Be Your Own Boss- Disability Self-Employment Support -

Person working independently on their own business

Many people with disability have thought seriously about running their own business. The appeal is real: control over your schedule, the ability to work in ways that suit your needs, and the satisfaction of building something that’s genuinely yours.

What sometimes holds people back is uncertainty about whether it’s actually achievable with a disability. The short answer: yes, it is. And depending on your goals, disability self-employment support can be incorporated into your NDIS plan.

A practical path to self-employment with NDIS support

Explore what you could offerSkills, interests, or experience that could become a service or product. Your NDIS employment support can help identify options.

Write a simple one-page business planWhat you will offer, who you will serve, and how you will earn. Doesn’t need to be complex to start.

Register an ABNFree and takes 10 minutes at business.gov.au. GST registration is only required once turnover passes $75,000.

Start small and learnOne client, one service, one income stream. Your NDIS plan can fund ongoing employment coaching as you grow.

Reflect self-employment in your next NDIS planEnsure your goals reference employment so the next plan includes Capacity Building for ongoing skills development.

The Heartfelt Support Self-Employment Programme is designed for exactly this. Here’s how it works.

A one-by-one, guided journey

This isn’t a course with a fixed curriculum or a group program where you move at someone else’s pace. It’s a one-by-one, mentored journey from the seed of an idea to a functioning business. The programme is self-paced — there are no deadlines or timelines, and you can pause and restart at any point that suits you.

We cover the full scope of what starting a business involves: market research, business planning, financial management, and legal considerations. Whether you’re looking to establish a small hobby income or build a full-time enterprise, the depth of support is adjusted to match your goals.

Pre-launch planning

Before anything launches, we work through a detailed business plan together. This means identifying your target market, understanding your competitors, and defining what makes your offering genuinely distinct. We also explore funding options — grants, loans, and other financial pathways that exist specifically for people with disability starting their own ventures.

Ongoing mentoring after launch

Starting a business is one thing. Building something sustainable is another. Our programme includes ongoing support and mentoring after you launch — because that’s when many of the real challenges emerge. If you need to adapt your model, work through a marketing challenge, or figure out an operational problem, you’re not doing it alone.

Working around disability-related challenges

Disability can present practical challenges in running a business. The programme looks directly at these. Whether it’s adapting a workspace for mobility needs, identifying tools and technology that address communication barriers, or structuring a business in a way that accounts for energy levels and fluctuating capacity, we look at challenges as problems to be solved — not reasons to slow down.

What the programme offers

Expert mentoring: Our mentors are experienced practitioners who understand both entrepreneurship and the practical realities of disability
Flexibility: The self-paced structure means you can progress at a pace that genuinely works for you
Community (optional): Access to the broader Heartfelt Support network if you’d like to share experiences and connect with others on a similar path — though this is an option, not a requirement
Resources: Guides and materials created by the team to support each stage of the process

How to get started

The programme can be accessed through your NDIS plan, depending on your goals. Fill in our simple referral form and we’ll be in touch to talk through whether this is a good fit and how we’d approach your particular situation.