Winners take centre stage at the Awards

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Despite the gloom & doom - and the ongoing turmoil in the international economy – the resilience, the tenacity, and the courage of small business owners in backing their own judgement was in full view at the My Business  ActionCOACH Awards for 2008. By Nicola Card.

Nobody ever claimed that running a business was easy. But for the winners and finalists in the 2008 My Business ActionCOACH Awards, the fruits of all their hard work, their passion, and their commitment to developing their business, was evident in abundance at the Awards Gala Dinner at Sydney’s historic Doltone House.

To the applause of the 300 guests, the 30-plus finalists – and the chosen 11 winners – were congratulated for their achievements in building exemplary businesses. These are businesses which have defied the odds to grow rapidly and successfully. It was a night to celebrate success against a backdrop of increasing uncertainty in the international economy.

Spanning a wide range of goods and services, the finalists ranged from providers of food to  information technology, home services, publishing, modified vehicles, rental vehicles, innovative machinery, office and staffing services, travel industry, home and garden furnishings, paints, beauty, airlines and baby gifts.

Congratulating the finalists and the winners, the Editor of My Business, Peter Stirling, said that the Awards proved that “these awards are testimony that  the heart of small business is beating strongly despite the tougher economic conditions. A successful, resilient small business is at the foundation of our nation’s prosperity.”

More than 500 businesses entered the 2008 Awards and Stirling said that “The sheer diversity of the businesses that participated in the 2008 awards speaks volumes for the creativity and ingenuity of  Australian small business. There is a not a niche in our economy or society so narrow that some small business cannot locate it and then provide a product or service to satisfy those consumers”

He thanked the sponsors – ActionCOACH. St George, Provident Cashflow, Fuji Xerox Printers, The National Institute of Accountants, 3 Mobile, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, GIO, QuickBooks and Nuance Communications,  for their “fabulous support”.

From the eleven category winners (see here), Aussie Farmers Direct was selected as the winner of the ActionCOACH Award.

Overall winner, Aussie Farmers Direct  has reintroduced home delivery of milk, bread and other staples via a rapidly expanding franchise network. In accepting the Award, Chairman, Paul Tobin, said that it was gratifying that they were assisting Australian farmers by buying directly from them rather than through the largely overseas owned food processing industry in Australia.

Co-founders Graham Adams and Shayne Hodskiss,
(left and second from left) with Braeden Lord, CEO, and Paul
Tobin (right), Chairman of Aussie Farmers Direct

The aim of Aussie Farmers Direct was to cut out the middleman by buying as much as possible from the “farmgate”.

Deputising for ActionCOACH founder Brad Sugars, who was unable to attend, Master Licensee with ActionCOACH, Bruce Doyle commented that  Aussie Farmers Direct was “a blast from the past. Some have memories of when we were kids having the horse and cart milko. Then grandma following the cart down the street armed with a shovel to collect manure for the roses!”

“Congratulations to all at Aussie Farmers Direct for enabling us to revisit and relive the past, with the convenience of fresh perishable products delivered right to your doorstep,” Bruce said.

Testimony to the value of the Awards was last year’s ActionCOACH winner of the Award for Outstanding Excellence, Katherine Sampson, whose sandwich bar franchise Healthy Habits goes from strength to strength.

Speaking at the 2008 Awards, Katherine graciously attributed part of the year’s extraordinarily strong business growth – the opening of ten new Healthy Habits sandwich bars/franchise across Australia – to the exposure of Healthy Habits through My Business. “Investors are knocking on our doors,” she said.

The expansion of her sandwich franchise Healthy Habits continues unabated across Australia with ten more stores being opened including one at Melbourne airport and one at Virgin’s new offices in Brisbane (where she hopes to one day serve Richard Branson!).

Click here to view company profiles of all the Winners and Finalists