You must have paid into social security though and earned a certain amount of credits in a specific time period to qualify (credits earned over past 10 years before becoming disabled).
If you reported your earnings for your own business "and" showed a profit then you did pay into social security. I also run and ran my own businesses for pretty many years but due to the high cost of computer expenses and other equipment, supplies, utilities, etc. my expenses deplete my income and I haven't shown a profit. Therefore I didn't pay into the system within the necessary time-frame to qualify. I don't even think I qualified when I worked full time for employers because of the lapses due to surgery and lack of education which gave me a lower income.
It is kind of a rip because the more money you made when working the better chance you have of having the required credits and collecting the most money! If you lack education as many my age do, and worked 60 hours a week when you did work it means nothing if the hourly rate was low and then you also had lapses due to medical problems and surgery.
I know someone who hardly worked in her life compared to me and she now gets SSD for Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. She is also much younger than me(therfore will collect much longer) and didn't have the years behind her of employment that I have. She didn't even work every week for many years but earned "very" good the little she did work (2 days or so every other week). She isn't as handicapped as I am and still does have a life to speak of and also doesn't have the amount of problems I have or all my surgeries. She doesn't require aid to walk or anything. This is a person who could push me around in my wheelchair for hours with no problem (on pain meds though).
I guess this shouldn't bother me but I do think it is so unfair the way some people have to struggle after working so hard all their lives only to have the misfortune of bad health destroy everything! JEAN