Perseverance and ingenuity are the qualities that claimed victory for a Gunnedah-based landscaping business at the New England Business Awards today.
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GW Group beat out Daily Ritual, Designer Bunches and Oomph Osteopathy in the micro business category at the NSW Business Chamber event in Tamworth this morning.
Judges were impressed by the company's ability to change its approach during the drought by offering more services and expanding into other towns and states.
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NVI caught up with owner Michael Cooke after the event and he said he was "overwhelmed" by the accolade because he started off with a second-hand mower, a broom and a borrowed car.
"It's an absolute transformation to go from borrowing a friend's car to having three company vehicles in three years," he said.
Mr Cooke set about changing the business about 12 months ago when he realised the need for a mowing service was quickly shriveling up. He is now doing contract management and spends half his time in Melbourne.
"We're not just going [to properties] to mow now, we're going there to prune, do gutter cleaning, window cleaning," he said.
"This is a hard year and just imagine if we weren't in a drought.
"Good companies achieve good results in a bad year and that's what we've done this year."
GW Group employs six staff and Mr Cooke said "without my team supporting the vision that I've got, we wouldn't be there".
"We can see the vision but we've only just started to get traction and the future is bright," he said.
"At least we know we're going in the right direction and we're doing something right."
His goals are to keep expanding within NSW and "strengthen more relationships in the township and really focus on expanding Gunnedah as the epicentre".
He also wants to continue "bringing that knowledge, experience and quality" from work in Melbourne.
"I think that's what's making us stand out - the quality assurance that the city offers where we operate and bring that back to regional towns and really kick some goals," he said.
When Mr Cooke attended the awards with other business owners this morning, he found "the resilience of regional Australia was really profound" in the drought.
He said he received some good advice from fellow business man Richard Gallen a few weeks ago and it had rung home.
"[Richard said], 'This is not the first drought and it won't be the last drought so we batten down the hatches and get on with business' and that really stayed with me," Mr Cooke said.