No fashion victim

Ben dreams big and has high ambitions for his business Hazzah Apparel. With the support of designer Dylan, he is bringing his dreams to a reality.
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Ben wearing one of his own designs for Hazzah Apparel. Photo by Dylan DuCaine.

I’ve been running my business for about a year. We started in September 2019.

I used to work in a store for four years. Then the most tragic thing happened: they shut down. It was a surf and ski shop.

When I had my job, I was thinking of having my own talent agency. My talent agency did not go well though, but now I do my apparel business.

If I did not first have my job there, I would not have this business at all.

My PA Dylan helps bring my ideas to life with all of the effects and really cool stuff for our clothes designs. We did the original design sketches on my iPad.

At the start we designed about 100 shirts. We picked 10 fundamental designs to start the business with, and then made 9 cap designs.

It was plenty of work.

The reason I picked Dylan to work with is really, really simple: he has really nice clothes. He’s more casual than the business!

After we picked our designs, we built the website with Shopify.

It was actually quite cool. When it became public it went skyrocketing up to almost 1000 people who viewed it.

I love my community! I’d do anything for the community.

One of the hardest things about starting a business would be the slow progress.

Since I have a disability with Down syndrome, it can take me longer to do some things. 

Now I’m getting used to it though. Now it’s not too bad. Having a business, it takes time for you to think.

I’m thinking of getting a store we can use. I’m thinking of renting an apartment and using that as my store.

But my big goal is to have my own house.

My advice to people wanting a business is, first off, you need to record your ideas all the time.

But the biggest tip would be, if you’re going to have your business, you need to have a set mind on something.

If you do not have a set mind of what you’re going to do, then why are you here? Why do you want to have a business?

See Ben’s awesome clothing for awesome people here: https://www.hazzah.com.au/

Ben’s mum Sam shares how they used the NDIS to help start Ben’s microenterprise here: https://www.downsyndrome.org.au/voice/2020/12/01/microenterprise-and-the-ndis/

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