with physical and mental challenges are looking to start their own businesses simply because they can't find work elsewhere.

He calls for Ottawa, the provinces and territories to include training, funding and support programs for entrepreneurs with disabilities within federal-provincial labour market agreements. "There should be specific targets established for the training and support of people with disabilities," he says.

Currently, he adds, labour market agreements are funded mainly through Employment Insurance, but many people with disabilities are ineligible because they have not worked long enough, if at all. "If you take the long view, things have improved," says Beachell. "But are they anywhere near where we expected them to be at this time? No, they're not."

There are some promising developments, however. Statistics Canada reports show that people with disabilities start businesses at almost twice the rate of the general population.

This year's federal Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) found that between 2001 and 2006, the employment rate for people with disabilities rose to 53.5 per cent from 49.3 per cent.

But Roos calls low employment rates of people with disabilities "a crime" and an economic development issue, because a vast number of people are not participating at a time when Canada faces major labour shortages.