Holy shit, we won Business of the Year.
Still processing that. Massive surprise. Laura and I had already taken out the Innovation & Technology award earlier in the evening and hadn't even clocked there was an overall category. Then all of a sudden we were back up on stage, blinking, relating the story of how we'd never intended to start a business, certainly never imagined winning awards for it eighteen years later.
We moved to Castlemaine six years ago, escaping Melbourne's inevitable developer creep with a unique opportunity to build our dream workshop. Space to think, to experiment, to build something meaningful rather than just bigger.
The Innovation & Technology recognition felt like validation for all the weird decisions. The Swedish robots from 2003 that we've taught to sand shelves. The Pencil Sharpener CNC we designed and had built by a mate. The configurator I coded myself over months of evenings because the subscription software was bleeding us dry. Sharing all of it openly because we believe small makers shouldn't be locked out of advanced manufacturing.
But Business of the Year? That's about the whole picture. The four-day week we've run since 2016. The degrowth model that saved us after nearly destroying ourselves chasing 1.8 million revenue. The incredible humans who are on the journey of what we're building. Laura, whose artistic vision and decisive spreadsheet logic has helped shaped everything from day one.
Thank you to the judges who took the time to visit our workshop and understand what we're trying to do. Thank you to this awesome community that gets it.
Trust your gut and just make stuff. Sometimes people notice.
Jem
Leave a comment (all fields required)