When disability is the spur to following a dream

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When disability is the spur to following a dream

By Clegg

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Since he was a schoolboy, Amar Latif has wanted to run his own

business.

Now 33, he is founder and director of a niche air tour operator,

Traveleyes. But his very first venture was a tuck shop for friends,

stocked from a local wholesaler. Regrettably it went bust but

thereafter his preparation for entrepreneurship was flawless: a

degree in mathematics, statistics and finance followed by a stint as

a management accountant on the corporate fast track.

But Mr Latif believes he had a head start as an entrepreneur. Since

progressive sight loss left him blind by the time he was a teenager,

he has become expert at devising solutions to problems many people

would consider intractable: " If you are blind, jumping over hurdles

becomes a way of life. "

Mr Latif is not alone in his refusal to allow disability to damp his

ambition. Liz , 34, built a telemarketing group in spite of

going blind just months after her business launch (see below); Simon

Minty, 39, is codirector of the workplace disability consultancy

Minty & Friend - he is 3ft 11in and has limited mobility.

Collectively, their achievements offer an insight into the

distinguishing characteristics of entrepreneurs. Whether or not you

have a disability, building a business demands a combination of

qualities: a vision, and the resourcefulness and staying power to

make it happen. As Ms says: " The difference between success

and failure is often pig-headed determination. "

Like many innovators, Mr Latif went into business to satisfy a yen

for which the market was not catering. " I was blind, but I wanted to

see the world, " he says. Rather than rely on family and friends to

guide him, he created a tour service to en-able blind people to

explore the world independently.

True to the buccaneering image of entrepreneurs, Mr Latif has himself

trekked through Nicaraguan jungle.

Traveleyes runs holidays that feature sensory-rich experiences,

including sky-diving in Cuba, soaking up the sounds, tastes and

scents of Tuscany and swimming with dolphins. Each tour pairs sighted

with blind travellers. In return for a substantial discount, the

sighted travellers, who are independent holidaymakers not carers,

describe what they see and paint vivid mental pictures for their

blind companions to enjoy.

As the lone pioneer of an untried concept, Mr Latif, who began

trading in April 2005, has had to make his own market and overcome

the scepticism of trade suppliers. To secure professional indemnity

at a premium that would not strangle his business, he went through

marathon rounds of detailed discussions with insurers. " Because it

was new, it was a struggle. But if I believe in something, I

basically don't give up, " he says.

To offset the sighted customers' discount, Mr Latif keeps overheads

down by dealing direct with local guides and hoteliers. Travel-eyes

is able, he says, to achieve a pre-tax profit margin of 10 per cent,

broadly in line with industry norms, without imposing a heavy mark-up

on blind customers.

Having shown that Travel-eyes can make money, Mr Latif - who recently

won the inaugural Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award,

run by Leonard Cheshire Disability - is now selling tours to other -

English-speaking markets. If all goes to plan, the expansion will

lift his turnover from a modest £130,000 this year to £8.5m by 2013.

Like Mr Latif, Simon Minty started with something he knew about to

satisfy his entrepreneurial bent.He exchanged a career in retail

banking for entrepreneurial ventures that range from Abnormally Funny

People, a company that promotes comics with disabilities, to running

disability consultancy services for bluechip employers.

A 50 per cent owner of the disability consultancy Minty & Friend,

which turns over £800,000, Mr Minty says employers sometimes forget

the human side of disability management in their concern to be

legally compliant. As business people with personal experience of

disability, he and co-director and co-owner Phil Friend, a wheelchair-

user, employ methods ranging from interactive theatre to mystery

shopping to find the best, practical solutions to the problems that

people with disabilities really face.

" Clients think that making workplaces accessible means getting out

tape measures. What we do is road-test the entire journey, from

making an application in an alternative format [such as audio] to

attending the interview. "

Disability has led Mr Minty down unexpected paths. Abnormally Funny

People grew from a comedy act he developed for the Edinburgh Festival

in 2005 after an approach from Sky Television.

Another venture, in which he and Mr Friend are directors and part

owners, is Dining with a Difference. Here disability experts lead the

boards of big employers in a discussion about business and

disability. In recognition of the pressure on executive time, the

discussions take place over a dinner hosted by the business

participants.

Dining with a Difference - which numbers investment banks such as

Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citigroup among its clients - last year

generated revenues of £55,000. Now a collaboration with the diversity

consultancy, Schneider-Ross, called The All Inclusive Dining Club, is

planned. " You get asked to do a whole variety of things. The

entrepreneurial bit is how you respond to them, " says Mr Minty.

Mr Latif and Ms admittheir disability has brought their

businesses to public notice. Ms is particularly candid in

saying that, as an entrepreneur, she will cheerfully exploit any new

opportunity: " You treat yourself as a product. "

More strategically, by speaking in schools and at business events Ms

combines promotion of Great Guns Marketing with promoting

entrepreneurship as a career for young people.

All three are intent on expansion. Mr Minty is advising investment

banks in China and Hong Kong on recruiting graduates with

disabilities. Ms is speaking at a businesswomen's conference

this month in Oman, and while there will explore openings in the

region.

Mr Latif, meanwhile, is discussing possible tie-ups with EasyGroup.

He is also developing a corporate programme, the idea being for

businesses to subsidise sighted staff to act as Travel-eyes

companions. " Rather than learning from manuals, employees will learn

about diversity in real life, " he says.

Nobody would suggest that disability creates entrepreneurs, but it

seems that entrepreneurs learn quickly how to minimise the impact -

and, even, turn it to business advantage.

Problem solving

All three entrepreneurs say they regard their disability as just one

obstacle among the many any entrepreneur can expect. * After numerous

rejections, Mr Latif talked his way into graduate job offers by

giving a five- minute presentation on how he would do the job as a

blind professional. " People said 'this guy is really proactive' and I

started getting offers from every interview. " He used this approach

to persuade Traveleyes suppliers to come on board. * Each of the

three say disability has made them better listeners and problem-

solvers for clients. " We don't go in to sell, we just go in and

listen and start coming up with the solutions, " says Mr Minty. * " Only

go into business if you have a great idea that excites you, " says Mr

Latif, who advises people not to pursue self-employment as a way out

of employment difficulties. " Find out what you do best and then go

for it. "