A DISABLED journalist from York has set up a membership organisation to support fellow disabled entrepreneurs.

Dom Smith, editor of Soundsphere music magazine and part of graduate creative collective The Creative Condition, set up Disabled Entrepreneurs after meeting his business partner speaking in schools to inspire children about starting their own businesses.

Dom has cerebral palsy and his partner, Shane Bratby found out he had Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare neurological condition, when he was about ten years old.

He went to a special school, where they didn’t get the chance to take GCSEs, which he said left him disadvantaged. He decided he had to be entrepreneurial and set up his own mobility aids company, MobilityBuy.com.

They have been joined by Annie Makoff, a freelance reporter and PR consultant, who writes for Disability Now among other publications, who was born with an undiagnosed congenital syndrome, to offer mentoring to fellow disabled entrepreneurs and build a support network for businesses.

The team secured £2,000 funding from UnLtd, a charitable organisation which funds social entrepreneurs, to produce some marketing literature to raise its profile to schools, starting with special schools and branching out to secondary schools.

Dom said: “It’s all about promoting entrepreneurship, because without entrepreneurship we would be doing nothing.”

He mentors creative businesses, while Shane has a good knowledge of product-based businesses, reaching people across the country via Skype.

He said they were building up a database of people who would eventually provide peer-to-peer support in a range of industries and would recruit more mentors from their membership in different areas.

Dom said: “It’s been good so far. People have been very supportive and members are looking into the packages and agreeing with the prices.

“Though we’re used to talking about business to schools, doing it one-to-one is a whole new challenge for us, but something we’re wholly prepared to do, something we love and something we’re passionate about.”