Everyone needs to be able to earn a living, and if you run your own business, you might be concerned that bankruptcy will stop you from being able to do so. The good news is that you can still run a business as a bankrupt person. You might find, though, that you have to do things a little differently than before.

Probably the biggest restriction you will find as a bankrupt person is that you are not allowed to be a Director of a Pty Ltd company. If you do own a company, you would either need to step down as a director of the company and the Trustee in Bankruptcy will need to make an assessment as to whether the shares you hold in the company can be sold. There is no restriction from you to operate as a sole trader or in a partnership though, so your options would be to start again with a new ABN or become an employee of a company. You should also note that if you are in a partnership at the time you go bankrupt, it will be dissolved, but a new partnership could be set up after that.

Whilst operating as a sole trader or in a partnership during bankruptcy, you are required to disclose the fact that you are bankrupt to the people that you are doing business with. You can do this by either disclosing it directly, or by using your full name as your business name.