is it possible for someone with asd to own a business?

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is it possible for someone with asd to successfully run and own a buisness?
I know that there are some entrepreneurs that have autistic traits but would someone with asd be able to run a buisness despite the social pressures it would cause?

Sure. Why not?

An autistic person could hire someone to fulfill social-type duties.

Short answer to that is a yes, i have had a number of businesses over the years, some involving interactions, i just go into acting mode on those occasions, however now would rather create something myself that doesn't involve too much face to face interactions... Your mind is your limit

I know someone testing this hypothesis as you speak.

My ASD ex and I opened a retail business in a smallish-town city in Canada just over a year ago now. Note the past tense.

When the business opened, and before that, I was gungho and able to help out a lot in setting it up and then, running it. I spent more than 40hrs/week at that store, one of my 'normal' times that never last. It was only up and running 2 months though, before my ex and I had our first 'break-up' that lasted a few days. 6 months ago was another break-up and he ran the store for about a month with only the 1 kinda bumbling employee. After that month or 2, we slowly got back together again and I once again started taking regular shifts at the store, although with him being aware of my disabilities. Maybe a week ago we broke again and he's now, in christmas season, working 12, 14 hour days.

One of the reasons, however, where I think the relationship had an issue was me needing a lot of affection, and with him and I working so much, and me breaking down, and him needing so much downtime/alone time, he kept feeling pressured by me. This is all to say that I think he can't work and have a relationship, and I, of course, want him to choose a relationship over self-earning income, but I'm not sure he even agrees with the work/relationship balance thing I say anyways.

So far the business is doing well. So far my ex still seems like he's holding back a shutdown or a meltdown regularly though, multiple times a week.

While I'm sure it's possible, the executive function aspect is overwhelming to me. I can fake the social stuff with relative success.

I've read up on starting a business, even attended a meeting for startups at the local commerce place. In theory, it sounds straightforward. I'm a reasonably smart person, but I completely zone out just looking at a one page form. I can't explain it, but I'd rather walk 10 miles than fill out one page of paperwork. Maybe it's the fact that I'm being asked to mentally switch gears in each box that has to be completed. If it wasn't for my wife handling that aspect of everyday life, paperwork wouldn't get done in our household.

Why not?

(Bill Gates comes to mind - many think he's an Aspie)

About 20 years ago I wanted to sell some surplus items from a coin collection, so put an advert in a magazine and sent an amateurishly typed price list to the handful of respondents. I managed to sell one item, for about £15.

A few months later I sent another list out, and sold two or three items for a total value of £50-£60.

A third list produced a still better response, as this time I supplied a telephone number and had several calls. Most of these were conducted on a purely matter-of-fact businesslike level ("Is item X still available?" "Yes, I'll reserve it for you...."), but one caller unexpectedly greeted me with an emphatic and cheery "How are You?!" That completely threw me, and I spluttered some sort of response before concluding the call.

Even though I made around £400 from that list, it was the last one I put out. I think it was the realization that if the project was to take off, some sort of social relationship would be necessary with certain clients. It sounds ridiculous now that I couldn't deal with that (and if the internet had been around, I wouldn't have had to), but that's how it was....

I could probably have been selling £5,000 to £10,000 worth of stuff per list within a couple of years, based on that rate of progress.

I have an ASD and have been running my own business for 22 years. I do my own paperwork, file my own tax returns, keep track of all my figures, and the job involves having to meet and get along with clients.

I've stuck at it for 22 years solid, whereas before that I worked for other people and went through hell, walking out of job after job because everything always went wrong for me. The only smooth sailing I achieved in the world of work was when I finally went self employed.

I'm not saying it's all easy -- my executive functioning issues make it very hard to drag myself into those tax returns every year, and I'm always doing them at the last minute. My social anxiety makes it hard to be willing to take those "unknown number" phone calls when I've just done advertizing for new clients. And also when going to meet them for the first time.

I have to push myself in all aspects. I also work very hard. For the first fifteen years I didn't even take a vacation. I mean that. I had public holidays off, like Christmas Day etc, but I never took a week or two off to just go somewhere on vacation. For fifteen years.

You have to work hard when you run your own business.

But I'd rather do this than go back to the alternative.

Thinking back, I used to run deliveries around an industrial park. There was one small business that did saw blade sharpening for industrial clients. The guy who ran it seemed like a rude, surly and antisocial guy yet always seem to get along with me. He did have a receptionist but he used to deal with me directly for some reason. In hindsight he is almost certainly an undiagnosed Aspie. Ditto to the guy who owned a small hockey equipment shop: him and his daughter (my age) are classic Aspies looking back.

Why not?

I've dealt with more than a few business owners who had Aspie-like behaviors.

In all likelihood, it's easier to be evaluated by the marketplace on our performance as a business owner than it is to get through the office and social politics of the average company.

I sell my artwork internationally.
Just made a sale today.

...

After my psychiatric treatment I felt that I could achieve anything. I started my own hang-gliding school. It was a bit of a disaster but I had fun for 10 years. Luckily my instructors were very sociable. I was able to develop towing on an airfield nearby and so I was driving the winch and therefore out of the way. Also I brought about the use of radios so that I could instruct from above my students. I advanced their rate of progress by years in a very short time. I never made any money and was glad to eventually get a job with computers.

Yes, why not. I think it may often be the best for aspies. They can run the firm as they see fit in their own speed without worrying about an annoyed boss. The stage is theirs.

In App development heck yeah, you don't have to communicate with people face to face, you can be completely anonymous, no one will know anything about you unless you let them.