2022 Australian Rural Business Awards FINALIST

LOCAL BUSINESS SUCCESS: Adventure Awaits announced as a finalist in the 2022 Australian Rural Business Awards.

Adventure Awaits has been announced as a finalist in THREE categories at the inaugural Australian Rural Business Awards. Australian Made Excellence Award, Brocks & Mortar (Retailers) Excellence Award & Excellence in E-Commerce Award.

The Australian Rural Business Awards are presented by Australia’s leading online marketplace for rural and regional small businesses Spend With Us to celebrate, highlight and recognize the absolute talent that exists out there in rural and regional Australia.

Highlighting, for the first time in an Australian Rural Business Awards what small businesses in rural/regional Australia are achieving in business excellence, innovation and sustainability, new business, Australian made and e-commerce.

The awards are designed to recognise the strength, resilience, and talent of small business owners in rural and regional areas who have, in the last few years alone, gone through droughts, bushfires, mouse plagues, floods, and lack of tourism and a global pandemic.

Adele Dyson, owner of Adventure Awaits, Caravanning with Kids & Slide n’ Dry says she is excited to be named as a finalist in all three categories “We were chuffed to be nominated and the team got together to submit our achievements for judging. It’s safe to say we were all over the moon to be named as a Finalist in not only 1, but 3 categories”

“We have had quite an adventure over the past few years, including going through a massive rebrand & new website during the first lockdowns.” “We are very proud to be named amongst some other incredible small business owners, who all face the challenges of running a rural business and are kicking goals!”

Adele Dyson founded Adventure Awaits, a unique shop in Numurkah, Victoria that truly has ‘something for everyone’. Upon returning to work as a Business & Management Trainer after her 2nd maternity leave, Adele was made redundant, and she began to pursue a lifelong dream of owning her own business and becoming a ‘shop keeper’. Known in the beginning as Little Bags of Magic, Adele discovered she had a flair for finding unique & quirky products & found great joy in providing the local community with fabulous gifts, practical items and outstanding service. Despite numerous people advising her that a shopfront would never work in the small town, Adele moved her business from the garage at her home to a shopfront 2 years later. During the following 7 years, Adventure Awaits has created multiple ecommerce stores, manufactures Australian Made products, manages side businesses & now employs a team 10.

Adele is delighted to be named as a finalist and is proud of her teams achievements, particularly doubling their range of Australian Made products over the last 12 months.

“We are always on the hunt for unique products and absolutely fall over ourselves when we find products that are not only Australian designed, but also Aussie made. We proudly stock over 250 Australian Made products, many of them coming from other rural or regional areas”

Her passion for Australian Made is infectious.

“We absolutely love making our products here in Australia – they are high quality, reasonably priced, delivered with awesome service and result in us providing ongoing business to our suppliers & factories. In addition to this, we take pride in building a solid platform for other small business owners and their Aussie made products. Our Australian Made Collection takes centre stage on our website and we invest in advertising & marketing to ensure that this collection is visible to the masses. The other brilliant products that we have found over the years are from small business owners & families just like us – they had an idea, they invested in their idea and despite the challenges, they all CHOSE to support Aussie Made by producing onshore. We understand the struggles, the hard work, the dedication, and commitment that goes into producing your own products and also running a small business. What better way to support them than by becoming a stockist!”

“Supporting Australian Made is one of the driving forces behind Adventure Awaits. Rewind 10 years ago when we first starting chatting about designing and producing our very first product. I loved journaling with our girls when they were babies, we would write all about our adventures and turn them into story books – so when they were learning how to read, they would read from their Travel Journals: eg: “Today we went to the Zoo…”. When our eldest showed an interest in practicing her letters and joining in, we searched high and low for a Travel Journal that would suit her & grow with her. We could not find one that fit the bill or was Australian Made. Not one Australian Made journal on the market! How was this possible? My research went further and the more I looked, the more I found stories of our dying manufacturing industry. I was even shocked when I spoke to professionals about our plan and all of them responded like this: “You will never be competitive if you print in Australia”, “You will have to print overseas”. That was not an option and these comments but a fire in my belly and made me more determined to produce a quality product right here in my own backyard. I could type a novel about what happened next, however, I will fast forward – we found a local printer who took us through the entire process, worked with us on samples, guided us and in the end produced a product that is superior in quality and ticks all the boxes, plus it landed at a competitive price! A huge achievement that still brings tears to my eyes. A similar thing happened when we took over production of our Slide n’ Dry Pegless Clotheslines. I discovered that I did not have to manufacture overseas and also discovered that plastic manufacturing is very much alive and kicking here in Australia and we now have the opportunity to SHOUT IT OUT to the roof tops at every opportunity (even the bags the clotheslines come in are made in Melbourne).”

It can be challenging to be a successful small business in rural and regional Australia, and community plays an enormous part in that success. Adele believes that community has played an enormous part in their business success. “Without the support of the locals, many businesses will simply disappear. Not only is it vitally important for the community to be involved in our business, but also visa versa”

Read more at https://www.spendwithus.com.au/the-australian-rural-business-awards/

The founders of Spend With Us have been overwhelmed by the response to the awards and are so excited to see how many businesses have been involved.

“There is nothing that gives us greater joy than seeing businesses from the bush succeed and to see their passion and determination shine through. We’re also so thankful to our amazing sponsors who have also been inspired by many of our finalists' journeys”, say Donovan and Britz.

The winners of The Australian Rural Business Awards for 2022 will be announced during an online event on Friday 24th June 2022 from 7.30 pm. Tickets are on sale now. Melinda Schneider, Australia’s favourite singer/songwriter and Jack Delosa from The Entourage are the keynote speakers for the night and tickets are only $11.

You can purchase your tickets here: https://bit.ly/swuawardstickets (You don’t have to be a finalist to attend!)

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