What does 10 years mean to a business like 4gr?
Statistically 20% of Australian small businesses will fail in the first year of operations, and 60% won’t make it past 5 years. Clearly, Gill and Beth have done something right and now in 2023, we have reached the 10-year milestone and we are very proud of that.
So how did we achieve this?
It comes to 4 key things – Innovation, Staff, Professionalism and Passion
Gill and Beth are always learning and trying out new ideas. We are constantly researching what is best practice and we are able to remain agile. COVID really tested this as we had to adapt, learn, and grow within a tumultuous economy.
When Gill and Beth first started 4gr, it was just the two of us. We shared the load according to our strengths and just ran with it. To afford growth, you need good people. People you can trust to be brand ambassadors for your business. 4gr grew quickly and in 2014 we hired our first staff members to assist us with a contract seeing clients in Geelong, Ballarat, and Warrnambool move on from the government-run DES–CRS to employment.
We made a strategic decision to hire staff who are diverse, professional, and passionate and we all have a common belief that everyone has the right to meaningful employment. These essential elements can be found in all our 4gr employees.
Everyone at 4gr thinks outside the box when it comes to outcomes. We have supported many businesses to action their diversity and inclusion plans to make a safe working environment for people living with disabilities. We have been acknowledged as a finalist twice in the Geelong Business Excellence awards and have worked closely with the National employment team at NDIS to share our statistics and best practice model. We have been approached by other small businesses to be benchmarked against and to mentor them on how to deliver a customised employment model.
The 4gr team are now expanding the operations out of Victoria into other states with Adelaide our first site to start.
Gill and Beth would love to see our 4gr vision grow into business as usual within the next 10 years as we continue to push boundaries and normalise disability employment.
