Micro-Enterprise Your Talents
Self-employment may strike fear in some people, especially if you are a person with a disability, but it does not have to be that way. We all hear stories about entrepreneurs that work 24/7 and do everything in their business, but that is not for everyone. Hire yourself by turning what you enjoy doing and are good at, into a business to earn an income. A micro-enterprise gives you the flexibility to work around your personal and lifestyle requirements, develop skills, gain independence, and feel a sense of purpose.
The first step is to determine if a micro-enterprise is a good fit. Find out what situations you thrive in and what supports and skill sets you might need other people to provide. Make a list or ask people that know you really well, what they think you could do and how they can help you. If you uncover business ideas that you think might be a fit, it’s time to go into greater depth exploring them. If you are not going for a business loan, you might want to consider a lean start-up approach.
“Lean Start-Up’ is an approach that ‘favours experimentation’ over elaborate planning; customer feedback over intuition; and iterative design over traditional ‘big design up front’ development”’ (‘Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything’ by Steve Blank).
The Business Model Canvas is a great tool to evaluate your ideas and make a choice. Not sure what that is? Here is a 2-minute video explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoAOzMTLP5s
If you are unemployed and need to work part-time, give us a call and perhaps our local WorkBC staff can help you work through this discovery process.
Resources:
Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program (EDP)
https://www.communityfutures.ca/edp
The Launching Pad: Exploring Micro-Enterprises for People with Developmental Disabilities (includes success stories)
https://employmentforall.ca/content/what/selfemployment/MicroenterpriseGuide.pdf
Self-Employment Program (SEP) for PPMB & PWD
