2023 State Winners - VIC

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: The winner of the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards Victorian Accelerating Women Award is Conserving Beauty.

Footage: Two recipients walk past tables of well-dressed people and onto the stage to accept their award. 

Audio: Upbeat electronic music, audience cheers and applauds. 

Recipient speaks: Wow. We are so, so honoured and so grateful to be recognised tonight alongside so many brilliant businesses, leaders, founders and entrepreneurs. And we couldn't be more grateful to Telstra. So thank you for the opportunity for making this happen.

We are a very proud, predominantly female-led team, backed by mostly women, mostly female owned with an all-female board of directors. And that was a really big deal, given that less than 1% of global venture capital funding goes to women led businesses.

So, to be recognised tonight is a true testament to my wonderful team who are here tonight. Kim, Sage, my beautiful family and my strong entrepreneurial spirit that they've definitely taught me. We're hoping that we can pass that on to our team on our journey.

Thank you so much and congratulations to everybody.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo. 

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays.

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: It's my pleasure to announce the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards Victorian Building Communities Award winner is CLUBMAP.

Recipient speaks: Thank you to Telstra and to the business award judges for recognising CLUBMAP and its contribution to building communities. And congratulations to all the other finalists across all categories.

Community is in our DNA, our business purpose is to create healthy clubs for connected communities. And we're doing it, connecting online to clubs and communities right across the country to even the most remote areas of Australia.

Because in a nation that loves its sport, sporting clubs are the beating heart of community. We've learned that clubs in all sports, wherever they are, faced similar challenges. One of the biggest is that too much is done by too few. And it's been that way for such a long time. One of CLUBMAP's guiding principles is to share the load, but you can't do that alone. You need to share the load with someone. So we show you how to connect both within and outside the club with people who bring skills and energy and their own community connections with them.

So, it becomes a virtuous cycle. We show clubs how to recruit volunteers, how to boost membership, how to increase their revenue, how to plan for new facilities and to engage their community so they can look to the future with confidence.

CLUBMAP can only help community clubs around the nation because it's powered by a wonderfully energetic and diverse team who are truly passionate about sport and community. This Telstra Best of Business Award is recognition of their efforts and those of all the grassroots club administrators who have followed the CLUBMAP formula to create healthy, connected community clubs once again.

On behalf of them all, we thank you.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo. 

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays. 

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: So the Telstra 2023 Best of Business Awards Victorian Championing Health Award goes to Dental Boutique.

Recipient speaks: Wow. It's such an honour to be in a room with such amazing and inspiring business owners here. So thank you, everyone. When, May and I first started ten years ago, we started with a single 20-year old donated dental chair and we would walk from door to door in our suburb putting flyers up because we didn't have any budget for marketing and we didn't have any funds for it. Hoping that someone would give us a chance to transform your smile. They were prompt to say that ten years later we've grown from a two-person clinic to a team of 200. Across Australia, we have transformed more than 30,000 smiles, making us one of the largest cosmetic dental practices in the nation.

We are in the business of changing smiles and changing lives. I experienced firsthand what it feels like to be self-conscious about your smile. When I was nine, I had a fall and broke my two front teeth. Growing up, I would never smile in photos and I would always cover my mouth when I laughed.

Our mission at Dental Boutique is to inspire and empower every Australian to overcome their fears in achieving the best health, dental health and smile that they deserve. To our 3,000 patients, thank you so much for trusting us with a smile journey and for believing in us. Without your support and referrals we would not be standing here today.

To our 200 members of our dental boutique family, thank you for always going above and beyond for all our patients. Creating an environment where patients get to experience the best that dentistry has to offer. Now to our principal dentist, Dr Sam, who is here with us today, Dr Cigdem, Dr Ben, and Dr Ly thank you for believing in our vision and creating a legacy in a dental field where we get to create life-changing smiles.

It's such an honour to be able to represent all of you. Thank you to our parents for supporting and believing in us. To our sons, Ryan and Alex, who taught us love and patience. And finally, to the amazing judges and Telstra for making all of this possible and gathering the best of the best in the country here in this very room.

Now, we look forward to continuing a journey to become the first national cosmetic dental brand trusted by Australians and to be the go to for everything in cosmetic. I'll leave you with a quote, “Success comes to those who are too busy to look for it.”

Thank you, everyone.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo. 

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays. 

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: The 2023 Telstra of Business Awards Victorian Embracing Innovation Award winner is Liberate Learning.

Recipient speaks: How awesome is that? Hey, thank you. Thank you, Telstra, and congratulations to everyone for making it this far - a room full of incredibly awesome people. 

On behalf of Liberate Learning, there's just four of us here, but on behalf of the team, thank you. Really humbled to accept this award. We're incredibly excited to be able to create virtual and blended learning solutions for corporate higher education and government agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand.

And again, to take this this award, we're super excited. So thank you. Thank you everyone, and thank you, Telstra. Have a great night.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo. 

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays. 

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: So the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards Victorian Outstanding Growth Award winner is Style Bundle.

Audio from recipient: Wow, very big shock to be standing here. Eight years ago Susan and I were meeting at each other's houses in our pyjamas, once our kids were asleep, strategising late into the evenings about starting the business we'd never imagined standing here.

What an incredible honour to be recognised among the calibre of businesses in the room tonight. We should all be incredibly proud of our achievements to make it this far.

Firstly, thank you to Telstra for running such an incredible program that highlights the achievements of Australian businesses to our clients, for putting their faith in us to help represent their brand through every gift we send.

To our families and to our husbands who are here tonight for their support. No one can take a leap of faith without having somewhere safe to land. So, thank you for that. We're incredibly grateful. To my co-founder, Susan, how lucky am I to get to work each day with an inspiring person who I also get to call my best friend? So, thank you.

For us, resilience, passion and people have been instrumental in our growth and resilience, particularly during COVID where we were home-schooling six children and keeping the business running profitably – with a passion to create genuine and memorable connections between brands and their customers through high -impact insight driven gifting.

And now to people, our amazing team who make the magic happen. Louise, Kylie, Catherine, Jane and all the gift fulfilment team. You are all such an important part of our growth. This award is most importantly for you. Since day one in our spare bedrooms, profitable growth has been a key focus of our success and it's been absolutely a path to impact with our clients and impact with the work we do to create opportunities for women returning to the workforce after having a family.

Our growth to date has been 100% bootstrapped. It's frustrating that only 3% of total venture capital went to all 43 women founded start-ups last year. I call that out to that community tonight. We also need more female founded businesses in Australia, achieving high levels of growth and creating solutions to problems that our world is facing. And more women sitting in rooms like this in award ceremonies around the country and around the globe so that women get a seat at the table to make those decisions and make our world a better place. For us this is just the start.

Thanks very much.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo.

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays.

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the presenter for the Embracing Innovation Award.

Presenter speaks: So the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards Victoria Promoting Sustainability Award winner is CarbonLite Enterprises.

Recipient speaks: Well, thank you. I guess the good thing about the last category is you can take all the time in the world. You know, there's no more two minute limits. You really can't. Yeah, I really can't. So, let's get on with this.

Thank you very much, Telstra, for putting on this amazing event and congratulations to all the winners and finalists tonight and to our extraordinary CarbonLite team. I'm sorry. Your sacrifice, your commitment and the relentless effort. This is not how I planned this. All right. Your blood, sweat and tears turned an idea into this business – what it is today. So, this award is for you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're living in a new era. A time of great challenge, but also a great opportunity to stop climate change. We're going to have to decarbonise and transform entire industries, communities, businesses and every household. And we're going to have to do it pretty fast.

For any change to take place, a decision is required first. So we can make a decision in a positive state of mind or in a state of pain and grief. So in other words, we can be proactive or we can be reactive.

So taking help, for example, I spoke to Kate yesterday. Again, that's a good example. People, not everyone, right, some people, hear me out, change their diet and exercise regime after they get a health scare. That doesn't make any sense. My point is that we don't have to wait for weather events to get worse. We don't have to wait for government to come up with rules and regulations that somehow guide this to some miracle solution. We can be the courageous and the bold leaders and entrepreneurs that we want to be, that we're going to have to be to inspire others and to unite people, to create, to build and leave behind a much better sustainable and an ecologically balanced future.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we do just that, we will indeed change the world. Thank you very much.

Footage: The audience applauds and cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ next to the Telstra logo.

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays.