Deafness no barrier

Tim Lewin and his wife Sam have not let deafness get in the way of building a successful business. However, for them, business ownership does come with its own unique set of challenges.

Customers of Porana Carpet Overlocking on Auckland’s North Shore are in for a treat in May. It is New Zealand Sign Language Week early in the month and Porana Overlocking’s owner manager, Tim Lewin, plans to offer his customers free lessons in sign language when they visit his business.

Tim and his wife Sam, a co-owner in the business, are both profoundly deaf and that brings with it a set of challenges different to what most business owners have to address.  

And the couple are not alone. The National Foundation for the Deaf website says that 880,000-plus New Zealanders live with a hearing loss and that 300,000-plus New Zealanders aged between 20 and 64 have a hearing loss.

Tim and Sam bought the eight-year-old business in November 2017 from family friends, as the previous owner had passed away. The carpet overlocking means any carpet can be cut down to any size and the edges tightly overlocked. Customers include people wanting offcuts for homes, Persian rugs needing repair and carpets for caravans and boats. They also provide backing for non-slip rugs.

It has been a learning curve for Tim as he works full time in the business and comes to grips with learning to manage a business on a day-to-day basis, employing four staff members and keeping on top of all the paperwork involved in owning a business.

It helps that he is two years into a Bachelor of Accounting degree but in regard to coming to terms with the management of a business, he says “you are never prepared for that”.

His biggest challenge is the telephone. He’s 33 years old and says in all those years he has never answered a phone [by his own choice] and communicates through text and email.

But technology is helping. The business has a captioned telephone that connects to the Internet and displays captions of the conversation while the other party is speaking. Just like an ordinary phone, you can listen to what the other person says and what they say is also displayed on a screen for you to read.

The captions are done in real time by operators but there is, naturally enough, a short delay which Tim says can make a long conversation difficult.

While Tim is profoundly deaf, he does have a hearing aid which helps a little. He speaks well and is an excellent lip reader, and often customers do not realise he is deaf as the hearing aid is invisible. But he does tell them and asks them to look directly at him as they speak so he can lip-read the conversation. 

And during work hours he likes to ensure a hearing member of staff is on hand to answer any phone calls.

Tim has been deaf since he was a baby and contracted meningitis. His wife Sam has been deaf since birth when a complication affected her hearing. She has a cochlear implant.

As neither of the couple has hereditary deafness both their daughters, aged three and six, have full hearing, and can also sign.   

Board support

NZBusiness discovered the company through Russell Eastwood who runs a branch of The Alternative Board. Porana Carpet Overlocking is one of his clients.

Tim says the input from The Alternative Board has helped him move from running the business on a day-to-day basis to looking at the bigger picture. He has been with The Alternative Board for a year and believes he is now more strategy focused.

Working with The Alternative Board he enjoys the sessions with other business owners where each discuss issues and opportunities they have arising in their own business. The other business owners (aka the alternative board) then offer their feedback and suggestions on ways to address the particular issue or opportunity.

Tim says it’s good to have a range of different opinions as the other business owners on the ‘board’ can offer solutions you may not have thought of. 

The Alternative Board calls it the “power of collective wisdom” and membership also includes business coaching and software tools to outline and track strategic business plans.

Until he took over the business Tim was a full-time student studying for his degree and a stay-at-home dad. He is enjoying owning the business and loves the challenge – and while he has had part-time jobs before, this is his first full-time role.

Keep an open mind

Asked about how difficult it is for people with hearing difficulties to find work Tim says a lot of businesses feel there are too many barriers to overcome to hire deaf staff. However, he says deaf people are just the same as everyone else and his staff are great workers.

So what does he say to other business owners thinking about employing people with hearing problems?

“I tell people to have an open mind. There is technology these days so that the barriers to work [that were there in the past] can be removed.” 

As to growing Porana Carpet Overlocking, in the first two years Tim and Sam have been concentrating on increasing their skills in running the business. His plan is to move to bigger premises than the one they are currently in, on the North Shore’s popular Wairau Road, so he can have more space for a showroom.

Tim and his family are very busy outside the business as well. He belongs to the local deaf club and sits on the executive board of Deaf Sports NZ, where he is the Auckland treasurer. 

Football is his passion. He’s president of New Zealand Deaf Football and he plays for the very cleverly named local team, Silent Thunder FC.