Self-Employment: Discovering What Was Always There (Part 2)

In a previous post, I discussed how we began to discover Neil's many skills, talents, and interests and also mentioned how he had been running a hobby business most of his adult life. We ended the post with the statement, "(W)hy not try to support Neil to take his hobby business and, by using existing supports and relationships, step by step, turn it into a "proper" business?"

As mentioned in the post, we started by engaging in Discovery, a structured process that seeks to answer questions such as "Who is this person?", "What are there personal geniuses?", and "What are the ideal conditions of employment." These questions cannot be answered without engaging the local community; we must explore neighborhoods, relationships, activities, interests, and skills. Questions such as "Who is this person?" may seem overly abstract and nebulous and it also may be obvious that employment and community must go together. However, job seekers are very rarely really "known" by those around them. Also, professionals providing support with employment have historically done a very poor job of integrating themselves into the "real life" of their local communities.

We learned that, although Neil had never been an employee of a business, he does provide various services to those in his community for pay, such as lawn mowing (using neighbors equipment and gas), snow shoveling, and other jobs. I spoke with those who spent the most time with Neil, his customers, and others who knew him well and, after a series of conversations, Neil decided to pursue the most obvious theme: "Lawn Care Services."

Neil arranged a series of lawns to mow (for pay), using borrowed equipment, while staff and I would observe. I was able to watch Neil mow a sizable lawn--it took him about 2 hours and took note of the quality of his work (very good) and support needed (not much).

A series of challenges were also noted:

1. Neil did not currently have any equipment and did not have the means to purchase equipment to add some flexibility and options to his self-employment explorations.

2. Neil does not have access to his own transportation. WV's topography is very difficult to hike or bike for any distance with heavy equipment in tow. Without his own transportation, Neil would need to rely on his staff to take him to and from jobs.

The next post will discuss how these challenges are being addressed.