Mitchell Shire resident Leanne Tymms and her team at Easy Reach Scaffolding received an award at the 2024 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards recently—the biggest celebration of women in small business.
The night was ‘overwhelming’ for Ms Tymms, who walked on the red carpet with her son Lachlan and accepted the award in the Trade Services category, which recognised the business for excellence in customer service and for its financial comeback.
Easy Reach Scaffolding scored the highest result in the Trade Services category among thousands of entrants across more than 65 categories in retail, services, and manufacturing industries.
“At first, when we knew we were finalists, that was a wonderful honour just to get that far to be a finalist, but to actually win was pretty mind blowing,” Ms Tymms said.
“In some ways it set me back because it resulted in me reflecting. I sat and reflected about everything that’s happened over the last number of years, and I don’t really do that often, I’m normally focused on forging forward … I’m really proud of where we are and what we’ve achieved, and now in my mind I’m excited to see what’s next.”
Ms Tymms’ business journey began four years ago when she made the life-changing decision to take over her late husband’s respected business in Thomastown after he passed away in 2020 to a metastatic melanoma.
Stepping away from her day spa business in Heathcote Junction, Ms Tymms immersed herself in the larger-scale business, collaborating with the crew, and ‘picked their brains’ while she swept warehouse floors, observing the flow of work, and people in and out of the warehouse to learn how it all operated.
Knowing she needed to succeed as the director, Ms Tymms walked into the business during a critical time when it required major changes to both its financial and workplace strategies.
The financial turnaround was a significant overhaul in the system.
With a team of 28 staff, predominantly men, Ms Tymms expressed her gratitude, stating they have consistently supported her through everything, especially when she first took over the business from her much-loved partner.
“We’ve got a really good team of people, and because of my story, and what we’ve all been through together we feel like family,” she said.
“The team is really good to me and a lot of them knew my husband Mark. They’ve been patient and supportive as they’ve seen me come into the business, fumble, learn, and make mistakes, while trying to grow the business,” she said.
“I’m really passionate about our business, the industry and the people. It was my husband’s dream as well to create a thriving business and carry on. He didn’t get the opportunity, so for me that’s an important factor as well, living that part of it for him.
“Also demonstrating to our young son that it doesn’t matter what adversity you face, you can always get up, and you might not feel like getting up and doing it, but you can always achieve amazing things in life.”