FOR Tina Tower, the past year has been a blur of hard work and persistence, but her positive attitude has paid off.
Ms Tower started Begin Bright, which offers school-readiness programs, at Cronulla.
Last year she oversaw its expansion with franchises opening in Gymea and Ramsgate.
The three outlets all claimed awards at the recent Begin Bright franchise awards and followed that up with the Women in Business Award at the national My Business awards. The icing on the cake was being named overall national business of the year for outstanding excellence at the My Business awards.
Ms Tower said she was thrilled with Begin Bright's recent success.
"I have been in around 23 award category finals and never won so [I was] very happy and relieved," she said.
"We hope to open 100 [more] in the next five years across Australia. We have five in NSW and two in Queensland at the moment and we're expanding into Victoria next year.
"We focus on positive attitudes to learning — we want [children] to have fun while learning as it is going to be a lifelong thing."
