Self-employed

When you’re self-employed, this can feel even more complicated, because there isn’t really a switch you can turn off. The truth is, there probably isn’t a perfect answer here. What you’re aiming for is something workable, not something flawless. Something that protects your health while still keeping things afloat where possible.

It can help to gently look at a few practical, and personal, areas:

• Treatment and timing: How predictable or unpredictable are your appointments, side effects, or fatigue?
• Your actual workload: What parts of your work are essential, and what could pause, slow down, or be simplified?
• Energy in real terms: Not what you wish you could do, but what your body is actually able to hold right now.
• Client expectations: What absolutely needs your attention, and what could be delayed, delegated, or referred elsewhere?
• Admin load: Emails, invoicing, scheduling, what can be reduced or made easier for a while?
• Home life: You’re still carrying everything outside of work too. What needs to be protected or shared more right now?

For many self-employed people, work isn’t just income — it’s identity, structure, and security.

• Possible benefits: income continuity, keeping your business alive, sense of purpose or normality
• Possible downsides: exhaustion, pressure to “keep going,” slower recovery, or feeling like you never fully step out of work mode

Both sides can be true at once. And what feels manageable can change week by week.

Build flexibility into everything, deadlines, client expectations, and scheduling. Avoid over-committing and allow space for change between treatment cycles.

Cancer and its treatment can affect energy, focus, and consistency in ways that build over time rather than appearing all at once.

Practical ways to adapt include:

• Prioritising essential work only
• Reducing non-critical commitments early, before fatigue builds
• Building buffer time into schedules and deadlines
• Proactively adjusting expectations with clients
• Planning around fluctuating energy rather than fixed output

The aim is not to stop working where possible, but to make work more adaptable to changing capacity.

Clear communication helps maintain trust and reduces pressure during treatment.

• Set expectations early and keep them simple
• Be proactive about changes to timelines where needed
• Keep boundaries clear and consistent
• Offer alternatives or adjusted delivery where possible
• Avoid over-explaining — clarity is more helpful than detail

A simple approach is often enough:
“I’m currently adjusting my capacity during treatment, and may need to work more flexibly over this period.”

Cancer can impact income quickly. Early planning and access to support can reduce financial pressure.

Key support pathways in New Zealand include:

• Work and Income – income support and assistance
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• Inland Revenue Department – business tax flexibility, payment arrangements
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• Business.govt.nz – business continuity planning and support tools
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These organisations can help with income continuity, payment arrangements, and adapting business obligations during illness.

If you have existing insurance policies, it’s important to review them early. Talking with your insurer or broker can help you understand what support you may be eligible for as your work capacity changes.

For self-employed people, insurance can play a key role in maintaining income and stability during treatment.

Depending on your cover, this may include:

• Health or medical insurance: Helps cover private treatment and reduce waiting times
• Trauma or critical illness insurance: A lump sum payment after diagnosis, which can support both personal and business costs
• Income protection or mortgage insurance: Regular payments if you’re unable to work
• Total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance: A lump sum if you’re unable to return to work long-term
• Life insurance (terminal illness benefit): Early access to funds in specific circumstances

Things to consider:

• Policies usually won’t cover conditions known before taking them out
• Waiting periods may apply before claims can be made
• Cover levels and conditions vary between providers

If you’re unsure what you have in place, a quick review with your insurer or broker can give you clarity and options.

Treatment effects often accumulate gradually. Fatigue, cognitive changes, and recovery time between cycles can increase over time, making workload feel harder to sustain even if nothing has changed in the business itself.

Not necessarily. Some people reduce workload based on capacity, pause parts of their business, or temporarily simplify operations. The right approach depends on your capacity, financial needs, and treatment plan.

The most protective approach is early adjustment rather than waiting for exhaustion. Reducing workload before capacity drops too far helps prevent longer recovery periods later.

No. You only need to share what is necessary to manage expectations. You are not required to disclose medical details.

Start early with financial planning and explore support options such as Work and Income or tax adjustments. Reducing overheads and simplifying operations can also help stabilise income.

Yes. Capacity often fluctuates during treatment and can improve again after treatment ends. Changes are not always permanent.

For self-employed people, this is often one of the hardest parts. Financial pressure can sit right alongside everything else you’re managing. It can help to look at what is necessary right now, not what you’d ideally want things to be. Sometimes the most workable path is a temporary one, not a permanent one.

Support can come from financial services, small business advisory services, healthcare teams, and trusted organisations such as Work and Income and Business.govt.nz. Reaching out early helps keep more options open.

When you’re self-employed, your work often feels deeply personal. It’s not just a job, it’s something you’ve built. It can feel hard to separate “you” from “your business.”

It might help to gently ask: what part of this is my identity, and what part is just circumstance right now? Those things can shift over time.

That’s very common during treatment. The goal doesn’t have to be doing everything; it might be doing the minimum viable version of your work for a period of time.

That could look like:

• scaling back hours or services
• focusing only on essential clients
• pausing certain offerings
• bringing in support (even temporarily)
• extending timelines or managing expectations differently

This isn’t stepping back from your work; it’s reshaping it around what your body can carry right now.