Tambo Teddies are Regional Online Heroes

Tambo Teddies are National Regional Online Heroes!

 

Tambo Teddies is the inaugural winner of Google and the Regional Australia Institute’s Regional Online Heroes competition. Selected as one of ten finalists, Alison was flown to Sydney to attend a money-can’t-buy growth masterclass at Google HQ.  The day began with a tour of the Google offices which are everything you read about with standing work stations, treadmills and gaming rooms, scooters to travel between buildings, pods for quiet time work and a kitchen never further than 30m away from  work spaces.  A fantastic array of chef prepared food options are available any time of the day and the staff can work the hours that suit including their ‘20%’ time to relax, create and engage.

 

The masterclass itself exposed all the finalists to a range of new digital tools and methods to help grow business. The one-on-one session was exceptionally valuable; the Teddies website and digital channels were examined and Alison has returned with a raft of ideas to implement!

 

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At the end of the day a question and answer session with Jane Cay, founder of Birdsnest, was inspirational.  At Tambo Teddies we closely examined the Birdsnest website and their customer service strategies when we were purchasing the business, developing our business plan and building our website- so it was amazing to have the opportunity to meet Jane and tap into her expertise.

 

The announcement of the winning business was at the end of the day and Alison was literally ‘gob-smacked’ to be announced as the winner stating, ‘We didn’t expect it – as a really small business we didn’t think we would be recognised as a leader by Google at their own HQ.

It’s given us a massive boost. Working a manufacturing business out of a town of 400 people has proven that our small business can reach beyond that and grow.’

 

Regional Australia Institute’s CEO, Jack Archer congratulated us and told the audience at the event that Tambo Teddies was recognised as the overall completion winner stating ‘ Alison was part of a team who took over the business in 2014, when it essentially had no online presence. In the last 18 months Alison and her team have built a digital strategy including social media, a new website and cloud-based software, which has boosted their sales, reach and staff, and has been recognised as being worthy of the national title. ‘

 

 

Following our win, there will be more publicity and Google are sending a photographer out to photograph Tambo Teddies which will provide us with fantastic promotional material. We can’t thank the judge’s, Deputy Prime Minster Warren Truss, Regional Australia Institute’s CEO, Jack Archer, Google’s Head of Small Business, John Ball and Jane Cay enough. It was also a delight to meet all the other finalists: 4 Ingredients, MindMyFarm, Dingo Australia, The Rural Woman, Knobel Honey, Wheatbelt Beads, Farmenco, Therapy Connect and Outback Astrology.