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Company: Annette Densham, Gold Coast, Queensland
Nomination Submitted by: Award Writing Services
Company Description: Wordsmithing compelling award entries for enterpreneurs and business leaders
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Female Entrepreneur – Consumer Services –11 to 2,500 Employees
 Nomination Title: Kerry Bolton: Caring Lotus Helping People With Disabilities Thrive
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2022 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 198 words used.
Kerry Bolton, founder of Caring Lotus, has a diverse background in compliance, business analysis, and care management. Before starting Caring Lotus in 2021, she was a Safety Compliance Manager at Easy iCare, creating onboarding systems, implementing policies, and conducting internal investigations.
She’s run her own freelance business, Captivating 2 Eyes, providing analysis, system training, and web design services. Her earlier roles improved customer claims processes, streamlining systems, creating process maps, managing billing databases, and overseeing system migrations and upgrades. This laid the strong foundations for Caring Lotus, where she brings her strategic vision and compassionate approach to transforming disability care. Her leadership ensures personalised, proactive, and community-engaged support for clients.
Starting Caring Lotus in 2021, her mission is to revolutionise disability care, going beyond basic care, focusing on personalised attention, proactive solutions, and community engagement. Her leadership has transformed countless lives, ensuring everyone feels valued and understood.
Under Kerry's guidance, Caring Lotus provides comprehensive NDIS support services to people with disabilities, including In-Home Support and Community Access.
Creating the Caring Lotus app streamlined operations and supported staff, making administrative tasks more efficient. She’s led Caring Lotus from start up to turning over $5m and employing over 100 people.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2022 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
In our first year, we turned over $1.78 million, to $3.8 million in 2023, and hit $5.7 million in 2024 - 120% growth without any marketing spend.
- Wish Keeper - a secure platform that allows our clients to store important information and personal wishes, ensuring their preferences are always respected, especially during critical times.
- Matchmaking - pairing support workers and clients based on shared interests; we matched a car enthusiast support worker with a young client who loves cars just as much. They now spend their time together fixing cars, visiting wreckers, and attending car shows. This careful matchmaking helps build strong, personalised connections, making their time together both enjoyable and productive.
- “MUD” form—standing for Miscommunication, Understanding, or Directions—to help us continuously improve. If needed, we send sorry cards to workers or clients, showing we take ownership of our mistakes.
- Professional development - Aaron Sansoni membership and Business Network International (BNI), improving what we do and supporting local businesses, directing over $65k their way.
- Caring Lotus app - designed/developed by me as a central hub listing every staff member for easy connection and communication, centralises all forms, and integrated links to important sites and support helplines to ensure our team has the resources they need at their fingertips.
- Support workers with two years of experience can become certified in just two to four weeks through RTO and RPL.
- Intake process - revamped to be more personalised and client-focused by thoroughly understanding each client’s needs and preferences.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced in 2013, its aim was to provide equitable, personalised support for Australians with disabilities to enhance their quality of life and social and economic participation. The scheme has faced criticism for its complex processes, inconsistent funding, lengthy waiting times, lack of specialist providers, poor communication, administrative burdens, and inflexibility. People with disabilities and their families have been taken advantage of by providers, who’ve overcharged for services, provided substandard care, exploited gaps in regulation, and engaged in fraudulent activities, undermining the scheme's effectiveness and integrity.
As someone with fresh eyes on the industry, Kerry vowed to do things differently.
The successes of the past two years underpin her commitment to give Caring Lotus clients agency and control over their plans, to reinforce and inspire support workers to remember that every client is a person first. Focusing on personalised onboarding and daily care, prioritising ethical practices, ensuring transparency and accountability, and consistently maintaining high standards of service quality and client satisfaction, Kerry has achieved what she set out to achieve. In an industry where casual staff retention is low, she has created a workplace that inspires her team to go above and beyond. This is also reflected in the programs Caring Lotus has rolled out that go beyond standard care. Recognising that people with disabilities want to earn an income and be part of the community is driven by entrepreneurial and social initiatives like the car wash and regular social events.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 52 words used.
Please read our support document. It shows more detail about our journey from start up to a thriving business helping 100s of people with disabilities. The document has insights on our growth, values, community engagement initiatives, social media stats for engagement, financial insights and photos of the incredible people we work with.
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