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From The Out of Step Tool, it's TOOST Radio with a fresh perspective for people with disabilities.
TOOST radio is produced in kind by Entercom Radio Portland with special thanks to sound
engineer, Gary Bloxom. Our deep gratitude to you for this generous
donation making it possible to explore new opportunities, inspiring guests, helpful resources
and more. Now, your host Jerry Pattee.
Jerry: Step into my life with Toost members who invite you to learn about disability from
the inside out. Today, we feature Out of Step member, Tom
Huhn. He is the owner of Clear Vision Creations
Home Decor Wood Products which is located in West Valley City, Utah.
Tom began his career over 40 years ago designing and building homes.
He learned that he had a disability in 1987. Since then, he has developed a woodworking
business where he created beautiful, uniquely carved wood products. Welcome, Tom.
Tom: Thank you, Jerry. It's good to be here. Jerry: Let me ask you just to start with,
what is your disability? Tom: My disability is a eye disease that is
called retinitis pigmentosa and that is a degenerative disease of the retina. And when
I was diagnosed with this in 1987, I had no idea that I had anything elected.
Basically the diseases progresses over long periods of time, like years.
You start to lose some of your peripheral vision and your night vision and in my case,
eventually it's pretty much diminished all of my vision.
I have a little bit of light perception left, but that's really all I have left.
Jerry: So, it sounds like too with your condition that it take a little bit of adjustment being
formerly sighted and then losing that sight over time as opposed to people who are born
without sight. Tom: That's correct and some people will lose
their vision in an instant from an accident or from other conditions that cause a rapid
loss of vision. In my case, it's over a long period of time.
I'm not really sure which would be the better choice.
To have to adjust to it immediately or over time.
Probably the worst thing about my condition and it going over time, is really not knowing
the future. You don't really know what it's going to be
like in years to come. Jerry: Sort of that uncertainty question.
Tom: Right, kind of the unknown. You don't really know how all this is going
to work. Probably the other challenge is you're kind
of constantly adjusting to the changes in your vision because as it changes, you have
to adjust accordingly. So it's a constant adjustment.
Jerry: It's a matter of adaptation each day. Tom: Exactly.
Jerry: Let's let our listeners know a little bit of the inside sort of idea with this.
How does it affect your daily living? Tom: My daily living, it's funny because I'm
so used to it, I don't really think of myself as blind.
I just am able to go on through my daily routine pretty much like everybody else.
But there's all these little intricacies of the simplest things.
Like how do you know which medication is which or identifying things is probably one of the
challenges, just in a daily basis being able to know what you're picking up or what you're
looking for. There is a lot of modern technology out there
today that really helps in those areas. Jerry: And do you find sometimes that family,
friends or other people who know you well, forget that you have a disability?
Tom: Well, that's really my goal. That tells me that they are as comfortable with this
as I am. And that makes me comfortable, but some people aren't and they are very uncomfortable
and that makes it more difficult actually. Jerry: Certainly.
Well, in the few minutes we have remaining, tell us one thing how your disability is an
intrical part of the way that you do your working.
How does that integrate? Tom: I would say that over the years as I
was losing my vision and adjusting, specifically talking about woodworking, it's kind of transformed
the way I think. It probably actually makes me more creative
because I have to basically just use my mind for design and creativity.
Let's say I want to make a welcome sign for your house.
I have to be able to see that in my mind's eye, first of all.
And then secondly, I have to go through the process in my mind of how I'm going to accomplish
that in my workshop. It's a little different than the sighted world
because in the sight world, you can draw a picture, you can look at a magazine, you can
go on the internet and search for welcome signs and get thousands of ideas probably
visually. Jerry: Do you find yourself, as you're imagining
this in your mind, how it would feel, the finished product would feel to your fingertips
as you're producing it? Tom: Yeah, you actually do.
You get that sense of what it's going to feel like in your mind and then in your actual
touch. The other challenge is now you know what you're
going to make, you have to figure out how you're going to construct this without any
vision, in the workshop, using all these power tools.
Jerry: Right. Tom: You basically have to adjust a lot to
the way a sighted person would use a table saw, to have to figure out how a blind person
would use a table saw safely. Fortunately, in my makeup, I have always been,
my mind has always been very active in figuring out problems.
So, this actually works well for me. Jerry: That's great. I have one, this is kind
of a off the wall question. So, when you're working do you keep the lights
on? Tom: I don't really need to anymore because
of my vision. I'm not what they call total because I have
a little of perception, but what I do have is not of any use to me.
Just out of habit, I sometimes turn the lights on, but a lot of times I'll just walk into
the shop and I'll forget to turn them on. It doesn't make any difference because I operate
without vision. Jerry: Certainly. Well, great.
I want to thank you, Tom, for sharing your inside scoop on disability and our listeners
can find your business by going to our website at www.outofstep.com and searching the keywords
Clear Vision. I especially encourage them to check out one
of my favorite of your items, the new bottle stopper that you've created.
It's quite unique. So, thank you for join in us today.
Tom: Thank you, Jerry. Jerry: Step up your knowledge with TOOST Radio
as we tackle the tough questions about disabilities. Today's hot topic is, should a person with
a disability disclose that they have a disability to a potential employer? Why or why not?
First, I'd like to introduce, special, guest, Mike Hess.
He is the founder and executive director of The Blind Institute of Technology.
BIT is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide an innovative and solution oriented,
business learning environment. Check out Mike's article on www.outofstep.com
to learn more about him. Welcome, Mike.
MIke: Good afternoon, Jerry. Thank you so much for having me on your program today.
Jerry: You bet. Would you like to just take a few minutes and give our listeners a little
idea of what you do. Mike: Sure. I've been a lifelong IT nerd professional
out there in a very competitive work environment and always working in a private industry as
an IT professional or network professional. Over the last 18 years, I've learned how to
overcome the very real visual obstacles that you encounter in the corporate environment.
To me, I've used the leverage, tips, tricks and technologies, as I call them to my full
advantage to overcome those obstacles. And so over the last couple of years, I realized
how few other visually impaired or blind community members I've actually worked with and I've
worked for some large companies out there. And so I started doing some more due diligence
and I realized that the unemployment rate, at best I've seen 70% unemployment and I've
seen statistics as high as 81%. So, even if you take the mean and just say
75% unemployment, I think it's pretty egregious. And based on my education and my experience
within the corporate environment, there are a lot of assets that we have as a community,
as a physically challenged community that early lend itself well to the corporate environment.
So, I came up with concept of BIT, Blind Institute of Technology.
And really my only claim to marketing fame since I'm an IT nerd is I took a byte, from
the binary mathematical code and a bit and a byte and so I used bit for BLind Institute
of Technology. Really what I've been out doing is talking
to small companies like Comcast, CenturyLink, Red Robin, Remax, Denver Water, Denver House,
so many local organizations and international...Liberty Media, MWH Global.
Lots of big companies from around the world, explaining to them really how it was I was
able to be productive at a very high level within a very visually centric environment.
I've explained to them these tips, trick and technologies and why you would want to bring
somebody in with a physical challenge. We have way more assets to bring to the game
than the perceived liabilities and so this last year I've been working on BIT full time.
I've been very, very honored and flattered to have talked to probably 150 CEO's, CIO's
and CTO's this year alone and it's been going very, very well.
Jerry: Wow, that's quite a story! It sounds very successful.
Can you share a bit about your personal experience with discloser as you were moving through
the workforce and the different corporations? Mike: Absolutely. I started with my career
very, very sensitive to being cognizant of the numbers.
As a young IT professional, I knew the statistics. I knew there weren't a lot of visually impaired
people in the corporate environment and so I was very, very sensitive to that.
I would bring in my cane, my fold up cane to the interview and do my best to hide that
cane right away and not make it a distraction. Although, over my career, I'm just so passionate
now that I believe that the challenges that I have to overcome on a daily basis really
are the asset. That's the intangible that I bring to the
game and so I'm not fanatical where I throw the cane out there and my eyesight out there
all the time. Although, I'm very proud of the challenges
that I've had to overcome and so disclosing my disability is something that I'm very,
very proud of doing because I look at it as a true asset.
I explain that to potential hiring managers just like I do to see levels on a consistent
basis. The challenges that I have to overcome are
the same kind of challenges that corporate environments and executives look for their
workforce to have to overcome on a daily basis. And so to me, the physically challenged community
are very, very adept at doing that. Jerry: And so, did you find your views changing
over time? Did you gain more confidence? Did you always start out disclosing?
MIke: I did not. I was very, very sensitive to that and as I became more and more confident
with A) my skill set and B) just realizing I do not have to hide behind this.
That shouldn't be what we focus on when we're interviewing.
We should be focusing on, you're hiring me to solve for X.
Whatever that X is, whether it's customer service, whether it's an engineer since I'm
an engineer by trade. I'm going to come in and I'm going to solve
for some engineering problems. Let's focus on that.
Let me get to you, like how I can overcome these very real visual obstacles.
I'll explain that right away, get the 100 pound gorilla out of the way.
And then I leverage the fact that I'm used to overcoming and I'm used to stress.
I'm used to that kind of stuff. That's stuff that employers actually want
to hear. Jerry: Right. Ok, well I appreciate that,
Mike. I'd like to introduce another Out of Step
member, Vilissa Thompson to this conversation. Vilissa is a social worker and the founder
and CEO of Ramp Your Voice, an organization dedicated to promoting self-advocacy and strengthening
empowerment among people with disabilities. Also, I'll alert our listeners to be sure
to look up Vilissa's profile and an article that she's write on the Out of Step website.
Welcome, Vilissa. Vilissa: Hello, Jerry. I would like to thank
you and for those at Out of Step for this opportunity.
Jerry: We're very happy to have you with us today.
Could you give us a little background about yourself and your organization?
Vilissa: Sure. As Jerry mentioned, I am a social worker and
I have a Masters in social work and a LMSW. And I just received my degree last year.
I went through the whole rigamarole of applying for work and being interviewed for the right
fit for me. Along the way of job searching, I began to
connect with other women with disabilities and some with the same disability that I have.
I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta or OI and it's better known as Brittle Bone Disease.
Connecting with these women, I started to build a sisterhood and it began to grow and
know their own individual stories of women with disabilities.
And it got me to thinking about what platform is there for women with disabilities and people
with disabilities in general where they would be allowed to share their stories?
And along the way this year,this summer actually, I started to take more steps to create a face
for the voices to be heard and so that's the reason why I created Ramp Your Voice.
I think the title of it is very self explanatory. I want people to tell their stories and part
of Ramp Your Voice is story telling and self-advocates and allies to tell their experiences of being
people with disabilities, whether it's physical, physological, learning or whatever have you.
But Ramp Your Voice isn't just about allowing the space for advocates to tell their stories,
but it also allows me to brand myself as a disability rights consultant.
I'm a very macro minded social worker. I like to do things on a bigger scale and
I feel that creating y own organization that has such a wide view fits who I am as a social
worker. So Ramp Your Voice has that focus as well.
And I also, when it comes to back to women, I really want to get this disability of women
of color out there. I feel that that's a population within the
community that is grossly unrepresented and also overlooked.
And being a women of color myself, I feel that if I'm using this platform to uplift
other women of color with disabilities to tell their stories.
So Ramp Your Voice has a lot of different areas for what it focuses on, but I really
feel that is greatly needed. And the responses I've gotten in the very
short time of creating it fill a very necessary gap.
Jerry: Well, that's great. As your organization promotes speaking up
and ramping up a voice with people with disabilities, does that affect your views as far as disclosing
the disability? Should that be something that's included in
the communication with potential employers? Vilissa: Well, I believe it took me awhile,
kind of what like Mike mentioned for him, to get that confidence in disclosing the disability
because there is a fear of being discriminated against because of your disability, for your
employer to call you up for an interview to see if you would be a right fit for that company.
I think that's the fear that a lot of people have in not disclosing is valid given the
low employment rate of people with disabilities. But I do feel that in order to change that
status quo, we have to ramp our voice, so to speak, and to let people know that yes,
I do have a disability, but I have the field of knowledge that you need to make your company
progress further. I think that as a employer, seeing people
with disabilities out having educational backgrounds and building their own businesses just creates
more visibility for us in society. I think that that really helps the change
the views that they have about hiring people with disabilities when it comes to providing
accommodations or creating a comfortable environment for that particular person and talking about
the disability. I think a lot of people are afraid of being
offensive in asking what the disability is and I think there's nothing wrong with talking
about it. I know that I'm always willing to discuss
my own disabilities because I know people have questions about it.
And there's nothing wrong with questions. There's nothing wrong with asking what do
you have and how could that affect your job performance?
Like Mike said, we know how to handle stress and we know how to make things work.
I always say that I'm probably one of the most creative people in the world, learning
how to reach things, getting the job done without needing much assistance.
So I feel like that's something that people with disabilities have in dealing with their
own disability is needed, having those creative minds to help further their business.
And I think the businesses should outweigh hiring people with disabilities are pretty
much at a greater disadvantage than those who make it a priority to bring in those people
with disabilities into the workplace and creating a more diverse environment.
Jerry: So, let me ask both of you this question. It sounds like each of you have described
sort of society in general, just the ideas of employers whether they choose to hire or
they don't choose to hire. Vlissa, it sounds like you're advocating for
more of a society education. Vilissa: I am. I think there's so many different
misconceptions about what the field is, what it is what it isn't.
And I think that we, as people with disabilities, have to show others, this is our life.
Yes, we have a disability, but our disability doesn't define who we are as a person.
We still have the same stresses, the same fears, the same hopes, the same dreams as
anybody else. I think that we have to in order to change
the status of people with disabilities is that fact that we have to be more visible.
We have to have those conversations, even if it may be difficult for us to have and
get comfortable with that. I know that I have a friend who struggles
with standing up for herself and people aren't always sensitive to her disability.
She and I talked about that. I told her I have those struggles as well,
but if you want to create a change, you have to learn how to deal with those struggles
within and know that not everyone is going to understand.
There will be more people who will understand and want to support you than those who do
not. I think that we as advocates ad as people
with disabilities in general, have to be more comfortable in our skin.
When we are comfortable in our own skin, that's when society's mindset of what disability
is starts to shift and more opportunities become available to us as a whole.
Jerry: Yes. Let me, I'll ask both you this question and I'll start with Mike.
We've been talking about disclosure, specifically in job interviews and from what each of you
have described, when you go to a job interview, your disability is probably fairly obvious
to the person that is conducting that interview unless you've ever been in the situation where
it's a telephone interview. But for people who have hidden disabilities,
Mike, what's your opinion? Perhaps a person might have a seizure disorder,
something that's not a constant situation. At what point, should or should they not disclose?
Mike: That's a great question, Jerry and it has to do with relevancy.
Mine is, I come in there and it's obvious, I'm blind.
I have a guide dog. I have a cane. I do not have an invisible disability as their
called or as you were saying something that's not as obvious, it's hidden.
So there's invisible disabilities. It's one of those questions where yeah, you
want to be very comfortable in your own skin. Although, is it one of those things that you
want to start the conversation off with? For me, for my situation, I have to.
I have to talk about that 800 pound gorilla because its in the room.
Jerry: Yes. Mike: Now, someone with an invisible disability
though, guess what, they may not need to disclose it immediately.
I'm not opposed to them doing that, it just shouldn't be your first club out of a bag,
so to speak. It shouldn't be your ace of clubs where you're
wanting to just say "hey, you know I've got this" instead of bringing it into the conversation
after you build. Because your interview is all about creating
that relationship. And now I use a technique of talking about
that I want to make it very clear that I understand the visual challenges and I go right into
that. I use it as a technique to identify that relationship
opportunity. An interviewer, whether you're on that side
of the table interviewing a candidate or you're on the other side(being interviewed), you
should be establishing some kind of relationship. As somebody being interviewed, you also have
a lot of power on whether or not that's an organization you want to be with.
And so when you talk about your disability, it's not the first club out of the bag although
you talk about it later, it should be within the context of saying this is who I am, this
is what I'm about, here why I'm proud of overcoming these challenges.
Because let's face it, there are so many statistics out there that show that just showing up on
a daily basis on time separates you from 90% of the people that are actually employed out
there. And so for people with disabilities who, we
don't job hop because we don't get jobs. There's so many statistics that just show
that theres more value in bringing us into the workforce.
I use Eric Winemeyer, I don't mean to go off on a tangent here, Jerry or Vlissa.
Eric Winemeyer, who is a amazing, accomplished...he's summated Mt. Everest several times.
I use this story all the time when I talk to executives.
He's done Everest, he's done all these other amazing physical challenges and he's totally
blind. AND he's totally blind!
Here's the thing. His first team that summited Mt. Everest, 19 out of the 21 person team
actually summited. It was a world record at that time.
I use this all the time because I've been told this more than a few times over my career.
Do you think that one, two or all of those 18 other climbers that day might have been
a little motivated but this totally blind guy out there kicking some butt in taking
on that challenge? That's something to rejoice, something to
talk about because it you've got a subpar team, a mediocre team within the corporate
environment, look at a diverse team like Vlissa's talking about.
That's so powerful and need to leverage that. Jerry: Right.
And Vilissa, what are your thoughts especially when it comes to disabilities that are not
obvious and disclosing? Vilissa: Kind of what Mike said, my disabilites
are very obvious. I use a manual wheelchair and I'm on a 4 feet
power cell. My disability is extremely obvious and for
me when I apply for a job, unless it has a box that says, do you need accommodations,
I would check it, but most of the time I don't disclose.
I kind of want it to be a surprise when I go to interviewer.
I want them to see my skills. Jerry: Yes.
Vilissa: And when they meet me, they see "oh, she has a disability" and yes, i do have a
disability, but you're supposed to looking at the skill set I could be bringing to your
work environment. And of course, like Mike, we have to talk
about the 800 foot gorilla in the room, but I let my personality and my skills speak for
themselves. If they are willing to allow me to be a part
of their company, then great. If not, then there's another opportunity to
come along. When it comes to those with invisible disabilities,
I think it's more of a struggle actually because there are some invisible disabilities such
as what you mentioned, Jerry, seizures, physiological disorders and those conditions like that and
diabetes and ***. Some of those indivisible disabilities have
a stigma attached to them and people may not be comfortable with disclosing what they may
have, but they look "normal" on the outside. So for me, I think that's someone being accountable
with their disability status even if it is a invisible disability and being able to communicate
,Yes, I may look healthy on the outside, but here's what I'm going through, here's how
it could affect my job performance, but at the end of the day, I have the skills you're
looking for. And I think again the moment you bring that
type of personality that enter in, that I have a disability visible or not. I may have
the disability, but I'm more than qualified to do what you need me to do for your company.
Jerry: Yes. Vilissa: And I think having that kind of energy
will outweigh the air that comes with all the other disabilities, whether it's simple
or not, how they're going to fit in. I think just having that confidence and I
know I harp on that a lot. I think that if you are confident in who you
are, people gravitate towards that and they want more of that.
They want to know, wow she's able to overcome xyz.
I want somebody like that. I want somebody who's resilient, who's perserverant
in nature into my company when the times get hard.
That's the person I know I can rely on. Jerry: Yes. Well, I appreciate both of your
comments. I'd like to bring another person into our
conversation here today and that's Emily Ladau. She's the newest member of The Out of Step
Tool team. Emily is a passionate advocate who is actively
in several disability advocacy initiatives. Most recently, she completed a summer internship
at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.
So I'd like to welcome Emily. Emily: Hi, everyone. Hi Vlissa and Mike and
Jerry. Thank you so much for having me today.
Jerry: Sure, you would like to just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background
and what you do for Out of Step. Emily: Yes, absolutely.
So, I've just recently joined the Out of Step team and I wear a few different hats.
I am the new director of social media as well as the producer of this lovely radio show.
I also represent a lot of connections that we've been making through the website.
I find that Out of Step is opening up a lot of great conversation about people with disabilities
in the workforce. Jerry: Can you share an experience that you
might have had or known of someone where discloser became a necessary process in searching for
the job? Emily: Yes, absolutely.
Like Vilissa, I had always wanted employers to focus on my skills first and my disability
second. But interestingly when I ended up learning
about Out of Step, my disability became an immediate point of pride and one of the reasons
why I was able to start working with the organization. So, Out of Step very much believes that disability
does not hinder anyone from sharing their talents and skills or being able to be a productive
member of the workforce. I felt that it was ok that I had disclosed
my disability in that case. But I can also share a story where I had applied
for a teaching assistant position awhile ago and I was really concerned because I didn't
disclose my disability initially and I thought that my skills would be enough to represent
myself. And then I got a call and found out that there
would be physical tasks involved in the job and because I have a physical disability,
I was worried about potentially putting the student at risk and not be able to do some
of the physically demanding tasks. So it became necessary for me to explain that
I had a disability and in that case, I decided that that job was not a good fit for me.
But I realized that I had done the right thing. Even though I'm proud of disclosing that I
have a disability, sometimes it's not a matter of whether you want to hide it or not, but
a matter of will it affect the wellbeing of other people in the work environment.
Jerry: So perhaps certain disabilities might create a safety issue for themselves or others?
Emily: I think it could be possible. I think the responsibility falls on the person
with a disability to realize that sometimes a certain job might not be a good fit when
they find out what's required of them. That's where disclosing a disability becomes
important. I'm not saying at all that there aren't tons
and tons of jobs where people with disabilities are extremely well qualified for, but sometimes,
I'm wondering if Mike and Vilisaa would agree that sometimes disclosure becomes necessary
just because you need to make the employer aware of your physical situation in relation
to the requirements of the job. Vilissa: I agree.
When I was applying for jobs,after I got my masters degree, there was a position that
I applied for with dss and of course you know that dss has to go into the home and me being
in a manual wheelchair, not every home is handicap accessible.
So, I do understand those vary sometimes with having a physical disability or another kind
of disability where you're not able to do the job, not because you're not qualified,
but you physically cannot do it. So there are times where, situations that
come up and it is discouraging, but there are more jobs that you can do than you cannot
do. Jerry: Right and you bring up a very good
point. Certainly, in labor law and practically, you
hear the term essential job functions as it relates to accommodations.
Does anyone want to give a quick overview of your opinion of that and how that works
if someone is interviewing you and the person says can you perform x,y and z job functions?
Mike: From my standpoint, Jerry, just to in jump in.
As a blind person, if I apply for a job and it happens to be a taxi driver, regardless
if I had the personality and all the other kind of skills, the core function is that
I need to be able to see to drive that vehicle. That's just one of those things that right
now technology hasn't been able to mitigate that and when we have the technology to do
that, I'm sure we won't even need a taxi driver at all because the car will be driving itself.
So I do believe I have limitations. I personally struggle with the word barrier.
I tend to look at things as obstacles and whether those are obstacle that I'm able to
mitigate or not. And so it's more of a vernacular thing and
how my mind works is that I truly do not believe that there are barriers.
Just for me, I just know that that's an obstacle that I'm not able to mitigate at this point
in my career. Jerry: Right. Great.
I'd really like to thank all three of you for being on the show today.
Mike Hess with the Blind Institute of Technology, Vlissa Thompson with Ramp Your Voice, and
our Out of Step producer, Emily Ladau. So, it's been very interesting.
This is certainly a hot topic for anybody who goes on a job interview and when you factor
in the obvious disabilities, the hidden disabilities, it becomes quite a game of employments.
I applaud each of you for your contributions in the workplace and helping to make our society
much more aware of the situations faced by people with disabilities.
Thank you. Mike: Thank you, Jerry. Thank you Vlissa.
Thank you, Emily. Emily: Thank you, everyone.
Jerry: Step into business with small business expert Linda Jadwin, president of the Northwest
Business and Community Center as she help you open the door to possibilities.
Today, Linda will be sharing some expert tips on how to develop a small business.
Welcome, Linda. Linda: Thanks so much for having me.
Jerry: Great. What are a few tips you have for our listeners who are interested in starting
a small business? Linda: Well, one of the things I would begin
with is to make sure that you're home life can support you going into your own business.
People don't realize how much time and effort it takes to really launch your own business.
So, you really need to decide how involved you can be with your business because a lot
of us now have older parents or younger children, so sometimes we have to remember that life
is going to happen. A lot of people forget that life is going
to get in the way. Jerry: It certainly does.
Linda: So, we try to help people plan their business maybe on 50 weeks out of the year
instead of 52 so if you do have an emergency, a shut down happens, that you're still a viable
business. We need you to think about how much do you
need to earn? How much does the business need to earn for
you personally? And then on top of that, you have to add the
expenses that go along with running that business. We want to know where you are in your life
cycle, with your family and how important is a vacation to you?
Once again, you've got to plan if you want to take a day off.
And then we want to know, is this your passion so that you can continue one because this
is like adopting a child out there. So you want to have a lot of passion, not
necessarily to we want you to be in love with your idea because then a lot of times you
may not listen to outside influence. But if you had the passion, then a barrier
won't usually stop you from moving your business forward.
Jerry: Oh yes. Linda: And then we want you to think about
what experience or training do you have on what your idea is?
A lot of small businesses comparle old work experience, volunteer experience into running
a business, but we like to see that you've experienced working in that small scale because
sometimes when you've got all the hats on it gets a lot more frustrating to try to be
the marketer, the bookkeeper and the CEO. Makes it a hard day sometimes.
Jerry: Right. Just getting the big picture. Linda: And one of the best advices for it
you want to start up, is who do you know? Jerry: Networking.
Linda: Everybody has a pretty strong circle of influence and that circle can expand and
be the drop of the pebble that expands your market.
So, do you know someone who may know someone who is a great commercial real estate agent
or insurance agent or an accountant or a lawyer because you're going to need to find those
people to be on your team at least in an advisory situation.
Do you know someone who is really good at doing social media?
Do you know someone else who might know some ins and outs of hiring a employee or networking
or doing something? So, really make a list of who do you really
know that you can count on to help you support your business so you're not doing this by
yourself? You need to understand, how comfortable are
you going to be at meeting new people? As soon as you say, I'm going to be my own
business, that means you now just became the representative.
So, what's going to be your introduction on "Hi, I have my own business" doesn't work
as well as like we say, we take the business from start up to success to significance so
people know that we're here to help a business move on, off stage from where their at.
So, you've got to have that pitch ready to go as you start walking out the door.
You've got to know, are you comfortable at communicating on the social media platforms
because they've changed the whole ballgame. They're great because they've save a lot of
people a lot of money because now there is a lot of free advertising, but then who are
your friends who are on there and are they the type of people that need to advertising
on your business website? So, you really have to think about that.
And then think about what other assets do you have besides maybe a home or a car or
your toys. Maybe you have assets that you know how to
do numbers. Do you have an asset that you know who to
meet people easily? There's a lot of different kinds of assets
that people don't realize that they have and it's a great thing just to make a list of
everything that you have going for you because those are things that we turn into positive
on a business plan. Jerry: Right, it's a lot of forethought.
Linda: The more that you plan, the better likelihood that you have with retaining your
business. Right now, we're experiencing that 49% fail
within 5 years, but 69% survive that first 2 years.
So between year 3 and 5 something really happens that 20% start to really go downhill.
So, we don't want to have that happen. And it 4 years, people are still in there
about 44%, at 7 years it's only 31%. So usually we can say for those people, 80%
of them do not have a business plan. It doesn't have to be formal.
People get scared when I say let's do a business plan because they are like "Oh, my gosh, I
have to write a high school novel." But what we want it to be is a working document
for you so that you have measurable goals so you know when you hit that first level
of customer service or you hit your break even point, so you know "I have to have 9
people spending $35 a day" in order for me to cover my bills.
Because if you know it and you can measure it, it's a lot easier than "I'm going to have
great customer service." Jerry: And so if you do notice something that
isn't quite working out according to your plan, you're able to adjust that area of your
business. Linda: Right.
If you said "I"m going to try to have my Facebook page and that's how I'm going to generate
people to come in" and in your 3rd week, you only have 10 people that have liked you, something
is wrong with your Facebook page. And then you need to go in and adjust it.
And maybe you need to find something else that can get those results that you need.
You have to know your time and your money, to get a return on investment on both of them
in order for your business to succeed. Jerry: This sounds, too, like flexibility
is the key, that you're willing to make those changes when they need to be made.
Linda: Oh, so correct. That's why we hope that you have passion about
it and not in love with it. When you know how to something just this one
way, it's really hard to change midstream to still accomplish your goal.
But if you are open to other outside influences, you're open to being flexible, bending and
not breaking, then you have a much better change at succeeding.
Jerry: It sounds like it's really important to surround yourself with these advisors.
Linda: Oh, yeah. And there's a lot of advisors that are there
for free. The SBA, the Small Business Administration,
has a great networking tools out there that you can go on the sba.gov website and find
out local, free of charge counseling that's available to you.
A lot of the cities and counties also have people that can help you with economic development.
They are there to help people because they can give you traffic counts on a location
and what is the income at a 1/2 mile, mile and 5 miles away, so you can see at that location
that you're really looking at is available to support how many people need to come into
your business for you to break even and make a profit.
Jerry: That would be very good information. Linda: Oh, yeah.
And it's hard to find it all and people get inundated and overwhelmed by how many websites
you need to go through and how much homework you need to do.
But the more you do and the more you plan you business, the more successful you can
be. Jerry: Let me ask too. Many of our people
on our Out of Step website do of course have disabilities. Do you find that can be an advantage
in certain situation whether it be loans or? Linda: Yeah, it can be because there is some
additional forms of help because you have the department of vocational rehab that can
come in and help fund some things that you may need for your business.
Special wise for loan wise, not as much, There's not a set aside loan fund for that
unless they are military or a veteran because there is a patriot express loan fund that
is specifically for veterans. But we've helped a lot of people who are missing
a limb or have traumatic brain injury and our best advice to them is to bring their
spouse in so you have two sets of ears that you can really move forward and make it basically
a family event, to create a new business for you.
But I haven't had anyone held back because of a disability.
Jerry: That's excellent to know. Linda: There's a lot of franchises out there
that are done specifically to help those with disabilities.
So it's something to look at too, that you may need to buy or purchase a existing business
or franchise to really start you off in your business endeavor.
You have to know if you want to be retail or wholesale manufacturing or are you interested
in exporting? There's just so many things to think about.
My best advise is just to do a giant brain dump, get it out of your head, get it down
on paper and so see someone who can help you formulate it into a viable business.
Jerry: Well, that's great advise and I think it would take a lot of thought too as to whether
you're going to be the owner and manager, but to what extent you would be doing the
day to day activities of the business. Linda: Right. You need to decide what is going
to your role in the business? A lot of people are good at working with the
customers, but they find the bookwork to be the icky stuff.
So, if that's the icky stuff for you, then go and find someone who can do your bookkeeping
and have them teach you so you know what the numbers are telling you.
But then you need to have that full trust that that person is not going to walk away
with your profits, but help you grow your business.
Everyone has strengths, so it's a really good idea to sit down and say what am I really
strong at, what do I really enjoy doing, what do I see myself in the role in this business?
So then if you know what you don't like to do and who you don't want to work with, you
can help plan for that. Jerry:Very good advice! Well, we've reached
the end of this segment of our broadcast today. Would you like to come back and talk with
us again sometime? Linda: I would love to, anytime!
Jerry: Great! Thanks, Linda and where can we find out more information if we wanted
to contact you? Linda: You can email me at linda.pswbc@gmail.com
or call me 253-680-7194 Sorry, was almost going to give my cell number, I'm not supposed
to do that. Jerry: Certainly.
Linda: Or you can go to our website at www.pswbc.org Jerry: Alright. Very good. Thanks for joining
us today. Linda: Thank you.
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