Ablepreneurs Stories

The Highs, Lows and Unexpected Turns of Disabled Entrepreneurship

When A Good Idea Doesn't Immediately Become A Good Business

As I write this for National Ablepreneurs Day, I'm coming towards the end of what has probably been my most difficult year financially since becoming a freelancer. That's perhaps not the most obvious way to begin an article celebrating disabled entrepreneurship, but I think it's important to talk about both sides of it. There are incredible opportunities that can come from working for yourself, but there are also periods when you genuinely question whether what you're doing is working.

Near the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to change direction. After years of being very front-facing through social media, speaking and disability advocacy, I wanted to explore how I could use my content creation skills more behind the scenes while still making a difference.

One idea I became particularly passionate about was creating accessibility content differently. Taking inspiration from my friend, The Disabled Adventurer, Nick Wilson, I wanted to film venues and experiences in a way that gave people with disabilities useful information without me saying whether somewhere was accessible or inaccessible. Accessibility is incredibly individual and totally different for everybody. Something that works perfectly for me as a wheelchair user may not work for another wheelchair user, while someone may have a visual impairment will be totally different to someone who has a hearing loss. I wanted to show what was actually there so people could make their own informed decisions.

I genuinely thought I had stumbled across something brilliant. The difficult part was turning that idea into something organisations were prepared to pay for.

I spent hours sending emails, researching organisations, attending meetings and developing proposals. I worked with AI to help tailor what we were presenting to the organisations we approached, and there were some really positive conversations. I was also fortunate to connect with Stephanie, founder of Blue Badgers, who saw the potential in what I wanted to create and how it could complement the platform she was building.

But there was a pattern that became difficult to ignore. People could love the concept until money entered the conversation. Suddenly there wasn't a budget, priorities had changed or something that had sounded exciting wasn't quite right anymore. And what made it even more challenging, we were talking to the people who lived and breathed accessibility within their organisation.

All those proposals, emails and meetings took time. The problem was that none of that time was actually earning me money.

The Extra Work Behind the Work

That uncertainty exists for plenty of freelancers, but being disabled can add another layer to it.

My working day doesn't exist separately from my disability. I rely on support from other people in my everyday life, and when that support doesn't work as it should, the effects can move directly into my ability to work. There have been situations this year involving the support around me that affected my wellbeing and took my attention away from what I was trying to build.

There is also the physical reality. Spending long periods in my wheelchair or having particularly busy days can leave me in pain and sometimes require days of recovery. There are paperwork and administration that comes with being disabled that has to be completed, often with very real consequences if deadlines are missed. Then there is the ordinary stuff that shouldn't disappear just because you're self-employed: friends, family and actually having a life.

I've always enjoyed doing a bit of everything. A traditional 9 to 5 was never something I would see myself doing, which is why I chose the world of freelance. And because of that decision it has given me a big chance of freedom. But the other side of that freedom is that there isn't necessarily a point where somebody tells you the working day is finished. One task becomes another, which becomes another and suddenly you've been doing everything yourself for months. Or in some cases, having the lack of sleep so that you are able to reach a deadline just so that you are able to keep up.

That has probably been one of my biggest lessons from this year.

Being capable of doing something yourself doesn't necessarily mean doing everything yourself is sustainable.

Why I'd Still Choose Entrepreneurship

For all those challenges, I still wouldn't want to remove the different day-to-day from what I do because it has led to some of the best experiences of my life.

I can wake up not knowing that an email or conversation that day could lead to travelling somewhere new, meeting somebody I never expected to meet or being offered an opportunity I hadn't even considered. Some of the most interesting parts of my career have happened because one thing unexpectedly leading to another.

More recently, getting a new wheelchair has opened another chapter. It has enhanced my independence in everyday life, but becoming an ambassador for the Freedom One Life team on the back of that has also given me another reason to get out, explore and create. I've been sharing those adventures through social media and have seen my audience grow significantly, particularly on Facebook.

There is a certain irony in that. I started this year wanting to become less front-facing and move away from relying so heavily on social media, only to find myself accepting it again.

I'm good at creating content. I enjoy doing and trying new things creatively. If building an audience creates something that can grow alongside the work that fulfils me professionally, that's useful. And if the occasional cringy video also makes somebody realise they could try something themselves, then perhaps the cringe is worth it.

And Then Everything Started Coming At Once

As of writing this during the middle of August, things are beginning to change.

I sometimes describe it as the universe doing its thing. After months of wondering where the work was going to come from, worthwhile paid opportunities have started presenting themselves. And, as life often seems to work, they've started arriving at roughly the same time.

Some connect with the accessibility work I've been developing. Others give me opportunities to showcase completely different skills, challenge myself creatively or use the presence I've built over the years to hopefully make a difference alongside organisations doing interesting work.

Financially, that's obviously a huge relief after spending so much of this year relying on reserves. But it has also created a different challenge: Making sure that I am still able to keep up with everything that's coming in whilst also delivering and meeting deadlines for different clients.

I still have to pace myself. I still have to account for pain and recovery. And most importantly, the organisations trusting me with their work deserve me doing those jobs properly rather than saying yes to everything because I'm relieved that opportunities are finally arriving.

Maybe that's another side of disabled entrepreneurship we don't talk about enough. Getting the work is only one part of the challenge. You then have to build a way of working that allows you to deliver it sustainably.

When Paid Work Creates More Than Income

One of the things I'm most excited about isn't simply having money coming in again.

For much of this year, I've been doing almost everything on my own. I actually love a lot of what I do, so taking on different roles doesn't necessarily feel like a burden at first. But when everything relies solely on you, while you also rely on other people for parts of your everyday life, eventually something has to give.

Paid work gives me the opportunity to change that.

It means I can start paying people myself to help keep things moving. That might mean support with parts of the work, practical assistance that enables me to do it or simply having other people around me who can take responsibility for things that don't always need to sit on my shoulders.

I think that's an important distinction. Earning more doesn't only mean that I personally have more money. It gives me the ability to create a stronger structure around what I'm doing. It allows other people to earn from the opportunities coming my way, while their support enables me to take on opportunities I might otherwise struggle to manage alone.

That makes the win bigger than just me.

The Plan Will Probably Change Again

If you'd asked me at the beginning of this year what I thought my business would look like by now, I probably would have given you a completely different answer.

Some ideas haven't worked. Some may simply have been too early. I've spent far too many hours doing work that never turned into anything financially. I've questioned whether ideas I believed in were actually as good as I thought they were.

And now, almost full circle, opportunities are appearing in ways I couldn't have predicted. That doesn't mean I've beaten entrepreneurship. I don't think there is a point where you do.

Being an entrepreneur with a disability can be hard. There are barriers within my working life that many other business owners will never have to consider. At the same time, disability has shaped the way I problem solve, adapt, create and think about the people I'm creating things for.

Perhaps that's what I want to recognise this National Ablepreneurs Day.

Not simply the success stories once everything has worked out, but everything that happens in between: the ideas that don't land, the unpaid hours, the financial uncertainty, the adaptations, the people who believe in something before anyone is willing to pay for it and those unexpected moments when several opportunities suddenly arrive at once.

Entrepreneurship has allowed me to build a working life that doesn't always fit neatly into a box. Sometimes that freedom is exactly what makes it difficult. It's also exactly what makes me want to keep doing it.

I don't know exactly where the next year will take me.

Judging by everything that's happened so far, that's probably part of the fun.