Wayne Walford, chief executive, Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, at the launch of the Pan Pac Hawke's Bay Business Awards.
Business can be challenging.
Often, when we step back from work and take a break, it is to wind down and take a breather so you can get stuck into things on the Monday.
But if you own your own business, it's not a 9am-5pm job, Monday to Friday.
It's all hours, seven days a week sometimes.
You might be hands-on one minute, helping out your staff, on the frontline, and then hands off, stepping back making key leadership or business decisions the next.
Whether or not you are doing well, is often judged by how your product or service is doing, and yes, how much money you are making.
It's not just about that, of course.
Business involves people, and balancing the needs of your clients or customers, with the goals of your business and the wants and needs of the people who work for you.
Business can also be very rewarding, and sometimes, stepping away, even for a day or an evening can reinforce why people enter business in the first place.
That's why the PAN PAC Hawke's Bay Business Awards, organised by the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, are important.
The process of entering the awards allows businesses to stop, reflect and analyse what they do. It is possible to feel fantastic about entering the awards, and walk away without winning anything.
And if you are a winner, it is the icing on a pretty tasty cake.
So victory must have been sweet for Napier couple Duncan and Amanda Wallace last night at the Clubs Hastings awards venue.
The couple founded Onekawa-based HB Technologies in 2007 with four staff, and 10 years later their hard work is paying off for them in business and on the regional awards stage.
HB Technologies was named Hawke's Bay Business of the Year, and also picked up the NZME - Medium to Large Business category award.
It is a family-run tech business big on values that now has 20 staff.
Judges were impressed by HB Technologies' innovation and an ability to analyse a world of fast changing technology and meet their clients needs.
Other category winners were Planit Events, EIT Small Business award; Ask Your Team, Grow HR - Medium Business award, and NZCU Baywide, Great Things Grow Here Large Business award.
The Linden Estate Leadership Award, was awarded to Des Ratima ONZM.
Finally, congratulations to the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce.
It is a vital event, and long may it continue.
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