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The book that makes entrepreneurship and self employment
a career choice for people with disabilities!

Mouth Magazine, September, 2000
... the first how-to book woth recommending. all the ins and outs,
debunking the myths with real life examples...
Mouth insists that every job developer read it . Now.

Cynthia E. Griffin, Entrepreneur Magazine, December, 2000
... Alice Weiss Doyel's book, No More Job Interviews! gives potential entrepreneurs a one-stop resource. In addition to case studies of business owners with disabilities,
the book provides resources, debunks the myths about the business capabilities of the disabled, and offers information on available consulting services.

 

$29.95 US

No More Job Interviews
Self-Employment Strategies for People with Disabilities

Alice Weiss Doyel

Writing from the perspective of a business owner with a disability, Alice Weiss Doyel lays out a bold plan. Aimed at people with disabilities who want to start a business and the employment specialists who support them, No More Job Interviews! explores in detail the essential employment option of self-employment.

Step-by-step, it teaches how to optimize prospects for success and self-sufficiency. And it gives human service agencies tools to play a powerful role in the process.

Every chapter is a gold mine of resources on starting a business. Doyel covers not only resources available to all, such as the Small Business Association, but also supports designed specifically for people with disabilities, such as Plans to Achieve Self-Sufficiency (PASS).

Best of all, No More Job Interviews! seeks out little-known opportunities for collaboration in growing a business that Doyel has found in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds as well as the public sector. She also offers tips on the role of the Internet, both as a way of doing business and as a source of start-up information.

At the heart of the book are the chapters on business planning. Here, job seekers and employment specialists alike will find concise yet comprehensive business planning advice. And Doyel brings it all into the real world with real-life case studies of individuals with disabilities and their business plans. Their words will inspire others to consider self-employment.

Scroll down to see Table of Contents, Submit an Order, or read the Introduction.

Cary Griffin, Director of Training, The Rural Institute, The Univ. of Montana

“This is a clear and concise volume that recognizes the growing reliance all Americans have on
small business and makes the case that people with disabilities are as qualified as any to take their rightful place
in free-market enterprise, regardless of your IQ score, your mood swings, or your ability to walk...
Above all, this book represents a starting point in the discussion of making a business and its owner successful.”
Cristina Mathis, The Abilities Fund, HalfthePlanet.com

Finally! A guide to self-employment written specifically for people with disabilities and the family members, friends, agencies and organizations that support them. No More Job Interviews! debunks the myths that suggest that people with disabilities are not suitable candidates for self-employment.

Self-employment has historically been overlooked and misunderstood by professionals who provide employment assistance to people with disabilities. As a result, self-employment has been largely utilized only as an option of last resort. Author Alice Doyel takes this issue head-on.

A successful entrepreneur with disabilities herself, Doyel is living proof that people with disabilities can and do succeed in business. Over the past 16 years, she has weathered the ups and downs of business ownership -- from expansion to closure to starting over -- all while balancing health concerns and family responsibilities.

Doyel's appetite for business led her to seek out a book on entrepreneurship for people with disabilities. When she found that no such book existed, she decided to write one herself. In her own words, "I felt that I could put together information that would help other people with disabilities succeed because I knew the types of information that I wanted and needed as an entrepreneur with disabilities."

Doyel's "been there, done that" perspective makes No More Job Interviews! a uniquely powerful resource for entrepreneurs with disabilities. Each chapter contains a wealth of information and resources for potential entrepreneurs -- some of which is specifically geared to people with disabilities and some of which would be of value to any budding entrepreneur.

No More Job Interviews! acknowledges the important role that employment and human services professionals often play in the lives of people with disabilities, and prescribes a role for them in supporting self-employment as a viable vocational option. Doyel gives employment professionals a basic business "tool kit" for helping people with disabilities make the dream of business ownership a reality.

Doyel's book does a superb job of addressing the distinct challenges faced by entrepreneurs with disabilities. Practical suggestions help potential entrepreneurs address real-world challenges of disability and business ownership while minimizing their effects on business success. No More Job Interviews! is essential reading for anyone with a disability who is considering entrepreneurship, and for the family members, friends and professionals who are committed to helping them achieve their goal.
Urban Miyares, President
Disabled Businesspersons Association

...you should read [No More Job Interviews!] and have this book in your library if...
** You are a person with a disability either interested in starting or already in business.
** You are a professional in vocational rehabilitation either supporting self-employment or curious about the benefits, challenges,
and procedures to successful closures with a self-employment option.
** You are a career or business counselor serving enterprising individuals with disabilities.
** You are an educator or student in the area of self-employment, vocational rehabilitation, marketing, finance or business
** You are a professional in independent living, health-care or other rehabilitation or medical service.
** You are a government administrator or employee with the responsibility of serving individuals with disabilities.
** You know someone with a disability who could use the motivating lift...a book filled with stories about facing and overcoming the odds,
and achieving employment and self-sufficiency through business ownership.

No More Job Interviews! is a MUST...exciting and information-packed....~
Kimberly Cordingly, Small Business and Self-Employment Service,
Job Accommodation Network
President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities

I especially like that you’ve combined practical information about the business development process with your personal experiences as a person with a disability. I think that makes it a lot more “real” for readers. I know callers will benefit greatly from hearing your story and all the knowledge you have acquired as an experienced businessperson. It’s a great addition to our resource base and I thank you for writing it!!

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Contents

Appendices

Introduction

I am sitting in a hospital room, undergoing tests for a twenty-something-year-old seemingly undefined central nervous system disorder. This seems a fitting place to begin writing a book about self-employment for people with disabilities and the role of human services in this arena. As a business owner with a disability as well as the consultant to the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation for the design phase for their Self-Employment Program for people with disabilities, I have experienced the self-employment process from both sides. This book explains:
• the reasons that self-employment is an essential employment option for people with disabilities
• the method for optimizing the prospects for business success for people with disabilities
• the potentially powerful role of human services organizations in this process

Many human resources organizations have under-used, and often misunderstood, self-employment as an employment option for people with disabilities. Prior the establishment of the Self-Employment Program at Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, many Colorado vocational rehabilitation counselors ignored self-employment entirely.

For those counselors who considered self-employment, it often served as a last option for persons who could not or would not find conventional jobs. Most counselors felt ineffective in providing job seekers interested in self-employment with the tools and assistance that they needed. The counselors also felt powerless in determining how much money a start-up business requires and when to stop funneling funds into a business that was not succeeding.

These reactions and concerns reflect the experience of vocational rehabilitation counselors around the country, prior to the installation of well-designed self-employment programs. On the optimistic side, the self-employment programs started in a number of states are turning around the self-employment experience for people with disabilities and for their counselors. These entrepreneurship programs have begun both within the vocational rehabilitation system and through nonprofit and educational organizations.

The entrepreneurship programs consider self-employment an option for persons who seek self-employment as their employment option. To complete an entrepreneurship program, candidates:
• experience an ongoing self-assessment process throughout the program
• reach defined training goals that reflect their individual education needs in small business management and in their specific business
• develop a viable business plan, with support and guidance from a business and/or human services counselor experienced in business planning
• demonstrate that the business venture has the potential for long term success

When the process is carried out in a thorough, professional, and consistent manner, the people and businesses that are likely to succeed will have the support of the human services system. Even those people who participate in a self-employment program, but who choose not to pursue self-employment, still will have an educational and pragmatic experience that will strengthen their understanding of themselves and of their employment goals.

This book addresses the entrepreneurial resources that are available for persons with disabilities and the roles of human services organizations in providing access to these resources. It covers strategies and approaches that optimize success for both the entrepreneurs with disabilities and human services organizations. It also offers case studies of businesses started and owned by people with disabilities that illustrate the application of these concepts.

Case Studies

There are no “typical” business owners with disabilities to provide us with classic or prototypical case studies. Business owners with disabilities are diverse in their socioeconomic and ethnic origins, in the type and severity of their disabilities, and in the vast array of businesses that they create and run. To portray a few case studies as representative of business owners with disabilities in general risks producing misinformation and bias. However, important factors affect business planning for all prospective entrepreneurs with disabilities that these studies illustrate:
• developing concise, straightforward mission statements
• determining company goals and business objectives
• ascertaining the personal goals and objectives that the entrepreneur hopes will result from owning and running the business

These factors answer the questions of “why” the entrepreneur is pursuing a specific business and “what” he or she expects to accomplish. It is only after these factors are established that the prospective entrepreneur can move on to determine “how” to create an effective business by designing plans for marketing, operations, and finance.

Most business owners with disabilities have many potential methods for “how” to manage the business. These methods change in response to customers, economic factors, needs of the business, and personal needs of the business owner. But if the business owner stays focused on “why” he or she created the business and “what” he or she expects from it, the business will have a basis for continuity and longevity. Other employees, consultants, associates, and advisors can provide options for “how” to manage the business, but the owner is the person who must stay focused on “why the business was established” and “what it intends to accomplish.”

The first case study provides a sixteen-year perspective of my own businesses. It depicts many of the changes that occurred over time in the business world, in my disabilities, and my family life that both positively and negatively impacted the stability and growth of the businesses. The narrative illustrates both productive and detrimental decisions and actions that I took. It teaches that despite obstacles and errors, businesses owned by persons with disabilities can survive and succeed over time, producing income and increasing the quality of life for the owners.

The next three case studies focus on businesses started and operated by persons with severe disabilities, whose options for satisfying and rewarding conventional employment were extremely limited. They cover designing the business concept, the development of the business, and the business start-up. All three of these entrepreneurs had the advice, assistance, and support of human services professionals.
Finally, the book ends with a short interview with David Hammis, who works extensively with people with severe, developmental, and psychiatric disabilities in their pursuit of self-employment. He is employed by The Rural Institute at the University of Montana, where he is the director of the Montana Consumer Controlled Careers Project.

The Rural Institute focuses considerable effort on self-employment for people with severe and development disabilities. They contributed the first two case studies used here, as well as examples used throughout the book. The third case study is from the Arkansas Support Network, Inc. Although self-employment for people with disabilities has gained increasing acceptance in human services organizations, people with severe disabilities often have been left out of the process. The goal of the Rural Institute is to develop innovative methods for people with severe disabilities to create small businesses that suit both the needs of the individual and the business needs of his or her community.

Their approach has been effective because it starts with an optimistic attitude that people with severe disabilities can be potentially successful candidates for self-employment. A key feature of their approach is to develop new small business creation methods as well as modifying existing methods to fit the needs of people, using person-centered practices.

The methods that succeed for people with severe disabilities are based on good business start-up practices (which would apply to any business), and good person-centered supported employment practices. Supported employment is a relatively new approach to the employment of people with severe disabilities. It provides long-term, ongoing support as needed throughout the term of employment.

Supported self-employment does not utilize human services providers on an ongoing basis to any greater extent than would be used in conventional employment. Supported self-employment human services providers first work with the person to find and develop a viable business concept. As the development of the business progresses, their primary goal focuses on finding and establishing “natural” business, economic, and community support connections. In Developing Natural Support in the Workplace: A Practitioner’s Guide, Stephen Murphy and Patricia Rogan define these natural supports as any assistance, relationship, or interactions that:
• allow a person to secure, maintain, and advance in a community job of their choosing
• correspond to the typical work routines and social actions of other employees
• enhance individuals’ work and non-work social life among their co-workers and other members of the community
Murphy and Rogan include the following examples of natural supports:
• job/task support
• social/emotional support and relationships on and off the job
• personal care assistance
• support with work-related activities (e.g., banking, transportation)
• technological support1

Certainly, these parameters apply to self-employment as readily as to conventional employment. The primary difference is that in self-employment, as part of their jobs individuals have some additional management roles that they must perform either on their own, or with the assistance of other employees or outside business service providers. The definition of the job is therefore expanded, and the natural business supports for these expanded functions may be different from, but not in conflict with, those of conventional employment.

Source:
1. Murphy, Stephen and Rogan, Patricia, (1994). Developing Natural Supports in the Workplace: A Practitioner’s Guide, St. Augustine, FL: Training Resource Network, Inc.