By CASEY NEILL
KIARA Haworth juggled two TAFE courses with her VCE studies and a healthcare job.
But the 19-year-old Berwick student didn’t complain about the hard work – she relished the opportunity to take steps towards her dream of becoming a nurse.
Her dedication to her studies saw Kiara named a Youth Enterprise Award nominee at Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce’s second Premier Regional Business Awards breakfast for the year at Sandown Greyhounds in Springvale yesterday (Wednesday, 12 June).
She’s a diploma of nursing student at Chisholm and works as a patient service assistant (PSA), maintaining patient comfort in a care facility.
“I’m in a hospital and I get to know what it would be like to work there rather than jumping straight into nursing,” she said.
Her teachers said she displayed great maturity and was a confident and hard-working young woman.
“I know I truly want to be a nurse,” she said.
“There is always going to be a demand for health care.”
The first Premier Regional Business Awards nominee for the morning was forgiven for being a little more bleary-eyed than most.
FlexiCut Engineering director Robbie O’Brien has a four-week-old baby at home.
He founded the Dandenong company in 2006 at the age of 26 after starting as an apprentice fitter and turner with Larry Perkins Motor Sport.
He borrowed $30,000, bought a second-hand machine and leased a small factory.
Larry Perkins Motor Sport was his first customer and word of mouth soon saw the business grow.
His father had owned a business in a small country town in New South Wales.
“I always had a passion for starting my own business,” he said.
“He made it look really easy. I thought ‘if he could do it, I’ll give it a crack’.
“I had a rude surprise ahead of me and it was tough.”
Mr O’Brien planned to establish his business in Dandenong and then move it to his small home town.
“But Dandenong’s been too good to me. Everything’s right on my doorstep,” he said.
“The phone’s always ringing with people who want to help you out.”
FlexiCut Engineering is committed to offering same-day quotes wherever possible, and often stamps a customer’s logo or name in their part free of charge.
“We’re selling a service, the experience,” he said.
“We want repeat business from our customers.”
It’s a nominee for the innovation, manufacturing, small business and service excellence categories.
Dandenong retail store Heidi Rose is a nominee for the small business, retail, service excellence and corporate and social responsibility titles.
Kathryn Turton-Lane said her success over 25 years with the business – 20 as its owner – had come despite several challenges.
Heidi Rose stocks nature fibre clothing, oracle and tarot cards, music, crystals, incense, herbs, perfumes and more.
“People come in and take photos and you know they’re going to go looking for it online,” she said.
“But I know my customers’ names.
“If someone asks me to source something, I’ll go looking for it.
“It’s about keeping your dedicated customers.”
The store is on the corner of Foster Street and what was Robinson Street until 2008.
“Places Victoria came in and said ‘we want to come in and acquire this street’,” she said.
“We lost 30 car spaces.
“Strip shopping is about parking. It’s about convenience and popping in to grab something.
“It’s gone horribly wrong.
“It’s about building a bridge over it. I want to redevelop my business.”
Chobani managing director Peter Meek said the Dandenong South yogurt factory had increased its employees by 50 per cent.
“And we’ve got the capacity to have quite a significant growth,” he said.
The Chobani brand went national last September and there are already plans for expansion into Singapore, Malaysia and parts of China.
“This way of making yogurt existed 1000 years ago,” Mr Meek said.
“We’ve just reintroduced it.
“I’ve been in dairy all my life.
“My wife reckons there’s milk running through my veins.”
The America-based company’s ‘Yogurt Master’ Mustafa taught the Australian staff the Chobani way.
“He’s written six pages in his diary about yogurt every day for the past 40 years,” Mr Meek said.
“Pretty much all he eats is yogurt and green tea and he looks like a superstar.”
Founder Hamdi Ulukaya remains the company’s sole owner and has grown Chobani to be America’s number one yogurt brand since starting it in 2005.
The company commits 10 per cent of worldwide profits to its Shepherd Foundation each year.
It’s nominated for the innovation, manufacturing, small business and service excellence categories.
Old friend Jamie Sturgess introduced the morning’s guest speaker Brendan ‘Fella’ Rodoni, a scientist with Department of Sustainability and Environment.
He spoke about the process of maintaining biosecurity in Australia with the hope that manufacturers could take something from the system.
