Lismore business named a finalist in 2021 Australian Small Business Champion Awards

This small Northern Rivers business, which only employs local people, has been named as a finalist for two prestigious business awards.

ALL SMILES: Lismore small business owners Nick and Kylie Fuad said they were thrilled when they were nominated for three national awards.

Lismore business Aussie Home Sitters and Aussie House Swap have been named as a finalist in the 2021 Small Business Champion Awards.

Aussie Home Sitters’ nomination came in the Specialised Small Business category.

Aussie House Swap was nominated in the Travel and Tourism category.

Kylie Fuad, co owner of Aussie Home Sitters, said the business was started by her husband Nick 15 years ago and has grown into a number of different sites offering services in a range of places.

“We started just with Aussie House Swap, and then built Aussie House Sitters, and then, as they grew, he started using the same model for house-sitting services in Canada, the UK, USA, Kiwi Housesitters, besides the Australian sites,” she said.

“It’s very exciting that both businesses are finalists this year, in two different categories.”

The businesswoman said the nomination was great recognition of the work the companies have been doing during the pandemic.

“We are a small business based in Lismore, we employ only local people, and because we are a travel-related business, once Covid hit, we lost 95 per cent of our revenue overnight, and it was very scary because we didn’t know what the world would look like in terms of souse sitting and travel in the future,” she said.

Nick and Kylie Fuad (first and fourth from left) with members of their Aussie House Sitters team.

“We worked really hard to look after all our members.

“We gave all our house-sitting members an extra six months free.

“Even though we had no money coming in, we felt we owed it to them to support them through that time.”

With Aussie House Swap, the couple decided to give their members 12 months free.

“We did regular social media posts and checked in with the community, and we feel that as a result of the way we handled the situation last year, we retained the goodwill of our members,” they said.

“It’s been so good that the percentage of renewal among our members is up.”

The winners of this year’s Australian Small Business Champion Awards will be announced on July 31 at a ceremony in Sydney.