Business South West buoyed by expanded award applications

Finalists for the 2019 South West Business Excellence awards were announced at a sundowner at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on Saturday.

The second biggest number of applications in the awards’ 25-year history were received and whittled down to finalists across 19 categories.

Business South West chairwoman Dr Robyn Morris said simply entering provided arguably the biggest benefit for business owners.

“In applying for the awards business owners make a conscious decision to invest their most precious resource – time – into their most important asset – their business,” she said.

“Small business owners say they are ‘time poor’ so too often get caught up working ‘in’ their business and struggle to find the time to work ‘on’ their business.

“The application process is designed to encourage business owners to stop, take stock of where their business is at, reflect on what they have done to get there.

Dr Morris said a push to attract more applications from beyond the City of Bunbury was successful.

“Entries and finalists came from businesses located in eight of the 12 local government areas comprising the region which is a great spread,” she said.

“One of the largest increases in participation in the awards was from the Shire of Capel – previously we would only have one or two applications but it was up to six from there this year.”

The awards will be presented at a gala dinner at the Quality Hotel Lighthouse on June 29.