When her boyfriend's father was recovering from back-to-back knee and hip surgeries four years ago, attorney Sarah Lindholm was appalled to discover that no one had invented fashionable clothing for people with limited mobility.

That's 55 million Americans with temporary or chronic disabilities who get up each morning and have nothing functional to wear, she says.

Until now, that is. Now there's Cooper Martin, a clothing company that sells slacks designed specifically to accommodate the disabled.

Lindholm started researching the clothing issue in 2005 while helping Dr. Hugh Weily recover from his surgeries. The retired cardiac surgeon had had an active social life, but when all he could find to wear were sweatpants, his recovery became a 10-month-long ordeal. He didn't want to leave the house wearing such casual clothing. "He was stuck in the house and became really depressed because of it. And it really affected his outlook on life, his outlook on rehabilitation," Lindholm recalls.

Lindholm and boyfriend Reed Weily hunted on the internet without finding any appropriate clothing. "The thought of 50-some million people who have long-term chronic diseases who are reduced to wearing a bathrobe for the next 40 years was absolutely astonishing to me," says Lindholm--an attorney who was unhappy in her profession.

A newly energized Lindholm remained at the law firm, but she spent nights and weekends during the next year doing research on the potential market for adaptive clothing. The numbers she found were staggering.

• 55 million disabled people of all ages
• 45 million people who are caregivers to the disabled
• An untold number of people, such as Weily, with short-term disabilities, from a surgery, an accident or an injury.

"This was a huge opportunity at a time when I was looking to do something that had a lot more meaning and that I connected with a lot more than I did with being an attorney." She tried to imagine getting into a normal pair of pants if you can't bend your knee because you have arthritis, Parkinson's disease, a temporary or permanent catheter strapped to your leg, or a knee brace or a cast. "I was astounded that this entire huge segment of people was essentially being ignored," she says.

She quit the law firm in the summer of 2006 and devoted the next 18 months to getting educated and informed. She researched the health-care and fashion industries, wrote a business plan, taught herself finance--and developed an appropriate design for the pants she envisioned. She spoke with orthopedic surgeons, urologists, physical therapists and patients, "basically anyone who would talk to me," she says. "I asked them what would be ideal if they could dream up anything that would be helpful to them in dressing every morning. Where would it unzip? Where would you have access? How would it look?"

At the end of 2007, the SBA ponied up a $150,000 loan. She credits her SBA advisor with helping her develop the business plan and financials she needed to obtain the money. Cash in hand--including an additional $100,000 from savings and loans--she began developing the product. She had prototypes made, sourced fabrics, and hunted for contractors and manufacturers. She did "endless research on the internet" and questioned people in the fashion industry. She tested the prototypes on patients to find out what worked and what didn't. "We finally went into production in the spring of '09," she says. By June the trousers were being sold online. This month Lindholm added a line of colorful loungewear: The Luxe Collection and The Love Collection.

Lindholm wanted her trousers to look like the pants people wear every day. "I knew what I wanted it to look like fashionably, and I knew what I wanted it to do functionally. It was a process of melding the two of those together and coming up with a product that you can't tell the functionality of when you're looking at someone coming down the street."

The hidden zippers unzip all the way down both side seams. The tabs on the zippers are easy to grasp, and the patent-pending Active Zipper Lock feature makes certain the zippers stay put. The zippers themselves--custom-made in Italy--are the best in the world, Lindholm says.

The pants are also wider than normal, to accommodate a cast or a knee brace, "without being so wide they look like clown pants." There's hidden Velcro at the waistband, and an oversize snap that's easier to fasten than a button.

The pants are made of organic cotton by workers in the United States. "Especially in these times, we're really proud that we're keeping jobs here," Lindholm says.

Lindholm projects profitability for Cooper-Martin by 2010. Her growth plan calls for an entire line of clothing and lifestyle products addressing the needs of people who have limited mobility--and doing it in a fashionable, non-medical way.

"Everything medical is very sterile and unemotional and cold," she says. "So we're retailing the product and distributing it directly to the patient." That way, she says, "The product comes wrapped nicely with a ribbon, and it's an emotional, warm experience."

Lindholm says she didn't start Cooper-Martin out of a sense of altruism. "I really got into it because I thought it was an amazing opportunity that was really wide open with a huge demographic. But what has come out of it is a real passion and connection to the patients and how much something like this really makes a difference in their day.

"I didn't really expect the personal connection to it--which has been the most rewarding of all."

Lindholm has plenty of advice for anyone who wants to start a business:

1. Create a business plan, and revisit it regularly. "I'm a big believer in spending a big amount of time on a business plan. It gives you a great master plan.
   
   "I went back to mine this summer and it was interesting to look at how relevant it still is, and how we're still on the same path for growth and what we want to do for the big picture."
    
2. Outsource the things you cannot do, but make sure you aren't clueless. "You can't be an expert in everything," Lindholm says. However, she adds, "If you have a basic working knowledge of the things you need to outsource, you come to that relationship a lot more prepared."
   
   Lindholm says she had problems with the company she contracted to do her SEO work. So she spent time over the past six months--somewhat unwillingly, she admits--learning some basic HTML code and finding out about search engine optimization. "Now I don't have a problem with them at all because we're talking the same language. They've become much more responsive as my knowledge has grown."
    
3. Learn to compartmentalize. "You can eat, sleep and breathe the company--and I definitely do--but there are times when you have to be able to turn it off and put it away. As a business owner, you're so invested in the company, it's really hard to do. But you have to be able to enjoy your life outside of the business, too, because that's what makes it worth it."
    
4. Make sure you have a good support system and a way to relieve stress. "When you can get away and remove yourself from the situation for a half hour or an hour a day, it really gives you a good perspective on things," she says. Lindholm's preferred method of relieving stress is a game of golf. "It's a great escape for me--and it's also been very good for business. Unlikely benefits of networking have occurred on the golf course," she says.
    
5. Use your network of friends and family and their friends and family. Lindholm says she was reluctant to use those relationships at the beginning, but she's now firmly convinced that it's important. "People want to help, and you never know what kind of advice or experience or connections they might have."
    
6. Take the leap of faith. "Research is key, but you can only do that until a certain point," Lindholm says. "Then it's really a leap of faith and you've got to jump in. If you sit around and think about all the things that can go wrong, you'll never do it."