Friday, March 29, 2024

Inaugural Australian Rural Business Awards highlights the best regional small businesses

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Sarah Britz and Jenn Donovan, co founders of Spend With Us

Exceptional small businesses are being recognised via the Australian Rural Business Awards, a newly-established awards system created exclusively for rural and regional small businesses. Powered by online bush marketplace Spend With Us, the awards shine a much-needed spotlight on the incredible retailers based in the country. 

Rural Business Awards banner

“When we researched awards for rural and regional small businesses, it was a massive surprise that there wasn’t one solely for rural and regional small businesses,” says Sarah Britz who along with Lauren Hately and Jenn Donovan founded Spend With Us to support businesses affected by bushfires, floods and COVID.

From helping rural communities recover from the trauma of the 2020 bushfires the platform has evolved into a growing network that links regional businesses with keen buyers from Australia and abroad. Now with a thriving collection of sellers on board, the two-year-old operation is looking to further expand its mission to highlight the talent in rural and regional Australia.

“Applying for awards is a marketing strategy that we undertake with great pride at Spend With Us. It’s such a great way of looking back at how far you’ve come in business, and it’s a great way to receive some recognition and marketing and it enables you to celebrate your business. So why wouldn’t we also want that for rural and regional small businesses?” says Sarah.

It wasn’t an easy task to get the first ever rural business awards going but with some help from their contacts who had previous awards programs experience, the trio were well on their way, improvising as they went along. With little to no budget, they made-do with the tools they had on hand and brought in a corporate liaison manager to help find businesses to support the venture.

“We already had a fairly big audience with our Facebook group having over 370,000 members, so we just started promoting and encouraging small business owners to take the time to celebrate,” says Jenn, “After all, we have all been through so much in the past few years or so. We used our network to spread the word, and the nominations and applications came rolling in.”

The categories included awards for Australian-made retailers, Indigenous businesses, businesses run by young rural Australians and businesses centred on sustainability and innovation.

“As co-founders of Spend With Us and the Australian Rural Business Awards, we stood at arm’s length as far as criteria and judging went, says Jenn. “Feedback from our independent judges suggested the businesses that really shined were ones who took time to answer the questions properly and took the judge on a journey with them as they read the application and made them want to know more.”

“The standout businesses were ones that delighted with their innovation or their resilience. It doesn’t always come back to which business is the biggest or has the biggest turnover; a lot of it comes down to their passion, making a difference, and a love of what they are doing in rural and regional areas.”

Typical of many in their position, rural and regional business owners don’t often take the time to bask in their successes. The trio believe the beauty of nominating for an award is that by answering key questions businesses can take stock of the lessons they’ve learned, set goals and plan for the future whether it’s the next 12 months or five years. 

Says Sarah, “It is by doing this that hardworking and humble business owners are more likely to give themselves a pat on the back saying ‘wow, we have achieved a lot!’ And that is something we definitely want to see more of.”

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