Australia’s outstanding female small-business owners were revealed at a gala event Saturday evening, with the 2023 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards crowning 62 of the country’s most inspiring and influential small-business women.
The most prestigious award – the 2023 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion ICON – was taken out by Mel Gholami of Planix Projects, a pioneer of Australia’s construction industry. Mel is one of the first female founders of a project-management company, and is still one of vey few women in such a role. Planix Projects is thriving, despite the many challenges facing the construction industry, and Mel’s charitable contributions – including causes that address Australia’s housing crisis – were also instrumental in her winning the award.
Jacine Greenwood of QLD-based, Roccoco Botanicals won the 2023 Small Business Champion Influential Woman category, having been named the inaugural Women Changing the World Awards in the Women in Business category in London earlier this year; Pippa Hanson of Victoria’s The Sports Injury Clinic was honoured as 2023 Small Business Champion Entrepreneur; and the 2023 Young Small Business Champion Entrepreneur category was won by Erin Criticos of Moving Mountains Therapy in NSW.
Nominees came from around the country, from our capital cities to rural, regional and suburban towns, and included women working in fields as diverse as environmentalism and Indigenous business leadership, agriculture and disability support services to IT, retail, beauty and mechanics’ workshops.
The latest Government data reveals that of the 3.3 million small businesses operating in Australia, more than one-third are run by women and that proportion is growing all the time – Australian Bureau of Statistics data released in 2022 reveals a 46 per cent rise in the number of female business owners in the last two decades.
“It’s high-time we better recognise the massive economic, social and cultural contributions of Australia’s female small-business trailblazers,” Steve Loe, Awards Founder and Managing Director of Precedent Productions – the organisation that coordinates the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards – said.
“Just as the Matildas shone during this year’s World Cup, attracting the nation’s admiration and highlighting the positive contribution of women in sport, this comprehensive awards programme celebrates the outstanding calibre of our country’s female entrepreneurs and those who are inspiring future generations of leaders,” Loe added.
Entries for the 2024 programme will open in the first half of next year.
