Autistic Owned Business Needs Start

UPDATE 23 MAY 2017:

Your support over these past few months has been AMAZING, and I am truly grateful. Though I did not reach my goal, your generosity got me incorporated, got me to Buffalo, paid for my basic business building costs including my Canadian Visa application, and helped me get training on fixing instruments.  You are helping me bust through the glass ceiling that is so often over women with disabilities, and clear a path for the students who follow.


After not reaching my goal I had decided to suspend this campaign and focus on building Enlightened Audio with what I have.  

But...

I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who asked to re-open the campaign with the dollar amount more suited to the cost of opening our doors.

I heard you.  So here it is.

Keep watching this space.  More videos coming soon!

Love, hugs, and my deepest gratitude,
Laura Nadine



Tell me more:

My name is Laura Nadine.  I am Autistic.


For the past 23 years, I have taught violin, viola, and cello to hundreds of children.  I specialize in teaching to children with disabilities including Autism, ADHD, physical impairments, and even hearing impaired. Recently I have expanded to teaching students online using a webcam, increasing my reach to students in even the most remote areas.

I call this Neurocognitive Music Instruction.


I have worked as a freelance musician, paying out of my own pocket to make any advances.  But now I am ready to grow Enlightened Audio, LLC into a Benefit Corporation, open a school in Buffalo, NY and Toronto, Canada.  But I need your help.  


Here is what I dream of doing:


*Travel to schools so I can teach other teachers how to include students with disabilities in their orchestras.


*Give an instrument to a student in need with every purchase of an instrument through Enlightened Audio in my Note4Note program.

*Grow my current LLC in New York and expand as an international company into Canada, where I hope to eventually manufacture my instruments.  Don't worry.  The free instrument comes with a full year of free lessons.

*Create scholarships for students who wish to take private lessons using a webcam anywhere in the world.

*Open a full time Arts centered school for special needs kids and their siblings.  That's right.   I want siblings to have the choice to learn with their special needs family!

*Oh, and hire employees to help me run and maintain my business.  Autism makes some of these tasks quite difficult.

*One day further in the future, I hope to set up music lesson stations in public libraries so that students without an internet connection at home can still learn to play an instrument online.






Can I do all of that for $30,000?  
I think so.  

Right now all risks I take with my business to grow come directly off my dinner table.  When things go wrong, I give up a meal.  As a single parent of two teens, this means my business has often remained unadvertised and out of the public eye since all that I earn barely covers our basic living expenses.


Could I use more?  Sure, what business couldn't?  Larger investments and Angel investors could help expand my reach, hire employees, and rent space for instrument sales and performance space.

I am already working with what little I have raised, but my savings account goes to $0 in 6 months without any further growth.

This is my life work, and as an individual with a disability, I know how much a program like this could enrich the lives of others like me.  Not to mention that a business owned by a person with a disability can show my students that they too can live their dream one day.

I love what I do, and I will do it until I am broke.  Students with disabilities deserve access to the arts.