First in their field at 13th Beach

13th Beach Health Services won the Best First Year Entry Award at the 2022 Geelong Business Excellence Awards. (Supplied)

Entering the prestigious Geelong Business Excellence Awards (GBEAs) is an undoubtedly daunting yet exciting process. For 13th Beach Health Services, the awards were an insightful and rewarding process, ultimately leading to them taking out the 2022 Best First Year Entry Award, sponsored by Harwood Andrews.

With practices in Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, 13th Beach Health Services is always looking to improve. Now providing services including osteopathy, physiotherapy, remedial massage, myotherapy, podiatry and pilates, the business is heavily involved in the local community.

“I come to work every day and work with people who are passionate about making others feel better and helping them get back to the activities they love – it’s not just about showing up to work and getting it done, it’s a real passion of ours to help people,” says Ms Santilli.

13th Beach Health Services are proud to sponsor a variety of community clubs and initiatives, including the 13th Beach Boardriders Club, Barwon Heads Football Netball Club, and the annual Barwon Heads Triathlon.

After being encouraged by a community member to enter, practice manager Lara Santilli dove into research about the GBEAs. Together with owner/director and osteopath Dave Proctor, Lara brainstormed ideas about entering and went through the awards’ criteria in depth.

“We got contributions from different practitioners in the clinic, went over our approach to people, culture and customer service, and it just went on from there,” Ms Santilli explains of 13th Beach’s entry process.

With Mr Proctor attending GBEA information sessions open to entrants, the 13th Beach Health Services team wrapped up their entry and continued on with their business.

“It gives you a really good insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your business. It makes you consider aspects of the business that you may need to invest more time into, and is just really beneficial overall in terms of seeing the big picture,” says Ms Santilli.

“We invested a lot of time into our application for the awards, so it’s very rewarding to be recognised.”

The 2022 Geelong Business Excellence Awards were proudly sponsored by LBW Business + Wealth Advisors, celebrating clever, creative and connected businesses in Geelong and the Bellarine, as well as the Surf Coast, Queenscliff and Golden Plains regions.