National Multiple Sclerosis(MS) Awareness Week is M...( From Adversity to Advantage Bu...),Health

From Adversity to Advantage

Building and managing a small business while coping with MS

LIVINGSTON, N.J., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Successfully building a small business and dealing with a chronic illness like MS have a lot in common: managing your fears, finding ways to turn a liability into an asset, staying motivated and positive, and reaching out to create a support system for success.

It's not surprising then, that more and more people grappling with chronic medical conditions, including MS, see running a home-based business as an economic and personal lifeline. According to Dr. Kim Cordingly, a lead consultant with the Job Accommodation Network, a service of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, "given the ongoing variability in symptoms (i.e., fatigue, mobility impairments, etc.), working from home enables one to build accommodations into the design of their business allowing individuals to remain productive and contribute to their families financially."

Launching a new enterprise is always a risky business. But launching while managing a serious medical condition takes an extra dose of courage, resiliency, can-do creativity - and sheer moxie! No one knows this better than Bruce Freeman (Livingston, NJ), an entrepreneur recently diagnosed with MS. While he was experiencing MS-type symptoms before his diagnosis, Bruce and his co-author conceived Birthing the Elephant: the go-for-it! guide to overcoming the big challenges of launching a business (Ten Speed Press), a beat-the-odds action guide for aspiring women entrepreneurs -- and chose to profile Cathy Kerns (Orlando, FL) for her courageous start-up story.

Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in her late 30s, Cathy left the corporate world and launched Style Stick(R), a home-based Internet business that makes colorful, fashion-forward walking canes for th
'/>"/>