Kim Shaw, from Keilor Downs, Victoria, who founded Fairy Gardening Australia has been named a winner at the St George Banking Group AusMumpreneur Awards.
The awards were held at Crown Melbourne where talented mums from all over the country gathered to support and encourage other Australian mumpreneurs.
Mother of three, Kim was presented with the award by naming sponsor St George Bank’s Head of SME Stuart Zalunardo for outstanding customer service. Fairy Gardening Australia is Australia’s largest online retailer of miniature fairy garden products and miniature gardening community.
Kim said she was thrilled to win gold in her category in the 2016 St George Banking Group AusMumpreneur Awards against such a talented group of women.
“It is an honour to receive gold in these prestigious awards. Combining motherhood with business ownership has given me amazing opportunities. Dreaming big, achieving successes and being rewarded for dedication are things that my children see every day in their own home. My children have watched me make a difference to their own lives, our customers, our community and an industry. I don’t ask them what they want to be when they grow up, instead I ask them what they want to change.
“Fairy gardens are a space created within your environment especially for the fairies. Fairy Gardening Australia is an online retailer of miniature garden products and over the last four years I have grown our community to over 74,000 members which is the largest fairy gardening community in the world. Fairy gardens are a great way to encourage storytelling and imagination in your child’s outdoor environment.”
“The Ausmumpreneur Awards honour mums who take on the challenge of business ownership and recognise their dedication and contribution to the Australian community and economy. I am very proud to be among Australia’s best business women and am inspired by their amazing stories.”
This is the seventh year the AusMumpreneur Awards have run, with the business mum community growing at lightning speed as mothers look for opportunities to join the ranks of small business owners in search of more flexibility, financial freedom and family time.
AusMumpreneur Network co-founder Katy Garner said “the awards show the passion of women who want to fulfil their entrepreneurial dreams as well as be great mums.
“The number of women starting businesses has tripled in the last 12 months! Of the 668,670 women operating a small business in Australia currently, a total of 47 per cent are mums with children at home. We are thrilled to be the number one community for mumpreneurs and showcasing the best and the brightest each year through these awards and inspiring other women to follow their dreams too. We are creating new initiatives every year to help Australian Mums achieve their business dreams.”
“We are delighted that Kim has won this award, she has an outstanding business and is an inspirational role model and ambassador for mums in business everywhere. We wish her and all our amazing Ausmumpreneur Award winners every success in the coming year,” co-founder Peace Mitchell said.
St. George Bank is keen to support Australian entrepreneurs like Kim and her fellow AusMumpreneur Award winners, Stuart Zalunardo said.
“The awards are all about recognising the growing number of mums who are achieving outstanding business success while balancing motherhood.”
“I was blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of the award winners and am very confident that they will provide great inspiration for other mums considering starting their own business,” Stuart said.
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