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>> Ray Cebula: Good afternoon, everybody. This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute. I want to welcome you to today's webinar. We have a great topic for you today and a lot of information to get through. We're going to be talking about self-employment and how the Ticket to Work and work incentives and work incentives planning can assist you in your goal for self-employment. I am going to take you through some technology today, do a little bit of introduction and then turn the main portion of this presentation over to Roger Shelley, and he'll take you through a lot of great information. We have lots and lots of people online today. We have over a thousand people who registered, so hopefully we're going to have some big numbers. We have a lot of information, as I said. The chances of our taking your questions during today's presentation are very, very minimal. But I do want to alert you to the Facebook Q and A. The Facebook chat session is going to happen immediately following this webinar, so you can hold your questions until then. If you do want to ask them, we're going to talk about that right now. You are listening to me through your computer. But you have a Q and A box in the webinar console that's on the right-hand side of your screen. You can see the Q and A button, and if you click that Q and A button it's going to open the -- whoa, excuse me. It's going to open the Q and A box. Now, that Q and A box is going to allow you to type your question in hit Send and your question is going to appear on my desktop and Jamie's desktop. And, if time allows, we will take some of those questions. We will take the questions that are relevant to the most people who are listening to us. We do want to hear those questions and if we don't get to them, we will most certainly, most certainly let you know where you can find an answer to that. Now, if you do have any problem hearing us, you can always call in, and if you look at the top of your screen, you'll see an Audio button. If you click on that Audio button, it's going to open this tiny box, click Audio Conference and then you're going to see this line here that says "Use Phone." If you click, you will call in, it's going to provide you with today's information and you'll be able to use your phone to dial in. Today's phone number is 855-749-4750, and the access code you'll be asked for is 648-816-458. We're going to give you that information again in a bit. I do want to talk first about webinar accessibility. We strive very hardly -- very hard to make these webinars as accessible as we can to as many people as possible. If you have any problems today, listening to us, seeing what we have to say, getting the information that you need, please let us know the issues that you're having and, more importantly, let us know if you know a fix that will take care of your issues. If you're aware of a computer program or some steps that we can take, we will most certainly take those to make sure that your experience with us the next time is better. Now, once again, if you do need to contact us through telephone today because your speakers are not working, or you're choosing to call in on the phone, which is certainly permissible, you can dial in toll-free at 855-749-4750. The access code that you'll be asked for is 648-816-458. The closed captioning link for today's session is www.edi.cornell.edu/ captions.cfm?activity_id=4110. Now, you should have the PowerPoint presentation that today that you received along with an accessible PDF and the text format that you got with your link when you registered for this webinar and you got your confirmation. So, you have all of that already. We are going to transcribe the presentation in the audio recording and put it into the archives. They will be available in about two weeks at www.ilr.cornell.edu/ edi/m-wise-webinars.cfm. We will, as I said, have that question-and-answer period if we have time. If you want to use the question and answer box there, we talked about that, you can use the chat box, however, we don't prefer that. If you want to email a question to us during the session, you can email to webinars@choosework.net; or if you have a question tomorrow or after we hang up today if something comes upon you that you want to know, you can always write to support@chooseworkttw.net. We do want you to receive all of the information you need, and to get all of your questions answered and that will be done at some point, I can assure you. Again, my name is Ray. I'm taking you through today and helping Roger with his presentation. Roger is going to talk to us about choosing self-employment and what you need to consider and how Social Security can help. And after that, I am going to give you some additional resources to get your questions answered and we might play a little bit of tag team in the middle of the session. You'll never know what's going to happen during these live sessions. Now, we always have a message from Commissioner Williams, but before we move to Commissioner Williams' message, I want you to alert you to a survey that's going to appear on your desktop the moment I turn the webinar off. So, before you go into the Facebook session, the survey simply, "How did we do our job today?" -- three-second questionnaire, 30 seconds to the most. Please, take the time to answer that. We use your comments to fix our sessions and to try to do a better job. We also want to know a little bit more about you. So, I've got some questions for you, if I can find them. I need to -- where did my polling questions go. They were just there. Mike, help me [laughter]. Let's see, manage question -- [inaudible].

>> Mike: I need to get those polls [inaudible].

>> Ray Cebula: You need to get those polls in there? Okay. All right.

>> Mike: In a couple of minutes.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, good enough. Then, let's -- can we run the Commissioner's video while we're doing that? We'll listen to Commissioner Williams before I get those polling questions done.

>> Mike: Okay. Sorry, folks. Looks like we are having technical difficulties [inaudible]. We'll be working on that and see if we can get it played a little bit later.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay. Thank you, Mike. All right. So, we will hear from the Commissioner before the session is over. But right now, we're going to move ahead and when Mike is ready for that. Actually, Mike, why don't we go back to that? Let's plan on going back to that before I pick up at other resources. We can move back the Commissioner's message. So, let's talk generally, why would you choose work? We are talking to an audience of people who are receiving Social Security benefits based on disability. And why choose work? More income is the first reason. When you return to work using the Social Security incentives, there is simply more money at the end of the month. That's a pretty good incentive. But, that's not all there is to work and some of us would say that that's the most smallest part of the benefits of work. Gaining independence is a significant experience that you'll have as you begin to return to work. You will have much more decision making power. You will not only gain independence from the agencies that you know need to report to, but you will have more decision-making power for yourself, where you want to live, how you choose to live, how much money you want to set aside to build resources, how much money you want to spend. All of those decisions are going to come to you. Meeting new people, you know, the story that I tell every time I do one of these webinars, this "I got married because I met somebody through work." You know, the people that you'll meet will stop the isolation you may feel as a person with a disability. Transportation can be an issue, we can fix that. We can get you to work. Getting you to work is going to get you out of the house and get you more involved with your community. Another benefit of going to work, learning new skills is also a very important thing here. Now, there's lots of skills that you have now. We can take those skills in order to translate them into the ability to work, or should you decide on a career that's going to require education, we can get you that extra education. We can get you that technical training that you need, should you want to become a plumber or an electrician. You know, those are both great examples of self-employment. We can get you the computer skills. Everybody here, if you go to school to get an education, or you go to a technical school, everyone's going to need computer skills. We can get all of those skills for you. And if you do have those skills already and need to relearn those skills because of your impairment, we can take care of that as well. So, all of these benefits of getting to work come in a package, and as you can see, there are at least four of them. We can go on forever about the benefits that we'd experienced. You know, I met Roger today for the first time because I'm working. So, now I know somebody who lives in Alaska. All of these great things come from work and earning more money most certainly is important, but it's not the most important. So, what I want to do right now is introduce you to Roger Shelley. I'm going to let you tell him about himself. He is up in Alaska and has agreed to talk to us about self-employment, and there are some very important and distinct steps that you're going to need to take in order to secure self-employment as a vocational goal. So, if you want to take it away, Roger, it's all yours.

>> Roger Shelley: Thank you, Ray. This is a really great honor to be able to speak to you all today. I've been working with people in self-employment for about 15 years now. I think over that time, there had been about 300 businesses that I've worked to help establish as part of a team, with other people, as well as what the person who wants to go into self-employment. So, choosing self-employment is a good choice for people, for the people who want to meet your work goals -- more closely meet your work goals. Especially in rural areas where you might find that there is not as much employment opportunity as perhaps in other places. By doing self-employment, you can actually form your own job. You can supply your own accommodations. If you need to leave work, or if you need to work from home, or if you need a big screen, if you -- whatever kind of communications device that you might need, you can supply those or you can find somebody who will supply them for you. You can transition off of benefits and achieve financial independence. But you're in control of that because you're in control of your earnings. So, I've known people who have earned a great deal of money after some months of work simply because they were so good at what they did. But some people with self-employment can actually control what they make until they're comfortable with transitioning off benefits and being more financially independent. And then you can seek opportunities in different fields of work. You know, I found that people with a background in certain types of work, because of family history or because they've been around other people doing that work are typically better at being self-employed than others. So, whatever skills or education or training that you currently have is always applicable to being self-employed. Anything you've ever done, which you've been interested in and passionate about, you can work into a self-employment goal and make money doing. So these are some factors that you might want to consider when you think about self-employment. We're looking at your interests, your experience and your resources. The interests are very important because that's what's going to drive you. And a lot of times, it takes some patience to be successful at self-employment. So the more passionate, the more interested you are in your particular field, the more of a likely it is that you're going to be able to not only be patient until you are successful, but you'll also be able to gather other people who are also interested in the same thing to you. A lot of those times, those are going to be your markets. Those are going to be the people that you're going to be selling to. Experiences you've had in the past, that would be your training or some of the other experiences that you've had in the past, that you could use to be good at what you want to do, what -- with a self-employment, even if you're not -- if you've done other things that aren't applicable to your self-employment goal, just your experiences in achieving something, or working to achieve something, or working in the community, all of them are applicable to the self-employment goal. And then the resources. Now, oftentimes, we think about resources as being money. When you're self-employed, there are many more resources than that. A lot of the people that are currently successful in self-employment have joined community clubs or community organizations in order to be able to talk to their customers or network out. A person in Longview who was washing windows [inaudible], he ends up making $28,000 last year. He really started working when he joined the Chamber of Commerce. Another woman that I know who is in the dog biscuit business, a custom dog biscuit business in Great Falls, Montana, was helped by somebody who worked for Kodak camera because he knew a lot of people with pets in Florida and he sent out the word that she was making the best dog biscuits in the world and all the people that he knew bought dog biscuits from her. So, those are the kind of resources. Don't just think about money when you're planning your business. Think about the people you know or the resources you have, or the experiences you have that are going to make you successful at this. What are your strengths? Same thing as the resources, your resources are your strengths. Your resources are your "sticktuitiveness," that's not even a word, but I'm going to use it. Your strengths are the people around you who can help you get this done. Your strengths are some of the other organizations that are going to help you -- they're going to bring other resources to you that you don't even know yet. And then, do you want to try different types of business options. What I would suggest is you take a look at something that really intrigues you that you really want to do and concentrate on building that. There'll be plenty of options what's in that -- within that business structure or within that business idea. There are going to be lots and lots of options. You're going to run in some barriers, but there are so many more options than barriers that following through really doesn't make that -- isn't that difficult. Okay. The next slide is developing supports and accommodations. Now, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a team of people around you. They're going to be able to supply supports and resources for supports, and when I'm talking about a team, I'm talking maybe about people that have known you, your family members, people that you know in the community, your friends, as well as people that are working for VR or DVR, people who are going to be working for a few of the other resources that we'll be talking about later. But, you're going to have a core group of people around you -- that's what I'm hoping -- and then you're going to be able to access the people in the community who are paid to help you. Okay. And then supports may include transportation which we're going to talk about; framing which we can talk -- we'll be talking about, too; or business planning. All three of those resources are readily available to all of us. You have to remember one thing that once you're self-employed in a community or a business owner in the community, there are no people with disabilities or with barriers who are business owners and then typical business owners. They're in a community. They are just business owners. You're going to be joining -- if you're going to self-employment, you're going to be joining into a fraternity or into the community in a way that is much easier and much more integrated than anything else that I've ever been able to see. Okay. Okay. What exactly are you selling to make money? This is -- a lot of people have an idea of what they would like to do. It's going to be so much easier if you have an exact idea of either the product you want to manufacture and sell, or the service that you want to render to the community. You have to be very specific because without being specific about that, we can't build a marketing plan around you. We can't figure out what the financial plan is going to be. It's very difficult if you don't have -- if you haven't come up with a plan on your own, at least on what you want to do. We have people that can help you do that -- there are people that can help you do that. But, unless you can present a pretty clear idea of what you want, it's very difficult for anybody to work because we don't want to make decisions for you. So, that's about that. What are your interest background and values? Like I was saying, those are very, very, very important things for you. The woman who is the dog biscuit manufacturer also wants to promote fetal -- not drinking when you're pregnant. She happens to have the barrier of fetal alcohol syndrome. It's very important for her to get the message out to people that if you're pregnant, do not drink. And so, a lot of things about her business are used to promote that, that initiative. A lot of times, your values, when you're going into self-employment, are going to be a big promoter, a big motivator for what you're going to be doing. In her case, it was. Later on, your business may change based on logistics markets or expenses. I found that a lot of times within six -- when you come up with a plan for your business, that's like a snapshot from right now, from what you can figure what's going to be happening in the long run. Within six months or so, you're going to be wanting to change your business or do other things or look at other markets or other products. So, don't worry about that because you can get -- you're going to be able to get help with that, too. But it almost -- it always happens. Okay. Who are your customers? This is basically your market, right? Who are going to be the customers that you can see at this time for the types of services or products that you're going to be able to offer? Now, this is like a snapshot. These -- customers will change as you get in to business for yourself. If you start as -- as you start self-employment, you're going to see opportunities for other customers, but it's very important to initially have at least some idea of who your customers might be because now we're going to know how to get to them. What are we going to do? There was a guy that was in the glass installation business in Montana who thought that by -- if he marketed through using telephone or -- I'm sorry, radio ads, that he could get all the business that he needed from homeowners. What happened was, we granted him some money to do those, but then he was starting to lose -- he was starting to run out of money, he came back and he said, "You know, I need more money for radio commercials." And I asked him, "Every time that radio commercial comes off, what happens?" And he says, "Well, I get one call for a window." And I said, "Well, how much do you make on that?" And he said, "Well, $600 and that the radio commercials cost $350." So, he couldn't sustain that with his business. What he ended up doing was going to a coffee shop where all the other contractors went to have their coffee in the morning before they went out to work, and that's where you need the connections. They ended up being his customers, not the people who were listening to the radio. That's -- okay, so I just covered how will you reach your customers, too. It's a matter of your initial customers, and then figuring out the best way to reach that group of people. However that is, we can all say that word of mouth is one way, but I'd really like to see some other -- besides word of mouth, let's talk about other ways that you might be able to reach customers. Can you change your business strategy as your business actively progresses? Of course you can; everybody does. Everybody takes a look at what they're doing. Is it their goal? Is this what they thought they were going to be doing when they went into self-employment or another business? Are they going to modify it so it more closely resembles what they thought they were going to be doing? Are they going to modify it in order to make more money? Are they going to modify it in order to be able to dispense the product or the service? A lot of times, people don't plan to be real successful and they go into business for themselves and are often caught unawares when there are ways -- when they're really successful, and now they don't -- they haven't planned on how they're going to produce those goods and services. So, when you go into self-employment, always plan to be highly successful. A good story around that was I had a guy up here in Montana who had a hayfield and he thought, "Wouldn't it be great if we cut square foot pieces of hay, pads of hay, and we stuck them in a box and we sold them as bunny food." And he goes, "Okay. So, we're going to say that our customers are basically going to be people with bunnies." And he said, "Well, how can I get to my customers? Well, he decides that PetSmart was a place to go and see if they would like to buy his product. Well, he walked in and they said, "Sure. We'll do it. Give us 5000 units by the end of the month." He had not even gotten close to manufacturing that yet. That's the kind of stuff you got to think when you're thinking about your marketing or your customership, you got to think about what if you were asked to produce more than you are capable of right then? What would happen? Or, would you scale back your business plan so you wouldn't be going to PetSmart? Okay. The next thing is pricing and a lot of times, I found that people I helped to do this way undervalue their time. So, what we want to do is increase the value of your time and -- yeah, contribute to the economy. But, pay yourself enough, look at other businesses doing the same type of service or a product that you're going to be doing. Always match their price. If you go over too far, people aren't going to want -- probably want you unless you can prove you're worth more. But, don't go under. If you under price what the going market rate is for your service or your product, people aren't going to think -- they're not going to buy it because it's too low. It's -- by making a low price you're saying really that you don't value yourself or your product enough. Always pay yourself enough. I -- Ray, thank you for underlining that, because what I would like you to take a look at is paying yourself at least $20 an hour. We don't do self-employment, so we're trying to make minimum wage. We're trying to make more than minimum wage here, at least a living wage per hour and that's after expenses are paid. So, you're looking at about $20 an hour as a gross income when you're in a business. Okay. Do you have the resources? We're going to talk about these a little bit, but there's Social Security work incentives; there's individual development accounts in some places; of course, there are family members; there are organizational investors; there are micro business loans and special economic development grants. I've worked with each one of these resources along the time that I've been doing this. In fact, it was really interesting. In Maine -- I was up in Maine doing self-employment, and we had a couple of guys who wanted to start a business called Dudes for Hire, right? And they were basically going to do all sorts of services in the community. If you wanted your RV cleaned, if you wanted your garden -- it was just an all-around service business. And we were able to get them their equipment through this project that I was working on, the money from that project, but they needed a truck to get their stuff around, right, because they couldn't just -- you know, they couldn't walk it from one place to another in this town. And so, we found a group of people who had gotten an economic development grant for people with barriers in that town to go into their own businesses. I mean, sometimes things just happen and it depends on where you are and who you are, the opportunities exist where you are to be able to get resources to start a self-employment project. You just have to look for where those resources are. But they're out there. They exist in a lot of places. Okay. Exploring your self-employment goals. What do you need to get there? Okay. You need skills. You need equipment. You might need training, need transportation, ongoing technical assistance, business management services and support development. What you need to achieve, your self-employment goal? Skills. You'll need some skill in doing those service or designing and building a product before you try to achieve your self-employment goal. Now, we're not saying that you need to be perfectly confident in building something before you start. Oftentimes when I'm working with somebody, I will ask them to build whatever their product is in order to start marketing it, to see what the markets are for that particular product. You don't need necessarily the carpentry skills to build something you're going to be selling. You just need to build a couple of them so we can see who -- who's going to buy them from us. I had a guy down in Marshall, Texas who was going to be building key boxes and coat hangers and stuff, something you put on your wall in order to -- in your home. And so, he built a couple of them and we start taking a look at who was going to buy them. Well, people in his church were going to buy them, but his mother was a manager of a local garden store. And so, they started buying this product from him to market in the garden store. So, the easiest way, if you're going to build a product, the easiest way to actually start selling the product is to build a couple of them and then see where they go. You'll also need skills in developing or defining markets. Okay? From what I've seen, from people going into self-employment, they pretty much have an idea of who they're going to sell this stuff to before they start thinking about self-employment. So, what I would do is that I needed some skill, I would probably go to a group of people locally who have that skill, and we're going to be talking about them later but they're called the small business development centers. Sometimes you can go in and talk to someone there because they're actually in the community to help people build businesses and don't know about what the markets are for different types of products and services there. So, you may need to have that information but you can get it in your community. And you -- then you will learn and practice necessary skills as the need appears. This is what I was talking about earlier is you're going to be practicing some skills already. But, if there's a need, if you're making a change in your business or you're changing your logistics where you might need to pick up another skill, you'll be able to do that as part of the course of your business or your self-employment. Everybody else has to. Everybody else has to make those changes, and if they need skills, they got to go find them.

>> Ray Cebula: Roger, this is Ray. I just wanted to make a point that, you know, a lot of the stuff that we're talking about here sounds really complicated. But when you gave that example of the bunny food and taking a bale of hay and cutting it into square foot sections, that's not something that you need a whole lot of skill for. And, you know, as a dog owner when you mentioned the dogs, you know, and you're from Montana, if people knew how much you pay in Boston for a six-inch piece of deer antler, that you can find all over the place in the woods of New Hampshire and Maine and Montana that, you know, it's kind of amazing what you could actually turn into a business. So, I just wanted to let people know that this doesn't need to be as complicated as we're making it sound.

>> Roger Shelley: Yeah. In fact, it's supposed to be very simple. You know, there's a -- when I first went in the business, I've been in business a few times for myself once on a 10-year span in construction in Houston, and I have a partner, and this -- the usual business saying is KISS -- K-I-S-S -- and it just means "Keep It Simple, stupid." So, the most -- the more simple that you keep your business, the more easy it is to get into, the more the likelihood is you're going to be successful. But that is basically a business axiom, that's a business thing to say. But, you just keep everything as simple as possible. Okay. Do you want to say anything about that, Ray?

>> Ray Cebula: Nope.

>> Roger Shelley: Okay [laughter]. But that...

>> Ray Cebula: All back to you.

>> Roger Shelley: But that's exactly what you want to do, the simpler the better. I'm not kidding. It's this -- it should be easy because it's all your choice. It's whatever you want to do at whatever level you are currently, you can do it. You can go into your own business. We really can't help you do that, and there are other people that can help you, too. Okay. Goals, equipment. In the beginning, your equipment may be supplied by you or your family, economic development organizations, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, or a plan to achieve self-support. There are other ways of getting [inaudible]. I ran into a woman up in Springfield, Massachusetts who was doing self-employment for people up there, and she had what she called "angel investors." And these are groups of people who are willing to invest in a business for just -- pretty much other than the goodness of their hearts. They don't want a big return, but they can't -- they won't spend a lot of money, so -- but they don't want a big return on their money, either. It's a matter of getting -- do you need something new, or can you use something that's used. You know, how much money are we paying for it? How much is it going to produce? What's the -- what is it going to produce for you in the way of income for this piece of equipment? It's all part of a mix. So, if you can get a brand new piece of equipment and you want to use that because it's more durable, it won't break down as often, things like that, then you can make a case for having a brand new piece of equipment. If, in fact, you want to do something else, you know. Let's say you wanted a baking oven, all right? And you want to be able to turn out things day and night, basically. You wanted to use that up in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you'd probably want a new oven. If you wanted to work eight hours a day baking something like the dog biscuit woman, they -- one of the things she was good at was baking. So, they baked all their dog biscuits in an oven, and pretty soon they didn't have a good enough oven to do what they needed to do. These guys were baking 24 hours a day. So, they asked us for -- they asked [inaudible] pass for a brand new oven that was larger. But, they could also say, "If we get this new oven, we can make more product. If we make more product, we're going to be able to get more money." Okay. We're going to talk about plan to achieve self-support with your PASS plans -- thank you for the yellow line. As the business grows, you can purchase equipment using business revenues, and we're going to talk a little bit about that, how you can save money to reinvest in your business, which I would suggest you do pretty much for the first year or so. Rather than paying yourself, you want to put that money back into the business so you can grow the business and make more money. Okay. Employment goals, equipment -- initial equipment -- oh, we've already seen that. Okay, training. You might need initial skill training when you change or expand your business. You might need continuing training or mentoring to refine your skills. You know what's interesting is the guy that is washing the windows in Longview who's very successful, was actually trained by one of his competitors. The competitor wanted to be able to, instead of refuse new business, wanted to be able to actually give it on to this person. So, he trained the person in order to be like -- almost like another business that they were connected. So, you'll find that in some places your competitor will actually want to train you in order to take business away from them, which sounds kind of not very logical, but in lot of places you'll get training by competitors. You might get training from your family, state Department of Labor, or American job centers, manufacturer or a vendor, or state VR agency. If you're using a piece of equipment, you buy it from even a hardware store, or you buy it from a manufacturer, they're going to want to train you on how best to use that. So, oftentimes after you get a piece of equipment, like, let's say, a copier, somebody is going to come and train you on how to use that in the most effective way possible. So oftentimes, your purchases engender your training. So, we aren't always going out and having somebody pay for our training, we can always get it if we buy equity, if we buy something that helps do the business, then we can get training from the people who sold it to us. Okay, employment. Your own vehicle or truck driven by you or a support person. Okay. You can buy a vehicle for a business using the same plan to achieve self-support, a pass plan. And you don't have to have your own driver's license to drive it. You can actually pay a person to drive you around or have someone paid to drive you around who, as soon as you progress in your business, will become, of course, one of your employees. But, you can have your own vehicle. A family member could take you around to do your business. A paid vendor could take you around, somebody with their own truck. Let's say that instead of buying your own truck, you could rent a van, you could rent a van from U-Haul everyday in order to take you around and buy yourself a driver. That's always possible. It just depends on which is the most efficient, the most economically efficient for you. Then, [inaudible] have a business partner to do that, although I don't really -- I don't really encourage business partners, too much. You have to do a lot of paper work. You have to do an agreement with a business partner. I used to have a story on that, too, but I'm not going to tell it this time. Then, the product delivery service, like if you're working from your home and you're building a product, rather than you taking to the product to whoever is going to be the end user, you can always put it on a commercial carrier, in fact, a lot of people do that anyway. I knew a guy in Billings, Montana who was building little scenery in his garage. He and his wife were building scenery for collectable army soldiers, and all they did was build it and the daughter marketed it, and then they would have UPS come around or FedEx come around and pick the stuff up. They never really had to do anything but manufacture the product. They had their -- all their raw materials brought to them, too. So, you don't necessarily have to think about transportation first when you think about self-employment. Okay. Ongoing technical assistance. Ray is going to talk about this a little more, local SCORE member mentoring. SCORE is an organization of retired business executives who band together in a community to help start small businesses, and is basically about using their skill in running businesses for the community good. So, you might look at SCORE in your community in order to help you out. Local small business development center representatives, like I said before, you might want to access them, if you outset or at least find out where they are. A lot of them are in community colleges very near where you live. Local business organization mentors, that would -- that might be the Chamber of Commerce. That might be a local banker. That might be somebody that you know that would like to help you start this business. Family members; a lot of people who are successful in businesses are helped and supported by their family members. I'm not talking about monetarily but I am talking about some of the things that they need to have done. Sometimes they do transportation. There's a guy down in Kansas named Poppin Joe. He does kettle corn and his family is highly involved in it. The woman in Great Falls is a dog biscuit woman. Her adopted mother is helping her run the business. A lot of people have friends that -- within the town that will help them. So, there might be a lot of people who are going to have ideas for you in the way of running your business. Some of them you're probably not going to want to listen to but some of them you're going to, and especially if they're successful business owners. Family members... And then state VR employment vendors, not only the VR counselors themselves, but also the people that the VR organization pays in order to help you put your business together. They may be very helpful in getting you organized, in getting you going in your business. These are all resources. Don't rely -- use them all. Don't rely on any one resource within your community. Always try to use as many as you can simply because, as you outreach, you're doing marketing at the same time. You're telling more and more people about your business idea. The more people that know about your business idea, the more people who are going to support you. Okay. Business management services. This is one of the things -- this is one of the parts that people worry about most. Ray and I both have -- we both have accountants to do this for us. It's difficult to do -- to run a business and do all the accounting. So, when you're looking at --- when you're looking at taxes and accounting services, you might actually get people to come up and volunteer to do those for you. I have no -- I have seen people who had volunteered to do accounting for the other -- for the job owners, for the self-employed people. That happens all the time. Bank or credit union services, they're only too happy to help people with their business services, especially if you have a business account there at that particular bank. They are more than happy to work with you on that. I'm -- family members, of course. The interesting thing is, in Anchorage now, I'm working with a woman that -- the business representative for the IRS. And with small businesses, I am sure she would lend a hand or get people to lend a hand to do the business accounting for the people we're looking at, the self-employed people. So, there may be other types of organizations, or people within your community who could help you with this. You know, often times, vocational rehabilitation is sending people to college to be accountants, and they often will volunteer to do your books. So, there may be any number of people that are going to help you do your business management services, but it's one of the things that people in the outside worry about most.

>> Ray Cebula: And, you know, I was just wondering, how many of the thousand people who are listening to us today might have accounting skills and are now in a situation where they're impaired and thinking they can't work and might be able to provide some accounting skills to other people who are listening to us today right from their home.

>> Roger Shelley: They could and, in fact, that is not unknown. That's happened more times than not. People -- business services for some reason are there for the asking and all you have to be able to do is say, 'Well, I need that and can we find somebody?" Okay? And you're right, we are -- I got to get -- I got to move faster. Okay. Developing supports. You may need several types of supports for your business -- family support, community support. You know, the most important support for your business are good customers, people who are going to buy you a product or service and tell others about them. So, some of the supports are just the people that you serve. People you serve are going to be the supports for your business. That's pretty much true for anybody's business, that the people -- so, your business, your business supports are your markets, are the people that you're going to be serving. Your happy customers are going to be your supports. And supports for business needs related to your disability. We're going to talk a little bit about that when we get to work incentives. How Social Security can help you with your self-employment goals. Okay, Ticket to Work. When looking at people being ENs who might be able to take -- who might want to take your ticket and work with you on getting you into self-employment. For more information, call 1-866-968-7842; or TTY, 866-833-2967. Okay, Ticket to Work. If you are ready to earn more money, the work incentives, the Ticket to Work can help you improve your earning potential. In this case, maybe direct you to where the services are, the supports are for you to access to go into your own business. Need the personal fulfillment that comes from working. Provide you assurance and stability you need to feel confident while you pursue employment. So, if we're looking at something like planning your business, or talking to people about planning your business, they might be the people that you might want to -- what are your resources and the people that you want to talk to along with the small business development center, along with the vocational rehab, the person if you're working with him. Okay. Want to be able to get benefits back if your job does not work out because of recurrence of your disability. Put you on the fast track back to receiving benefits again. Are overwhelmed -- and that's important to everybody -- are overwhelmed and do not know where to turn. Connect you with the people, resources and services you need to develop a work plan or a business plan. Ticket to Work and self-employment. Once you and your VR or EN service provider agree to your self-employment goal and plan, they can, for example, help you with your business development, support you in your business -- by buying things, hopefully -- help you find funding to start your business. When you're ready to work, building your employment team is the best way to begin. You have options to help you get started -- speak with an expert at our Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842, or 1-866-833-2967; learn more about the Ticket to Work. read our blog and listen -- view, listen or read real success stories at www.socialsecurity.gov/work; find an employment network that meets your needs or work with your state vocational rehabilitation agency; stay connected to your employment team, EN or VR, as you explore your work options. You know, I can't tell you how important it is to start with at least one member of an employment team, and then have them help you build out from there.

>> Ray Cebula: Roger, if I can just echo that, you know, all...

>> Roger Shelley: Sure.

>> Ray Cebula: ...these methods, this whole notion of an employment team is a team that you are the coach of, you know. Every team has a coach and that coach is the boss of the team. You are the boss when you're looking to go back to work and all of these methods, speaking with an expert, learning more about the ticket, going online to listen to the blog and other success stories, finding an EN to help you or spend -- staying connected, are always into the system. We talked a little bit about how to network and we talked about that guy, the glass guy who went into the coffee shop and sat down and talked to the builders and told them what he had to do. That's exactly what we're trying to offer you here is really a networking system, and there is no wrong way to start building this employment team. If you talk to that expert, you're starting. If you listen to the blog, you're starting. And so, any one of these methods is going to get that employment door open for you and that's all we want you to do is think about getting that door open.

>> Roger Shelley: That was great. Okay. Work incentives. Talk a little bit about what Social Security can do for you. Okay. Social security has several work incentives to make self-employment easier for you. Some work incentives are designed to help you get money, some help you with other expenses and some let you earn and save more money. Okay. If work incentives and self-employment, if you received SSI or become eligible for it, you could benefit from a PASS plan. Actually, there are plans to achieve self-support. A PASS allows you to set aside other income besides your SSI for a specific period of time so you may pursue a work goal. When Social Security figures your SSI payment amount, they do not count the income that you set aside under your PASS plan. A PASS can help you pay to have a business plan written, for services to support self-employment, for business equipment and transportation, for business inventory, and for other goods and services related to your work goal. An EN, an employment network, vocation rehabilitation agency, social worker or benefits specialist can help you set up a PASS that must be in writing and designed especially for you; identify a specific work goal that you are capable of performing; include a specific timeframe for reaching your goal; show what income you receive other than SSI and how that income will be used to reach your work goal; and be approved and reviewed periodically.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay. Before we get into IRWEs, Roger, I just wanted to alert folks to a website that's free for your use called passonline -- one word -- passonline.org; and it's a very easy-to-use website that will help you develop a PASS plan by yourself without any obligation whatsoever. So, if you want to explore, you want to think about putting a plan together, use passonline.org.

>> Roger Shelley: And I'm going to put in a little blurb for my ex-employer. There is something called passplan.org, too, and it's out at the Rural Institute, the University of Montana. And what it'll supply you are written -- prewritten PASS plans that have -- were written by other people and it's submitted to Social Security that were approved for what they were asking for. So, between what Ray said about -- some website helping you write a PASS plan, in this site letting you see what an approved PASS plan looks like, you're pretty well equipped to do it to [inaudible].

>> Ray Cebula: Yeah. And Jamie is posting all of these websites in the chat box as we speak.

>> Roger Shelley: Thank you, Jamie. Okay. So, IRWEs, and I think Ray is going to speak a little bit about this, too, but what Social Security will do, they'll deduct the cost of certain impairment-related items. In other words, things that you need, the services that you need, that you need in -- in order to go to work because of their -- because your disability, because of our barrier. And they won't actually take that -- and you're going to be -- okay. You're actually paying for this service, this good or service, and then they're going to be deducting the cost of that from your earnings, basically.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay.

>> Roger Shelley: Yeah, Ray, go ahead.

>> Ray Cebula: Yeah. The, you know, impairment-related work expenses are really, really easy to figure out. And I like to tell stories as, like Roger does, but if -- and I think we have two storytellers that are going to take a lot of time to talk about [laughter]. But, you know, IRWEs, if you look at your daily life, what do you do when you get out of bed? What's the first thing you do? You know, the first thing I do when I get out of bed is run to the medicine cabinet and I take two blood pressure pills. You know, and the questions are, is that related to an impairment? And the answer is pretty much yes. Do I pay for it out of pocket? Well, I pay my copays and that's sufficient. And do I need it to work? And the answer is yes. So, both of those copays for medication could be an impairment-related work expense. Now, if you're looking at a $5 work expense, it could make all of the difference when you do the math. It could make all of the difference between getting a benefits checked or getting a smaller reduction in the benefits checked because of that earned income. And when you're looking at larger items, Roger mentioned transportation. Transportation is a big deal, particularly in rural areas. So, do you need the special paratransit because of your impairment? Yes. Do you pay for it out of pocket? Well, yeah, it may be $2 or $5 each way, but I pay for it out of pocket. And, is it related to your ability to work? It most certainly is because you can't work without the transportation. So, there are situations like that where that transportation to and from work would count. Attendance services. What if I need somebody to come to my home and help me to get ready to go to work? And I pay that person. Or, what if I'm at work and I need a visiting nurse to come and administer medication during my lunch break, then I have to pay for that -- a copay for that injection or that service? All of those expenses are allowing you to work, they're related to an impairment, and you're paying for them. And that type of expenses fits the definition of impairment-related work expense and allows you to take those as a deduction from your earnings, so that your earnings are actually at the level of the money you're receiving, but the countable earnings are much lower. So, it's very important when you think about your IRWEs, as we call them. What are they? Is it related to an impairment? Am I paying for it out of pocket and does it allow me to work? And if you answer yes to those three questions, the chances are, you will have that IRWE approved by Social Security. So, it's as simple as making a list, copays, durable medical equipment, special services, and how much you pay for them on a monthly basis. Now, Social Security has to approve them, but the definition of IRWE is pretty much wide open. You can drive a truck through that hole. So, you know, what we want you to do is scoop up everything, scoop up everything you got there.

>> Roger Shelley: Okay. You want to talk a -- Ray, would you explain SGA, too? That'd be great.

>> Ray Cebula: Oh, thanks [laughter]. You give me all the fun stuff. Substantial gainful activity is what this is all about. Now, because you have a disability does not mean you can't work. It never meant that you could not work. What it means for Social Security purposes is that you cannot work and earn at substantial gainful levels, and that is a dollar amount that's set by Social Security every year. This year, for somebody with a disability, it's $1040 a month in countable earnings. Now, it means that you are doing substantial work. You're performing services that are normally done for pay or profit. There are significant services, physical or mental or both, and it can be full time or part time. Now, we talked about the bunny man. I like the bunny man story; I'm going to steal that one from you [laughter]. You know, he is doing work -- significant work -- lifting bales of hay and cutting those and packaging them up. Is significant work, physical work? It's significant mental work because he had to deal with Petco. He has contracts that he's going to have to fulfill. They may be informal, but they're still there. Is he doing something that is generally considered for pay or profit? He sure is. He's selling bunny food. So, that's what we mean when we talk about substantial gainful activity. Are you performing services, in this case, for yourself or your own businesses, and is it gainful? And what we peg that at this year is $1040 a month. Now, what happens if you earn $1100 a month, have you performed substantial gainful activity? Well, I don't know, because all of these work incentives, the IRWEs, the impairment-related work expenses that we just talked about, are going to be subtracted from that $1100, to see if the countable income meets the $1040 SGA level for this year. And that's a figure that's going to go up every January 1st. It won't go down, it should go up. So, we'll -- like October, November, we'll know what next year is.

>> Roger Shelley: You have to remember, too, with self-employment, I believe that -- this is correct. That you're going to be judged on your net income, in other words, you go out and you do something, you get your equipment from one place to another. You're going to be able to deduct your mileage. There are going to be other deductions that are going to end you up with what you actually made, so there are business types of operations that you got access, too, to, as well as some of the other work incentives that we're talking about.

>> Ray Cebula: Yeah. And the other thing with self-employment, there's one additional trick. If you're working for yourself, you know, Social Security will look at that money, they'll look at the money first. Are you performing substantial gainful activity to self-employment? But we all know that businesses can take a long time to make money. But, you can be working really hard. So, the other thing that you need to keep track of in self-employment is the time that you're actually working, and if you're working 80 hours a month or more in your self-employment situation, you will be considered doing substantial gainful activity. Now, that also means that you're actually doing that self-employment. It doesn't mean that you are setting up the business. It doesn't mean you're talking to Petco. It doesn't mean you're figuring out, "How do I cut these bales of hay and package them?" But, once that business is going, you need to keep track of your time every month as well.

>> Roger Shelley: That's right. And I'm glad -- I'm really glad you mentioned that. There are oftentimes -- story about a guy -- there was a guy that actually did work for maybe 45 minutes a day. He took phone calls and then he gave the orders to other people to [inaudible] and he wasn't working near 80 hours a month, but he indicated that he was and he wasn't -- but really do -- Ray couldn't have made a better point. You really have to keep track of your time when you're doing this. Okay? Okay. Thank you. Social Security will deduct a cost of an IRWE when the item or service enables you to work; you need the item or service because a physical or mental impairment; you pay for the item or service and are not reimbursed by another source; and the cost is reasonable. Yeah [laughter]. Okay. Property essential to self-support. This is a -- for people on SSI, this is really a good one to know about. I've used it a lot for people who wanted to hold their SSI benefits or wanted to be able to make money in their businesses. It allows you to save unlimited funds in a small business-operating account. Okay? Now, it's not like you're not going to be charged for this. You're going to be paying taxes on this money. But as long as you're putting them in a business account that you've established with a bank just for your business, it can't be counted as part of your resource limits. No matter how much money you have in it. So we're talking $2,000 for a single adult and $3,000 for a married couple. In this case, you don't have to worry about those earnings or those gross earnings as long as you're putting them into -- into this account. Also, you want to be able to buy stuff to expand your business using the money from that account. So it works out very well. Okay, unincurred business expenses. When we're talking about an accountant that might volunteer to do your books or your business expenses, that's what -- if you're not paying them and they're working for you, that is an unincurred business expense and can be subtracted from your income. Examples are -- might be an example -- a VR agency gives you a computer to use in your graphic arts business and that's -- and they're giving it to you so you can subtract it. A friend works for your businesses as unpaid help. You take what he would earn per hour and you could subtract that from your income. It must be an item or service that the IRS would allow as a legitimate business expense if you had paid it. And someone other than you must have paid for it, okay? So in other words, if somebody -- if somebody volunteers their time, they're paying for it themselves. Is that right, Ray? Is that what we -- is that how you see it?

>> Ray: That's right.

>> Okay. Just checking it out. Okay, Social Security does not deduct unincurred business expenses from your earnings when your SSI payment amount is determined. In other words, they aren't going to say, "Well, he really didn't -- you know, he spent that much -- like an IRWI, he spent that much money, so we're going to -- we're going to subtract it from his earnings." They aren't going to do that in order to give you a higher SSI check. Ray?

>> Ray: Yeah. I'm here.

>> Okay, can you -- do you want to change that slide?

>> Ray: I just did.

>> Okay, thank you.

>> Ray: It now says Medicare and Medicaid.

>> Yeah, I don't have it.

>> Ray: All right. Jamie, which...

>> Thank you.

>> Ray: There it is? Okay. [Inaudible] [laughter].

>> Even if you -- [inaudible].

>> Ray: [Inaudible] that's what it is.

>> Something's got to happen, man. Even if your net income from your business is too much for you to get any SSI money, 1619b is a law that allows you to keep Medicaid benefits, okay? So even if you're making -- you are netting, you're getting, after your expenses, you're making too much money, you're making over, I think it's 14 or 15 hundred dollars a month now, you're making too much in order for you not to get an SSI check anymore, you still get Medicaid by this law, 1619b. And there are a few different rules regarding that. Ray, what -- there are three different rules, aren't there? Two or three that allow you -- that are Medicaid 1619b rules.

>> Ray: Yeah, there are. And you know, I think that the only thing people need to worry about is that you will be continued to be eligible for Medicaid if it is earnings that cause the loss of your SSI cash benefit.

>> That's right.

>> Ray: That's the most important part.

>> You know, and as long as you're using Medicaid benefits every year, you're going to have 1619b also.

>> Ray: Exactly. Yeah, because I mean they're going to ask are you -- did you use your Medicaid benefit in the last year? Would you use it the next year? Do you think you can pay for your own medical expenses? But those questions are so foolish, because of course, everybody has used their healthcare in the last year and everybody expects to use it next year, and of course no one can afford it. So [laughter].

>> Okay. Thank you [laughter]. Okay. New Medicare rules. This is part of the Ticket to Work. New Medicare rules allow medical coverage to continue for you even if you're not -- you are netting over the current SGA amount. In other words, even if you're no longer getting an SSDI check or you're not -- okay, you're not getting that benefit, you still have the ability to stay on Medicare for -- actually for years. What is it like four and a half years or seven years, Mike?

>> Mike: It's seven and a half years; 93 months.

>> Okay. Okay. So even if you aren't getting an SSDI check because of net earnings, you're still eligible to get Medicare. Other -- okay, now we're going to listen to ray.

>> Ray Cebula: Now we're back to me. All right. And we are coming -- we're right where we should be.

>> Yeah.

>> Ray Cebula: I just have one question in here from a person about 1619b and they asked if it was automatic or not. Now the answer to that question is, as a dear colleague of ours, Connie says, "How lucky do you feel?" [Laughter] [inaudible]. 1619b is supposed to be automatic. There's no application. You'd fall into 1619b because you report earnings to Social Security and those earnings exhaust your SSI. However, the question then becomes, does Social Security tell the Medicaid administering agency? They should. This should all happen automatically. If I were in your situation, I would most certainly call the Medicaid agency to make sure that they had my status down as 1619b.

>> Yeah. When I was working as a job developer here in this little town, I got a call from Medicaid one day. We have it at the county level in Montana. And I got a call and said, "You know, you've got three people that are working that aren't going to be getting their Medicaid benefits this month." And I of course asked why. And she said, "Well, they aren't getting an SSI check." What comes up on their screens is just no amount under the SSI blank. And so they assume that since you're not getting SSI, you're not getting Medicaid either. And of course at that point, I mentioned that 1619 -- you know they were 1619b applicable and that was it. She said, "Sure," and that was all she needed to know. But you've got to -- you pretty much, if you know you're going to be over the amount of the SSI -- the amount where you can get SSI, you might want to call Medicaid and just tell them.

>> Ray: Absolutely. And another general question that's coming from lots of people is are we talking about SSI or SSDI. And we are...

>> [Inaudible], sorry.

>> Ray: We're talking about lots -- we're talking about self-employment. That's the most important thing today. Self-employment applies to both SSI and SSDI. 1619 is an SSI program. Impairment-related work expenses are for both programs. What we did not talk about in any great detail are the two programs and how the work incentives impact each of those, because of our focus on self-employment. But we do want to point you to the archives. We gave you that address earlier. We'll probably give it to you again. And we want you to know that there are going to be future webinars that will discuss that very issue -- what each program is about and how benefits are impacted by work. But there are webinars in the archives. Your job right now is to figure out whether or not you're ready to stick your foot into the self-employment pool, and if you are, make contact and start building that employment team. Then find out what type of benefit you have and start working with that team, because it is going to make a difference. But these general concepts are applicable to both sets of benefits. So, we talked about other resources. SCORE -- the Service Corps Retired Executives, is a great place. You know, as Roger said, you're going to need a business plan. It could be a very simple business plan, depending on the business, or it might be very complex. But this SCORE organization is a great organization of retired business executives who are waiting for you to come to them for help building a business. Now, you might not need a business plan right now. You might just want to run your concept by somebody, but you have retired, successful business people who will provide services to you free of charge to help get your business started and get it off the ground. So that's a wonderful service. And the services are, of course, free. You know, if you have a SCORE representative and a SCORE organization near you, check them out. As Roger said, you can always build that into the pass expense, but I'm all for getting everything for free. You know, if I can get that plan free, I want it free rather than paying for it. And so we have that as a great source. The American Job Center is another great place. You know, it provides one single access to key programs -- to key federal programs and local resources that are going to help you find a job, get training, and get what you need. And look at this. It's looking at growing industries. Despite the fact that we have suffered the great recession that is going to be known in history, industries are growing. You know, I'm living in a small city just north of Boston and I can tell you that industries that were in this part of the world and have left this part of the world are coming back. And there are all kinds of small businesses. I think it's important that we all understand that it's not [inaudible] and it's not General Motors that make this country run. It is the small business sector that makes this country run and supports it. So there's a lot of support out there for you. And you can take advantage of all of these. Here's the website. www.jobcenter.usa.gov. No obligation, for free. So all we're asking you to do -- explore a little today. Explore. The small -- excuse me, the Small Business Development Centers are providing assistance to small business and aspiring entrepreneurs. Whether you are making scenery for collectable toy soldiers or telling [inaudible] square -- squares of hay for bunny food, you're an aspiring entrepreneur. And supporting that business growth. Looking at the sustainability. How sustainable is it? Well, let me tell you, that woman in Montana who is making gourmet dog biscuits has a business that is probably growing by leaps and bounds, because the pet industry in this country is worth billions of dollars every year, and people -- crazy pet owners like me, want real, high quality food for their dogs. And they look at things like fat grams and calories when they're buying quality pet food. So all of this stuff -- she is an aspiring entrepreneur, even if she's just baking stuff in her own home. And this Small Business Development Center can help foster that business. If it's local, now we know it's regional, now we know it's national because she's sending information and product to Florida. So make sure that you contact these people to help. They're going to give you some ideas, some encouragement, at the very least. And that can be found at www.sba.gov/sbdc. Now, before we start talking about the Facebook, I want to go to some polling questions so that we know who you are. We're having a little bit of static, so if folks can mute their lines, that would be very helpful. That's very good, thank you. We're going to ask you some questions so that we know who you are and how you found out about us. So our first polling question is -- that's not our first polling question. This is our first polling question. What did I do? I'm asking polling questions, folks. Just give me a moment here. I'm going to get this open yet. All right, we're going to start with this one. We know that there may be other people with you at your computer terminal. So, besides yourself, how many other people are listening with you? One, two, three, four, five or more? That way it'll give us an accurate count. We know we had 1,000 people register, but if there are four people at every terminal, we know we have a lot more than 1,000 people listening to us. And I guess we're going to do them backwards because I started them already. And I will stop this when we have the group of answers that I need. All right. Let's close that one. I have to wait 20 seconds today. It's making me wait to move to the next one. Sometimes it makes me wait and sometimes it doesn't, but today it's making we wait. All right. How did you learn about today's webinar? Did you hear about us via email, Facebook or Twitter, the website, or a friend or family or some other reason? The more we know about how people find us, the more we know what we need to do to find some more people. We'll get our mass of answers. All right. I'm going to close that one up. Wait my 20 seconds. And go on to the second one. Okay. This is going to be an easy one. What is your gender? Male or female? And here we go again, Jamie. You know, it seems like every time we ask this question, the women are off the mark quicker [laughter]. I guess if there's more than one of you listening, whoever grabs that mouse and clicks first. Thank you for that. And we've got one more, after I wait my seconds. And our last one is what is your age? Can you pick on of those age groups? 18 or younger, 19-25, 26-40, 41-55, or 56-65. And the last one is 66 or older. You don't have to be afraid to admit it. I'll admit it. I'm in E [laughter].

>> I am, too.

>> Ray: [Laughter] Okay, let's close that down. Okay, and while we're waiting for this to transition out, I wanted to make another plug. We're giving you some other resources, and Roger mentioned community colleges. And I think that community colleges have really stepped up to the plate during this economic turn-down and have really taken their place in the world of helping people with disabilities get back to work and get the training they need. So remember to make contact with your community college if there is one near you. And if you live in an area such as I do, the greater Boston area is full of colleges. Almost all of them have business students there and there is nothing that a business student would like more than to help build a business plan, because not only does it help you out, but it gets them some very valuable experience as well. Some of the schools have clinics. So don't be afraid to contact community colleges and four-year and graduate schools that have business programs that are near you. And lots of them have extension as well. Contact those extension units, as well. So we have five minutes left. We've got a couple of more things to share with you. As I said, we had lots of questions coming in -- some really, really good ones, and some of them will be answered by webinars that are in the archives, so remember those archives. I want to find that address for you. It is www.edi.cornell.edu /m-wise-webinars.tfm. And that will get you into those basic webinars that are discussing work incentives, the Social Security Disability Program, and the SSI program and the differences. After today's session, there's going to be a Facebook Q and A that's going to run for an hour and people are going to be there to answer your questions. We're hoping those questions focus on self-employment today. In order to access this, you can go to www.facebook.com/choosework. Now you do need a Facebook account, and I understand that almost the entire world has Facebook accounts after the news last night. But if you don't have one, you can create one really quickly. And here are the instructions for creating that. Go to Facebook.com/help /createaccount. If you need an accessible version and assistive technology assistance, Facebook has their own office for that at facebook.com/help /accessibility. And if you want to do that, you will miss about two minutes of the Q and A session before you get that account set up. It's real easy. You will be able to participate and ask questions during that session. If you want to participate using HTML, you can do that at a different address. It's http://m.facebook.com /choosework# !/choosework?v= feed and underscore user=0, and you'll be able to participate via HTML. If you can't access or you choose not to access Facebook, you can always send your questions via email to webinars@choosework.net. That's webinars@choosework.net. And always take a look at the Choose Work blog after today's session to access the Facebook Q and A transcript as well as other transcripts that are going to be available on that site. Where to get more information to start. Are you ready to stick your toe in that water yet? I hope you're curious about it. And if you're curious, a great way to find out some information with absolutely no obligation is to use the Social Security website. It's a great website and I don't say that because I work for Social Security. I say that because it's a fact. It has all of the information you will need. It will provide you with access to employment networks. It will talk to you about all of the work incentives we've talked to. It will get you in touch with your VR state agencies. So look at www.socialsecurity.gov/work. If you do have questions about your particular situation, call the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842, or if you're a TTY user, 1-866-833-2967, and there are people there that can help get you in contact with ENs, with people who can help you answer these questions in more detail. And they can provide you with some basic information as well. Now, if you want to keep in touch with us, before I let you go, like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/choosework, and you will get continuous information from us through your Facebook feed. Or if you're a Twitter follower, you can follow us via tweet at www.twitter.com/choosworkssa, and potentially get a daily burst of information about what is important and what's happened today as far as return to work goes. And once again, that Ticket to Work Help Line is 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users, 1-866-833-2967. I want to thank Mike and Mike, our technological people in background who made these things work today. Thank Jamie for monitoring that question box. And most importantly, thank Roger for giving us some great information. And I am going to turn you over to the Facebook session right now. Remember, when I hit Stop the Session today, a survey will appear. It's going to take about 30 seconds to fill out and we'd appreciate your assistance with that. So thank you again, Roger. And everybody have a great day.