The NEIS Program
What is the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme?
The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) aims to help eligible unemployed people start their own businesses.
Every person who comes into NEIS has the same burning desire. They do not currently enjoy the level of financial independence that they sincerely believe they are entitled to; AND they have an idea of how they might get to that point in their life. That burning desire is being realized by thousands of unemployed people each year, courtesy of the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. This is a self-employment program that helps job-seekers come off Centrelink income support and re-enter the work force by starting their own businesses. NEIS is extremely successful, helping to generate over 6,000 new businesses each year.
Job Services Australia Providers speak with Jobseekers about self-employment as a career option, and refer participants to NEIS Panel Members who are small business specialists contracted to the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). NEIS Panel Members are typically business consultants, registered training organisations, business enterprise centres or community organisations. They will evaluate your business idea, your suitability for self-employment and your eligibility for NEIS support. If they assess your business idea as being potentially viable they will help you develop a business plan and other NEIS support. Once the new business is up and running, they will continue to provide advice and mentoring throughout your first year of operation. They also facilitate networking between participants, which can spark some useful synergies.
NEIS provides an allowance equivalent to Newstart (non-Activity-Tested) for up to 12 months.
The scheme is particularly effective for long-term unemployed, who make up 40 per cent of participants. The National NEIS Association recognises that the scheme tends to suit people from a trade, small business or management background. In some cases, they are older workers who have been made redundant, who translate a hobby into a careers. It is also ideal in regional and farming areas, where there is a tradition of self-employment.
Most NEIS participants have very clear ideas about the type of enterprise they'd like to establish. Those most likely to succeed are service-based enterprises such as mobile bookkeepers, who don't require much start-up capital or infrastructure. NEIS Panel Members advise on the set-up of the business, bookkeeping and marketing of products or services.
Throughout Australia, 70 per cent of all small business start-ups fail in their first year, simply because they haven't done their homework. They work alone, failing to plan, research or properly cost their products and services. Within the NEIS ‘family’ of businesses, over 80% are still in business three years after they started, thanks to their intensive grounding in business management issues.