For 23 years, Gene Van Grevenhof drove a truck from the East Coast to the West Coast, hauling meat for Decker Truck Lines. Then, one day, at age 45, Van Grevenhof bent over to pick up a small, five-pound box and broke his back.

After the accident, he underwent two major surgeries and had a stabilizer bar inserted into his spine.

“I was off from work for a year and a half, and then, my employer cut off my workers’ comp benefits,” said Van Grevenhof. “Being disabled, no one wanted to give me a job, so I started my own business.”

In 1995, he started Eagle Communications, a small business in Fort Dodge, Iowa, that remanufactures laser printer cartridges and makes an effort to hire disabled workers.

“There are some people that want to work, but they just need a boss who understands that they may need to take a lot of breaks,” said Van Grevenhof. “I wanted my own business, because if I was an employee, I’d probably get fired.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about one in five Americans has some kind of disability, and one in 10 has a severe disability. Most media attention has focused on the federal government’s efforts to define and enforce the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which continues to affect big and small businesses, rather than have an impact on disabled entrepreneurs.

“Entrepreneurs with disabilities are overwhelmingly successful,” said David Brenner, founder and CEO of HalfthePlanet.com, a new Web site for the disabled community.

According to the Abilities Fund, which is a partner with Brenner’s company, businesses started by non-disabled people succeed at a rate of about 50 percent. In contracts, businesses started with assistance from the Fund have a 90 percent success rate.

“Together, HalfthePlanet.com and the Abilities Fund will help entrepreneurs with disabilities through every step of the start-up process,” said Brenner.

A site spokesman said the name was chosen because half the planet either has a disability or is affected by someone they know who has a disability.

“Entrepreneurship has become a consequence of disability discrimination in the workforce,” said John D. Kemp, senior vice president of strategic development for New York City-based HalfthePlanet.com. “Starting your own business is a very viable alternative for people with disabilities. It fits well with the whole notion of turning your third bedroom into a small business.”

HalfthePlanet.com is partnering with the Centerville, Iowa-based Abilities Fund, a not-for-profit group. The organizations work together to provide disabled entrepreneurs with information, resources, venture capital and online technical and financial assistance. HalfthePlanet.com, founded in December 1999, employs 50 people full time and 20 freelancers.

“We have a whole network of consultants who respond online to questions about writing a business plan, how to use credit, how to plan for cash flow, etc.,” said Kemp, who runs a three-person office in Washington, D.C., and commutes two days a week to HalfthePlanet’s headquarters in New York.

Kemp said HalfthePlanet.com’s initial $10 million in seed money came from four investors: Chase Capital Partners, Flatiron Partners, Richland Ventures and the New York City Investment Fund.

“Most of our employees have disabilities, because we really feel it’s important for them to have personal experience with this,” said Kemp, who was born without forearms, and legs that end at his knees.

For thousands of disabled entrepreneurs frustrated by trying to find a good job, the solution is to start a small business. (There are no firm statistics on how many disabled entrepreneurs are working in the United States.)

“The biggest challenge for disabled entrepreneurs is that they don’t see themselves as business owners,” said Patti Lind, director of development services for the Abilities Fund. “Rather than sitting at home trying to figure out what they can possibly do next, we want to convince them that small-business ownership might be the ticket.”

Lind started the Abilities Fund in January 2000. She and the director of communications, the only other employee of the fund, both have disabilities. The fund has helped 160 entrepreneurs over the last five years.

“We are offering grants to people who send us a business plan that needs some work,” said Lind. “We want to help any business with technical assistance, but we’re trying to specifically target agriculture and technology-based businesses.”

Lind said most grants are around $25,000. She said she’s in the process of applying to the Treasury Department for money from the Community Development Financial Institution Program and plans to leverage the federal money with funds from the National Cooperative Bank, one of the Abilities Funds’ partners.

Lind cautions that not all disabled people can or should become entrepreneurs. Disabled business owners have to be willing to put up with twice as many challenges, both physical and emotional.

“I have every difficulty that any other entrepreneur has, plus one extra,” says Van Grevenhof, the former trucker. “I have to hire extra help on projects that a regular person wouldn’t necessarily need.”

Meanwhile, Van Grevenhof says that his seven disabled employees are happy to work for him because they don’t want the responsibility of running their own company.

Van Grevenhof says he still cannot sit, walk or stand for long periods of time.

“There aren’t too many companies that would allow me to work like this,” said Grevenhof, who started his business with a $15,000 grant. He later received an additional $10,000 from the program for technical assistance.

Here are some tips for aspiring entrepreneurs with disabilities from the people interviewed for this column:

– Fear nothing, believe in yourself, and show courage in the face of rejection.

– Be committed, and make sure your family is committed, too. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul. If you give up easily, business ownership may not be for you.

– Be a jack-of-all-trades. You need to be willing to do it all from sales to bookkeeping to cleaning toilets.

– Find a good banker who believes in you.

– Learn to love macaroni and cheese; it may take awhile before you’re able to draw a paycheck from your business.

– Surround yourself with established business people who are willing to be a resource for you.

– Be prepared to work long hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year, especially during the first few years.

Reporting by Julie Neal. Jane Applegate is the author of “201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business,” and is founder of ApplegateWay.com, a multimedia Web site for busy entrepreneurs. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].