FOR THE BLIND, BUSINESS OWNERSHIP OPENS A CLOSED DOOR: Entrepreneurship Rises Along With Self-Esteem and Lender Confidence From the Editor: On Tuesday afternoon, April 17, 1990, I was sitting in my office writing letters, answering the phone, and working on the Monitor--a typical day. Then I was told that I had a call from Jeffrey Tannenbaum of the Wall Street Journal. It took me back almost a dozen years to the days when the Journal was writing the sheltered workshop articles. That was my first acquaintance with Tannenbaum. Now he was writing about people going into business for themselves, and he was specifically interested in entrepreneurs who were disabled. I narrowed the focus to concentrate on the blind, gave him a list of names, and talked with him about what conditions for the blind are like these days. The result was one of the most constructive articles about blindness I have seen in a long time. Appearing in the April 25, 1990, Wall Street Journal, it is unemotional, upbeat, and factual. Hopefully it is a harbinger of things to come. Here it is: Like many other small-business owners in Houston, Glenn M. Crosby had to retrench in the wake of the Texas oil slump. Having sold or closed three restaurants, he is left with only one. But his Mr. C Sandwich Shop earns a profit, and is the source of considerable pride. "I have survived, while a lot of sighted people in the same business have not," says Mr. Crosby, who is blind. Many blind people such as Mr. Crosby are becoming entrepreneurs these days. Like other minorities before them, they are finding that entrepreneurship can create opportunities for people who otherwise might have found the door shut. Gaining Credibility Of the estimated 180,000 working-age blind Americans, some 70% are unemployed or underemployed, says the National Federation of the Blind, an advocacy group based in Baltimore. Nobody knows exactly how many blind people are running their own unsubsidized full-time or part-time businesses. But Kenneth Jernigan, executive director of the federation, estimates that the number has doubled during the past decade, to at least 4,000. Many sighted people are more inclined to believe in the abilities of the blind, he says, and the blind also have more confidence in themselves. "It's harder to go into business if you can't get credit, if nobody believes you can do it, and you don't really believe it yourself," Mr. Jernigan says. But blind people increasingly are finding the means to venture into the private sector, he says. Others say there has been a logical progression: After making gains in employment in the 1970s and '80s, especially in the public sector, more of the blind are ready to start their own businesses. Diane Starin of Orland, California, runs a business training horses and giving riding lessons. "People have never questioned how I go about doing it," says Ms. Starin, who has been blind since infancy. She says she frequently asks student riders questions like. "Are your heels down?" to compensate for a lack of visual information. And in training young horses to move to a trot from a walk, she sometimes ties bells to their legs, so she can hear whether the gait changed precisely on command. (The bells are unnecessary when Ms. Starin is actually riding the horse.) "After the first 15 minutes of being around Diane, I forgot she was blind," says Joanne Van Meter, whose daughter, Amy, then 11 years old, took riding lessons from Ms. Starin for six months. Now Ms. Starin, who keeps three horses, is diversifying. Having noticed that the Orland area has plenty of people shearing sheep, she says she "just seized the opportunity" and bought a machine to sharpen clipper blades for them. "It's really wise for me to do this new thing," Ms. Starin says. "Horse training is harder work for comparatively little money." Growing numbers of blind people, such as Tallahassee, Fla., lawyer S. Craig Kiser, are starting their own private professional practices, too. Mr. Kiser, who had worked for the state of Florida's controller, says he had no trouble getting a $10,000 bank loan to set up his first private practice, which was in Naples, Florida. "The banker said he routinely took chances with young attorneys and wasn't going to treat me any different," Mr. Kiser recalls. Though not all blind people have received such a fair shake, more are venturing to seek loans. "The blind have come to recognize their own abilities and right to independence," Mr. Kiser says. "That kind of self-confidence wasn't there as little as 10 to 15 years ago." In working totally for themselves, the boldest blind people are going a step further even than those in the federally subsidized programs, often called enterprise programs, that help many blind people earn a living through newsstands, card shops and other retail businesses. But some owners of subsidized businesses also are displaying more drive and entrepreneurship than in the past, authorities on the blind say. Donald J. Morris enjoys a rent-free lease for his O'Leary's Emporium, on federal property near the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. But the store, which pays a portion of pretax profit in lieu of rent, is thriving mostly because Mr. Morris broadened its scope. Instead of selling mostly food and personal-care items, O'Leary's stresses sales of memorabilia for firefighters. Mr. Morris became blind in 1967, when he was a telephone-company salesman. "I was all set to live the life of a blind person--to get into a corner out of life's way," he says. But he persuaded himself to attempt more. As a store owner, he says, his success depends largely on service. 'People are greeted within 30 seconds of walking in,' he says. "Within a minute they're offered a cup of coffee"--made extra hot so that people will browse while it cools. "None of these things involve eyesight," he says of his formula for success. He says O'Leary's is profitable, on annual sales of nearly $400,000. Blind business-owners say they may lose business because some sighted people are uncomfortable around the blind or doubt the blind can do their jobs. On the other hand, they say, some sighted people want to help a blind person make a living. In any case, dealing with the sighted can be stressful. Mr. Morris, for one, says sighted salespeople for suppliers sometimes tell him, "You're so good at this, I don't think of you as being blind." He adds: "I'm sure they intend it as a compliment, but it's really an offense." Psychological Barriers Some blind people say the hardest problems running a business are psychological. "As a member of a minority group, you tend to think you're not going to be able to do the job," says Peggy Pinder, a blind Yale graduate who has her own law practice in Grinnell, Iowa, where she serves on the city council. Having overcome her own doubts, Ms. Pinder says she helps counsel others with similar feelings. Though she says she requires more secretarial help than many other lawyers do, Ms. Pinder says there isn't any aspect of her work that she can't handle. Her practice, she says, is profitable and as big as she wants it. Moreover, it's her own: "I can decide my own hours," she says. "I can set my own rules." Not surprisingly, some blind entrepreneurs have made businesses out of helping others who are blind. Charles E. Hallenbeck, a blind University of Kansas psychology professor, started up a sideline business, called Kansys Inc. The business, housed in his garage in Lawrence, produces computer software for the blind. Some of the software helps computers simulate speech; some helps them generate Braille documents. There have been setbacks as when banks refused to lend the company $15,000 to renovate the garage. "Banks have regarded our business efforts as kind of a joke or a hobby," says Mr. Hallenbeck, who managed to get a $7,500 charitable grant and a $7,500 personal bank loan. But Kansys had about $25,000 in sales in 1989 and expects to be profitable by 1993, Mr. Hallenbeck says. "Our credibility is greatly enhanced," he says, "because we're knowledgeable users of our own products."