By Gail Franklin

Disabilities No Barrier to New Outsourcing Business

Ruth was an office administrator with an insurance firm until a week after her thirty-seventh birthday. Then she was involved in a serious car accident. Despite months of rehabilitation, she was left with chronic neck and shoulder pain, memory problems and panic attacks. These injuries cut her out of the full-time labour force and destroyed her confidence that she would ever return to work.

Determined to get back into the game somehow, but unable to muster the courage and energy to go outside, Ruth began to take administrative courses on line. As she gradually regained her confidence, she started to revisit an old dream of running her own business. But she was daunted by the demands it posed. Her health problems left her without the time and vigour she needed to develop new markets, follow up contacts and chase down payments. She was starting back on the downslide when she mentioned her business idea to a counsellor, who gave her a referral to RELIABLE Business Outsourcing. Remembering that conversation, she calls it a “magic moment” in her life.

Through the RELIABLE program, Ruth now provides contract clerical services, including word processing and desktop publishing. Her business is growing rapidly, and her clients couldn’t be happier. “It’s such an exciting time in my life”, she exclaims. “I always wanted to own my own business, and now I’ve got one in spite of it all. Right now I’m working part-time from my home, but I hope to be able to work a few full days a week soon.”

RELIABLE is an innovative service designed to level the playing field for skilled contractors who have self-declared disabilities. Margaret Hardy of Demal Services Inc. operates the program in the Fraser Valley, in partnership with Community Futures South Fraser, Abbotsford.

“We know the dilemma so well,” says Hardy. “You have skills you want to offer, but a strictly limited amount of energy. You can do an excellent job, but you may not even be able to put in a full day. The ideal answer would be part-time contract work, but how do you develop a customer base when your mobility and pep are so restricted?”

RELIABLE matches its contractors’ administrative, technical, trade or professional skills to part-time or full-time work by marketing their services and negotiating fees on their behalf. It also offers networking opportunities and business guidance.

Services offered include graphic arts, marketing, clerical work and bookkeeping—but they also vary widely outside the typical range of office skills. Qualified contractors have been placed in jobs such as renovation carpentry, ESL tutoring, seniors’ foot care and debt collection.

Margaret Hardy is proud of RELIABLE’s success, and welcomes more contractors. “With this program, business owners get top-quality contract service in all sorts of areas. On the other hand, the contractors can control their workload and accommodate their health needs, as well as getting some social and economic independence. It’s a win-win arrangement.”

The service is to be replicated in the Vancouver area later this year. For more information contact Margaret Hardy or Suzanne Work at (604) 864-5770 (toll free – 1 877 827 8249) or at reliable@southfraser.com