Work built around the person.
Not the job description.
I design and activate custom microbusinesses with and for people with disabilities — and the families, agencies, governments and communities who invest in them. The model also serves young people under thirty who face underemployment and narrow entry points into conventional work, whether or not they identify with a disability label. The result is a working enterprise: real income, real ownership, real contribution. Inclusion is the social outcome. Entrepreneurship is the economic engine that makes it sustainable.
Community builder, inclusive business designer, parent, and operator of multiple social-enterprise ventures.
Disability entrepreneurship is an economic development strategy.
Every well-designed microbusiness generates measurable returns — for the individual, the family, the service system, the community, and the local economy. Greater independence. Reduced caregiver strain. Increased civic participation. New economic activity. A move from service recipient to contributor.
Inclusion is the social benefit. Entrepreneurship is the engine that makes it sustainable — and pays the return.
The gap is large, expensive, and avoidable.
Roughly one in four Canadians lives with a disability, and the employment gap costs households, governments and local economies every year. Young people under thirty face compounded barriers: entry-level roles often demand unpredictable schedules, physical stamina, or social environments that do not accommodate diverse access needs, while underemployment leaves many qualified candidates on the sidelines. Mentorship and job-placement programs alone have not closed these gaps. A different model is required — one that creates the work, instead of waiting for it.
Employment rate for Canadians with disabilities aged 25–64, vs. 78% for those without — a 16-point gap that has barely moved in a decade. Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability 2022 (released May 2024).
Of Canadians aged 15+ — roughly 8 million people — report one or more disabilities, and the share is rising as the population ages. Statistics Canada, CSD 2022.
Working-age Canadians with disabilities are about twice as likely to live in poverty as those without — driving demand for income supports, health and social services. Government of Canada, Canada Disability Benefit Act background (2022).
Estimated annual GDP uplift if Canada closed its disability employment and earnings gap — a generational economic opportunity, not a charitable cost. Deloitte Canada, ‘The ripple effect: Economic impacts of improved disability inclusion’ (2024).
Youth employment fell to 62.9% in March 2024, down 2.7 percentage points in a single year and well below the core-working-age rate of 84.6%. Young people under thirty face a widening gap at the very start of working life. Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (May 2025).
Youth with disabilities are twice as likely as their peers not to be in employment, education or training (NEET): 24.4% versus 12.3%. Early disconnection compounds into lifetime earnings loss and higher reliance on income supports. Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey 2024 (released May 2025).
Sources: Statistics Canada, A demographic, employment and income profile of persons with disabilities aged 15 years and over in Canada, 2022 (May 2024); Government of Canada, Canada Disability Benefit Act communications (2022); Deloitte Canada, The ripple effect: Economic impacts of improved disability inclusion in Canada (2024). Please confirm against the primary releases before quoting in published materials.
We don't match people to jobs.
We design businesses around people.
This is not job coaching, job placement, supported employment, or employer matching. Those services try to fit a person into a role that already exists. We do the opposite — start with the person, their gifts, access needs and community, locate a real market demand, and build a legitimate enterprise that the person, family, agency or community owns and operates, with the information and confidence to be successful.
Person-first business design
The business is invented around identity, interest, ability, pace and access needs — not the other way around.
Community-anchored partnerships
Funders, retailers, venues and agencies become infrastructure partners so costs stay low and roots stay deep.
Owned, operated, sustained
The person, family, organization or community owns the venture. We build it to thrive independently.
From idea to legitimate enterprise
Naming, brand, model, partnerships, operations, launch — strategy that actually ships.
- — Job coaching or job placement
- — Supported or sheltered employment
- — Employer matching or résumé brokering
- — A day program with a business-y name
- — Charity-funded work experience
- — A real, revenue-generating microbusiness
- — Owned by the person, family, agency or community
- — Designed around the operator, not a vacancy
- — Anchored by community partnerships and a real market
- — Built to outlast the engagement that launched it
One microbusiness. Four directions of return.
A well-designed venture is not a placement and not a program. It is an asset that compounds — for the operator, for the family that has carried the work alone, for the agencies and governments funding the system, and for the communities where the business trades. Every dollar invested has more than one place to land.
Earned income, identity, autonomy and choice. Peer-reviewed reviews of customized and self-employment for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities report consistent gains in earnings, hours and self-determination over segregated day programs. Sources: Riesen, Morgan & Griffin, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (2015); Hutchinson et al., JARID (2021).
Reduced caregiver strain and a credible succession plan — answering the question every aging family asks: who will support them when we no longer can. Sources: Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, Giving Care: An Approach to a Better Caregiving Landscape for Canada (2022); SRDC, Environmental Scan on Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (2023).
A path from service recipient to contributor — lowering long-term reliance on income supports and day-program funding while advancing two of the four pillars of Canada's Disability Inclusion Action Plan: employment and financial security. Source: Government of Canada, Disability Inclusion Action Plan (2022).
New local economic activity, tax revenue and supplier relationships. Deloitte Canada estimates closing the disability employment and earnings gap could add roughly $337B to national GDP. Source: Deloitte Canada, The ripple effect (2024).
Inclusion leadership outperforms.
International evidence shows the pattern at the enterprise level too: companies leading on disability inclusion posted, on average, 28% higher revenue, double the net income, and 30% higher profit margins than peers in 2018 — and 1.6× more revenue, 2.6× more net income, and 2× more economic profit in the 2023 follow-up.
Sources: Accenture, Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage (2018); The Disability Inclusion Imperative (2023).
Canadian sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability (2022); Government of Canada, Disability Inclusion Action Plan (2022); SRDC, Environmental Scan on Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (2023); Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, Giving Care (2022); Deloitte Canada, The ripple effect (2024). International evidence: Riesen, Morgan & Griffin, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (2015); Hutchinson et al., JARID (2021); Accenture (2018, 2023). Please confirm against the primary sources before quoting in published materials.
A portfolio of proof.
Sweetfreeze
Mobile micro ice-cream — built for flexibility.
A mobile ice-cream micro-business designed around our daughter Emily's volatile medical and developmental needs. The product is the vessel; the real outcome is presence, connection and dignified income.
Wags Cookies Ltd.
A social enterprise with bite — featured in the Official Grammy Award Gift Bags.
A cookies-for-dogs social enterprise built around inclusive employment for young adults with complex needs. A formidable product met real demand, with a mobile promotional vehicle that doubled as an awareness campaign.
Carousel Coffee
Place-based pop-up hospitality.
A pop-up coffee and beverage concept that brings community together while creating hospitality and retail roles tuned to the operator's pace, preferences and place.
RevivePickUp Co.
Garage-sale wrap-ups for a circular community.
A service business matching the demand for end-of-day garage-sale clean-ups with operators who love sorting, lifting, driving and helping neighbours close the loop.
How do we help each person realize their potential
— and succeed because of who they are, not in spite of it?
That question lands differently depending on where you stand. Wherever you're starting from, we begin here together.
"How do I find a place where I truly belong in my community — with purpose, contribution, and a life that's mine?"
"How will they thrive and have purpose when we're no longer here to advocate beside them?"
"How do we strengthen our regional capacity to meaningfully engage and employ people with disabilities?"
"How do we turn our clients' real strengths into real work, real income, and real ownership?"