The 7 Autism Advantages by Rising Tide U

7

WAYS

AUTISM MAKES

A BUSINESS BETTER Rising Tide U

This is Important.

There is 80% unemployment among people with autism. This figure has nothing to do with the capabilities of people with autism and everything to do with the way society views autism, as a disability that requires sympathy instead of the value diversity.

Only you can change that. You can change this thing, that has been this scary element of your life. This thing that has changed who you are as a human being, from just going about your day like everybody else to parent of a loved one of someone who may genuinely need your help. A loved one who you fear may not be able to lead a full and independent life, even though you know they are fully capable of it, the support just isn’t out there. You can turn autism into a source of meaning, purpose and inspiration for your life and your business. You can make autism your advantage.

This is where entrepreneurship comes in. Being able to build these types of skills to design something that can support your loved one with autism is what the Autism Advantage is all about. That’s your solutions. That’s a way, not the only way, but a viable way to build a real life for your loved one and maybe a few more like them.

In doing this, not only can you impact their lives but if enough of us do this, we can create a grassroots movement that really shows society just how capable people with autism are. We’re building better businesses using the skills and the talents of people with autism. If we can do that, with this generation, we can make it a lot easier for everyone else in the next generation to find employment and be valued and lead the type of life that we all know they are capable of.

The first step is to flip the script. You have to start thinking about how people with autism can be better than typical employees. It's very common to start the process of launching an autism-focused business by simply saying "can my loved one do this?" or "does my loved one have a clear interest in this?". While these are important questions, they aren't the right questions to start. If you are only asking "can they do this?" you can miss opportunities to build a business where autism helps you outcompete the market. If you're asking "does my loved one have a clear interest in this?" you're making assumptions for them and frankly limiting their opportunities.

Remember, we all generate our interests through our experiences. If your loved one hasn't had a lot of jobs, the only way to know if they will like something is to test it out.

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The 7 Autism Advantages We've designed this e-book to help you understand the most universal advantages of employing people with autism. We'd venture to say that there are actually hundreds, if not thousands of advantages to employing specific people with autism because everyone has their own unique skills. However, this list is tried and true and can help you get the ball rolling on brain storming business ideas or determining if an idea you have actually leverages the strengths many individuals with autism have.

Advantage #1: Following Processes and Rules This is the most widely publicized advantage of employing people with autism. Most employees degrade safety rules and process over time. People with autism consistently follow these processes for a long period of time. Those processes are what makes them feel comfortable in the workplace.

Example: At the car wash, we have very specific production processes – the way we dry down the car, do the tires and vacuum the car. That creates a consistently high quality service for our customers.

Orgs using this: Virtually every autism-focused business from Ultra Testing (software) to Walgreens in their distribution centers to The Chocolate Spectrum (chocolate shop & cafe).

Advantage #2: Safety Safety procedures can get degraded over time. You can face issues with insurance costs running higher because some workers aren’t following safety rules. With employees on the autism spectrum, they follow the safety procedures as they follow rules and processes.

Example: Electronic waster recycling can be a hazardous industry when employees don't follow safety protocol. Blue Star Recyclers has never had a safety issue with employees on the spectrum

Orgs using this: Blue Star Recycling, Rising Tide Car Wash, Walgreens distribution centers, this advantage is really important for production work and manual labor.

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Advantage #3: Eye for detail Individuals with autism are great at pattern recognition, quality control and detailoriented tasks. This means they really excel in things like cleaning, car washing, quality control and software testing.

Example: Ultra Testing client, the Webby Awards, said the company’s bug detection rate was 20 percent better than that of other testing firms.

Orgs using this: Ultra Testing, nonPareil, Specialisterne, AutonomyWorks, Rising Tide Car Wash, Blue Star Recyclers

Advantage #4: Turnover Turnover is most common in lower-wage, monotonous jobs where there is lack of meaning in the job. In general, neurotypical people don’t like those types of jobs.

People with autism, however, thrive in roles in which you need consistency in the process.

Example: Bluestar recycling has typically 0% turnover in an industry that sees 500–700% turnover a year. It’s truly an advantage for them – they have the same employees who know how to do the work, they know the processes and the safety protocol.

Orgs using this: We've found that this is a fairly ubiquitous advantage as sticking to a routine is important for most individuals with autism.

Advantage #5: Culture of Service Encouraging our employees with autism to be the best employees they can be also means giving the best customer service they can. This creates a virtuous cycle of caring.

You develop a sense of purpose and a level of patience and caring that doesn’t typically happen when you have neurotypical employees. Customers can see that staff are there genuinely trying to help, rather than trying to get the job done as quickly as possible.

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Example: This is better illustrated by a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch? time_continue=6&v=avNykR3FsUc

Orgs using this: Rising Tide Car Wash, Walgreens, Extraordinary Ventures

Advantage #6: Media and Word of Mouth Media and word of mouth drive business for autism enterprises. You start off with a story of empowerment and how you’re directly impacting people’s lives. The media loves to cover this type of feel good story. That’s been a huge driver of business. Firsttime customers often tell us they’ve seen us on TV. You don’t often talk about your car wash unless something went wrong there. But when there’s a social mission involved, it starts conversations. You’re getting business and you don’t need to pay for advertising.

Example: Both Rising Tide Car Wash and Bitty & Beau's have multiple viral videos with millions of views

Orgs using this: Rising Tide Car Wash, Bitty & Beau's, John's Crazy Socks

Advantage #7: Loyal Customers Most businesses in the car wash industry don’t have any brand loyalty. Customers are there because of price, location and quality. Those things are fairly easy to replicate.

It’s hard for someone to copy what your brand stands for. The social mission gives you a strong differentiator – customers will try the business because they derive value from the mission, and they keep coming back because they’re getting great quality and price at the same time.

Example: Bitty & Beau's has over 1,700 5-star reviews on Facebook! Having a 5star rating with that many reviews should be impossible, but a social mission can help your business achieve incredible things.

Orgs using this: Bitty & Beau's, Rising Tide Car Wash, Katie's Snack Cart, Ultra Testing, Autonomy Works, Extraordinary Ventures, John's Crazy Socks, Chocolate Spectrum, Poppin' Joe's Kettle Korn Rising Tide U

The Checklist Now that you have an idea of how autism can actually make a business better, try to look at your business ideas through this lens. Use the checklist below to analyze if your ideas are able to use the 7 advantages we've noted.

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