Kester Disability Rights (KDR) made £7,000 in its first year. That is my total pre-tax profits for the first full financial year of operation - my earnings for the entire year. When setting up KDR I committed to only ever making a modest salary and all the surplus would go into expanding the service, but perhaps not that modest! Although business people say to make any money at all in the first year is a bonus. Fortunately I had redundancy money to subsidise it with.
When agonising over whether I should set up a charity or company I thought long and hard about what to do for the best. Both models have reputation problems. Charities sometimes pay very large salaries to people not doing very much whilst those doing all the work get very little, and companies have the same tendency.
So I went for the company option as I can't stand committees. And I've come up with an imaginative new name and had a sign made for my office.
