When Brendan Wunungmurra saw people in Gapuwiyak spending money sending broken phones to Darwin, he saw a service his own community could provide. Today, he is repairing phones and selling accessories through his business, Phone Gunga'yunamirr.

"People in Gapuwiyak were spending a lot of money sending their phones to Darwin for repairs. I wanted to bring that service to my community, so people could get their phones fixed locally," he says.

His business was among those showcased when Gapuwiyak hosted its first October Business Month event on 29 October, putting local entrepreneurs and their ambitions at the centre of a conversation about the community's economic future.

Held at Gapuwiyak Library, Räl Manapanmirr brought Traditional Owners together with emerging business owners and representatives from government and business support organisations. Impact North hosted the event through its Stepping into Business program, with three participants presenting ideas ranging from phone repairs to Bunggul performances and healthy food takeaway.

For Aboriginal people building businesses in their own communities, the value of an enterprise can reach well beyond its income. A service that saves families the cost of sending a phone away has an everyday usefulness that people living there understand immediately.

That understanding was central to the message from Impact North chief executive Alexie Seller.

"The needs of a community are best understood by the people who live in it. They are the ones with the greatest opportunity to identify local challenges, create solutions and build businesses that make life better for the people around them," she notes.

The three business ideas reflect different ways participants want to contribute to Gapuwiyak. Their workplaces cultural knowledge alongside other business skills, with community priorities helping shape what they want to establish.

Visiting entrepreneur Jacqueline Phillips brought experience from Maningrida, where she founded JP Cultural Solutions. The Indigenous-owned business supports communication and cultural learning, helping build relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

An alumna of Impact North's Business Builder Program, Ms Phillips offered advice that left room for people to begin before they had everything worked out.

"Just start. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to take that first step," she says.

She also spoke directly to the need for people and organisations to work together.

"We can't succeed if we work in silos. We need to work together."

Her message had a practical audience. Representatives from the Northern Territory Government attended alongside the Northern Land Council and Indigenous Business Australia, creating opportunities for participants to connect with organisations involved in business development and community planning.

Stepping into Business supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to develop business ideas through workshops and mentoring, with individual support to identify their next steps and work towards their business goals.

Its approach recognises that support in remote communities needs to respect language and cultural knowledge while responding to what people want for their community. Business development begins with the person's idea and the circumstances in which they are working.

For attendee Richard Willcocks, the business presentations also revealed how much participants had grown through the process.

"Not only was I impressed with each business that Impact North has been engaging with, I was blown away by the depth of learning and personal growth that each business leader exhibited. These leaders are already a beacon of positivity and opportunity in their community, and it is sure to continue."

Ms Seller said organisations coming into communities had a responsibility to support people's ambitions without deciding their limits.

"It's not for us, coming from the outside, to judge what's possible. Our role is to support people who have a dream and help them turn that dream into a reality."

For Mr Wunungmurra, the opportunity began with something people in Gapuwiyak needed: somewhere local to get their phones fixed. His business now gives them that choice, and shows why the people who live in a community need to be at the centre of decisions about its economic future.

Ms Seller reflected on the responsibility behind that work.

"I came away with a renewed and deep-found respect for the people who choose the path of entrepreneurship. It's not an easy road, but people are taking it to make life better for their families and communities, look after Country and ensure their culture carries forward for future generations."

Gapuwiyak's first October Business Month event gave those ambitions a platform. What follows matters just as much: whether the organisations in the room continue backing these entrepreneurs as they build businesses on their own terms, for the community they call home.