Steve Blain, Founder of DBO Golf talks about how Business Booster has helped him help others.
Golf is a game of precision, skill, mental fortitude, and social connection, all while enjoying nature and getting some much needed physical exercise. I’ve enjoyed playing golf for many years, and over this time I noticed a number of people, especially seniors or those with a physical disability, struggling to bend over to put the tee in the ground or the ball on the tee due to limited mobility.
Around the same time, I started volunteering for the Adaptive Golf tournaments in Australia and was paired to caddy with a person who was paralysed from the waist down. He could do everything independently besides place the tee on the ground.
I observed that people often hated having to ask others to help them, and some would stop playing altogether because they did not want to play if they could not play independently.
I am an aircraft maintenance engineer by trade and had just finished a contract with Airbus at the end of 2018. Instead of looking for another contract I created DBO Golf in 2019, using the skills I’d built to start working with my wife on a device that would help golfers with limited mobility regain their independence on the course. It took us three years of engineering to come up with a device that would place the tee in the ground, at your preferred height, using screws on the handle to easily change the height of the tee, and then pick up the tee after you’ve teed off. It can even pick up golf balls and place it on to the tee, all without having to bend over. I named the device the ‘T-Up Assist’.
But creating a small business and building prototypes was expensive, so I knew I needed to find a way to make money while still having the flexibility to work on my business. In 2020, I decided to try driving with Uber because I saw that it would allow me to choose when I worked and for how long, and fit work around my life, rather than the other way around. I’ve now been driving with Uber in Brisbane for just over three years, which has given me the time and money needed to work on DBO Golf.
Toward the end of 2022, my wife and I started seeing promotions for Business Boosters, a program organised by Uber that offered driver partners and delivery people with small businesses, like me, a chance to attend business-related masterclasses and pair with a mentor that would help me learn ways to run my business successfully. The program is in partnership with Inspiring Rare Birds, an organisation committed to mentoring and educating small business owners, so I knew that it would be a great program to be part of.
Out of almost 2000 applicants, I was chosen alongside 99 other Uber driver partners and Uber Eats delivery people to participate. It was as beneficial as I thought it would be, and I learned a lot about how to achieve my goals as a small business owner. It also helped me realise just how many others there were like me, trying their best to follow their dreams and start their own business.
My mentor, Phil Ore, is fantastic. Throughout 2023, Phil has helped me understand the nuances of running my business and getting my prototypes up and running to show potential investors how they could help transform the game of golf to be more inclusive and accessible. He was readily available to me and I am grateful that this is a 12-month mentorship, which means my mentor is able to see how I apply skills learned from the program to grow my business further.
The first 12 weeks of the program is group training. I attended every workshop and submitted a video pitch at the end of the 12 weeks. Uber gave every person that completed the 12 week program a $2,000 cash grant to work on their business. My video pitch was short-listed and I was given the opportunity, alongside 9 other drivers, to attend an in-person live pitch in Sydney for a chance to win a share of $100,000. Little did I know that the judges believed in the T-Up Assist so much that I won the top prize of $50,000. That money has been a game-changer for my business, giving me the extra funding I needed to start manufacturing and inject more money into the website and promotions.
The mentorship and the grants I received from the program have helped me reach customers who need this device the most, including the man I partnered with all those years ago who, as a paraplegic, needed something that would help him gain his independence on the golf course.
However, perhaps the most important lesson I learned on this journey is that while starting a small business is an equally challenging and rewarding experience, it’s one that you don’t need to do on your own. It helped me connect with a great network of small business owners, all of whom are in the same position as me.
My message to small business owners is to take advantage of any opportunity to connect with a mentor and learn the nuances of running a small business. Apply for grants programs as they appear, because you never know when you might take home the big prize.
The Business Booster has been a great success, and Uber is running it for the second year this time. I wish all participants the best of luck, and cannot wait to hear all about it!
About Business Booster
Uber’s Business Booster Program, in partnership with Inspiring Rare Birds, is a business development program created exclusively for those earning on the Uber and Uber Eats platforms, to help them reach their small business goals. Now in its second year, the program invites 100 driven and entrepreneurial individuals living in Australia and New Zealand to participate in a series of masterclass as well as pairing them with a one-to-one bespoke mentor for 12 months and providing a cash grant at the end of the program.