The short answer: decide registered versus unregistered first (it drives your costs and timeline), budget $10,000 to $50,000 depending on supports, expect three to six months end to end, and spend the waiting period building the brand, Google presence and coordinator relationships that deliver your first participants. The detail, including a cost table, is below.
Starting an NDIS business in 2026 means entering a large and growing market. As at 31 March 2026 the scheme had 774,456 participants with approved plans, with more than 18,500 new participants joining that quarter alone, according to the NDIA quarterly reports. The flip side is that you are joining a crowded field: NDIA data shows roughly 16,400 active registered providers and around 254,000 active unregistered providers competing for that work. Demand is real, but so is the competition, and that shapes nearly every decision below. We help new providers launch into this market every month, and the founders who do well are the ones who treat compliance and demand as one project, not two.
The first fork in the road, and the one most new founders get rushed through. Registered providers can support every participant, including the roughly one third whose funding is agency-managed, and registration is mandatory for certain supports (SIL, SDA, behaviour support and plan management among them). The cost is a formal application, an independent audit and ongoing compliance obligations with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
Unregistered providers can support plan-managed and self-managed participants, which together make up the majority of the scheme. You still must follow the NDIS Code of Conduct, you still need insurance and worker screening, but you skip the audit. Many successful support work and community participation businesses launch unregistered, prove demand, then register once revenue justifies it. The numbers back this up: unregistered providers outnumber registered ones by more than fifteen to one in the NDIA data, which tells you most of the market is delivering supports without an audit certificate.
One caveat worth flagging early. The NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce has recommended a graduated, mandatory registration model, and the government has signalled change is coming, starting with higher-risk supports such as platform providers and SIL. If you launch unregistered today, build your systems as if registration is on the horizon, because for many support types it eventually will be. That way the eventual audit is a tidy-up, not a rebuild.
Budget honestly before you start, because under-capitalised providers fail before their marketing ever gets a chance. Typical ranges in 2026:
| Item | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business setup (ABN, structure, accounting) | $500 to $3,000 | Company structure costs more than sole trader, protects more |
| Insurance (public liability, professional indemnity) | $1,000 to $3,500/yr | Required regardless of registration status |
| Worker screening & police checks | $80 to $150 per worker | NDIS Worker Screening Check, state-issued |
| Policies & procedures | $500 to $5,000 | Templates exist; tailor them or auditors notice |
| Verification audit (lower-risk supports) | $900 to $3,000 | Desktop audit for supports like support work |
| Certification audit (higher-risk supports) | $3,000 to $15,000+ | Required for SIL, behaviour support and similar |
| Brand, website and launch marketing | $3,000 to $10,000 | The part most founders skip, then regret |
All up: a lean unregistered launch can start under $10,000; a certified SIL provider should plan $25,000 to $50,000+ before the first participant arrives.
Your registration groups define what you can deliver and which audit you face. New providers routinely over-register, paying certification-level audit costs for supports they will not deliver in year one. Start narrow with the supports you will genuinely provide, then add groups later. Adding a group is a variation; carrying unused high-risk groups is an annual compliance tax.
Registration requires an approved quality auditor to assess you against the NDIS Practice Standards, and which audit you face depends on the risk of the supports you deliver. The NDIS Commission sets out two pathways.
Verification applies to providers delivering only lower-risk or lower-complexity supports. It is largely a documents review of your qualifications, insurance, worker screening and complaints handling. Many verification-pathway providers already meet professional regulation through bodies like AHPRA, which is part of why the bar is lighter.
Certification applies to providers delivering one or more higher-risk or more complex supports, such as SIL, behaviour support or assistance with personal care. It runs in two stages: Stage One is generally completed remotely, with the auditor reviewing your self-assessment and uploaded evidence; Stage Two generally happens onsite and tests whether your policies are actually lived out in practice, including staff and participant interviews. This is the audit that catches copy-pasted policies, because the auditor is checking your documents against your day-to-day reality.
Auditors are private companies and prices vary widely, so get three quotes. The Commission maintains the list of approved quality auditors you must choose from.
From application to registration commonly runs three to six months: gathering documents and policies (2 to 6 weeks), audit scheduling and completion (4 to 10 weeks), then Commission assessment (4 to 12 weeks, sometimes longer). The mistake is treating this as dead time. It is your marketing runway.
The providers who land participants in month one of registration are the ones who built visibility during the application months. We see this pattern repeatedly: two providers register in the same quarter, one opens to a waiting list and the other opens to silence, and the only difference is that the first one used the audit wait to get found. In rough order of priority, and almost all of it free:
The full playbook is in our guide to getting your first NDIS clients, and the maths on what marketing is worth is in the ROI calculator.
There is no single licence to run an NDIS business, but the requirements depend on what you deliver. To provide most supports you do not need a specific degree, though workers must hold an NDIS Worker Screening Check, complete the free NDIS Worker Orientation Module, and have first aid and CPR. Some supports do require qualified professionals: behaviour support needs a registered practitioner, allied health needs registered therapists, and nursing tasks need registered nurses. If you are starting a support work or community participation business, relevant experience and the right screening matter more than formal qualifications.
What you do need, regardless of service type, is genuine competence in the supports you offer and the systems to deliver them safely. Auditors and coordinators both look for evidence that you understand person-centred practice, risk, incident management and the rights of participants. If you are coming from outside the sector, partner early with someone who has lived or worked in disability support; it shortens the learning curve and strengthens your credibility.
Your legal structure affects your tax, your personal liability and how investable the business looks later. The three common options:
| Structure | Best for | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | Solo support workers testing the market | Cheapest and simplest, but your personal assets are exposed and it is harder to scale or sell |
| Company (Pty Ltd) | Most providers planning to employ staff or grow | More setup and accounting, but limits personal liability and looks more credible to coordinators and funders |
| Trust (with a corporate trustee) | Providers with tax planning or asset protection needs | Most complex and costly; get accounting and legal advice first |
Most providers who intend to employ workers and pursue registration start as, or quickly move to, a company. Whatever you choose, get an ABN, register for GST if you expect to turn over $75,000 or more, open a separate business bank account, and set up bookkeeping from day one. We are not accountants, so confirm your structure with a registered tax agent before committing.
It can be, but margins depend entirely on your service type, your staff costs and how full your capacity stays. The scheme pays set rates under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, so you cannot simply raise prices; profitability comes from running efficiently and keeping participants and shifts filled.
The two levers that decide whether an NDIS business is profitable are the same for everyone: keep your capacity full, and keep your cost to win each participant low. The first is operations; the second is marketing. Many providers are technically excellent and still struggle because they never solved demand. You can model the numbers for your own service with our ROI calculator and cost-per-participant calculator.
Pulling it together, here is the order most successful new providers follow:
Steps one to nine get you open. Step ten is what keeps you open. If you would like that engine built for you, our launch package for new providers covers the brand, website and first marketing in your first ninety days.
A free growth plan shows you what to do, in what order, for your provider type and region. You keep it either way.
A lean unregistered launch can start under $10,000 including insurance, worker screening, policies and basic marketing. A registered provider should budget $15,000 to $30,000 for lower-risk supports on the verification pathway, and $25,000 to $50,000 or more for certification-level supports like SIL, where the audit alone can run into five figures. Build a marketing line into that budget from the start, because a registration certificate with no way to be found does not pay wages.
Commonly three to six months end to end: document and policy preparation (around 2 to 6 weeks), audit scheduling and completion (4 to 10 weeks), then Commission assessment (4 to 12 weeks, sometimes longer). Certification audits take longer than verification because they include a Stage One remote review and a Stage Two onsite audit. Use that period to build your brand, website, Google presence and coordinator relationships so launch day starts with demand rather than silence.
Yes, for plan-managed and self-managed participants, provided your support type does not legally require registration (supports like SIL, SDA, behaviour support and plan management do require it). Unregistered providers actually outnumber registered ones by more than fifteen to one across the scheme. You must still follow the NDIS Code of Conduct, hold insurance and complete worker screening. Note that the government has signalled a move toward graduated, mandatory registration over time, so build your systems as if an audit is coming.
It can be, but margins reward providers who keep capacity filled. The scheme pays set rates under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, so you cannot lift prices to fix a margin; profitability comes from roster efficiency, low vacancy and a low cost to win each participant. SIL earns high revenue per participant but one empty bed can wipe out a home’s margin. Demand exists across the scheme; for most providers, profitability is mostly a utilisation and visibility problem.
There is no single licence to run an NDIS business, and most support work and community participation services do not require a specific degree. Workers must hold an NDIS Worker Screening Check, complete the free Worker Orientation Module, and have first aid and CPR. Some supports do require qualified professionals: behaviour support needs a registered practitioner, allied health needs registered therapists, and nursing tasks need registered nurses. Coordinators and auditors care most about evidence that you can deliver supports safely and follow person-centred practice.
Further reading on this site: Our launch package for new providers · NDIS statistics · Getting your first NDIS clients
A specialist reviews your visibility against the providers competing in your catchment, and sends a written growth plan within two business days. You keep it either way.