QLD

As with many online businesses, Tourstogo.com initially battled to get a foothold in the fiercely competitive tourism market. From an idea formed in 2005 by Cairns entrepreneur Elise Warring, Tourstogo.com has grown to fill a gap in the online tourism sector, resulting in a fully automated online booking engine specialising in touring products and offering user-friendly online solutions for tour operators. Tourstogo.com provides centralised and secure online booking services to domestic and international retail clientele for over 2,500 touring products Australia-wide. Bringing together both popular and specialist products, Tourstogo.com offers the widest array of tours with instant confirmation. For its business customers, Tourstogo.com provides cost-effective and easy to use online solutions to enhance and complement traditional tourism distribution channels. Initial strong emphasis on development has paid off with strong growth in both booking numbers and gross revenue from the public website over the past two years.

Consumer complaints about commission-based financial planning advice are on the rise. So, when establishing their financial services company, Aspire Retire Financial Services, owners Stephen Degiovanni and Olivia Maragna went against the industry trend and pioneered financial planning on a true fee for service basis. When they set up operations in 2003, the only option most people had was to receive commission-based advice, which was often biased toward higher commission products. Their no-commission business model has delivered consistent growth, irrespective of the state of the economy. While primarily focused on providing holistic financial advice, Aspire Retire also offers services such as self-managed superannuation fund advice and administration. Since being granted their own Australian Financial Services Licence, the business has doubled turnover and experienced 100 percent retention of revenue. This growth has come purely from their client service approach with 95 percent of their business referred by existing clients.

In an industry where lawyers are often labeled “ambulance chasers” and claimants are often viewed as opportunistic people looking for a quick windfall, Trilby Misso Lawyers is a Queensland leader in delivering just compensation to the victims of injury and wrongdoing. Trilby Misso Lawyers is Queensland’s largest personal injury practice in the areas of workers’ compensation and motor vehicle accident claims. From humble beginnings as a suburban general practice more than 50 years ago, Trilby Misso has grown to be an industry leader with 128 staff. Good working relationships with insurers and WorkCover Queensland have enabled Trilby Misso to settle files quickly with an average of 10-13 months to resolve a claim compared with competitors’ 18-24 months. This means that clients of Trilby Misso enjoy earlier resolution of their claims and the company enjoys significantly better than national benchmark results.

With over 35 years of experience in the water industry, Australian Innovative Systems’ (AIS) products are not only some of the best in the world but, in many cases, they are considered world firsts. With a strong commitment to global water and wastewater treatment, AIS has developed a solid international reputation for the disinfection of water by electro chlorination, placing the company at the forefront of evolving technology and expertise to improve the quality of water. Owners Kerry and Elena Gosse have invested heavily in research and development to build the company into an internationally acclaimed business. AIS’s most recent development is the unique in-line onsite chlorination technology Ecoline that generates chlorine in fresh water from the small amounts of natural mineral salts already present in water, thus eliminating chemical contamination risk to the environment and exposure to dangerous goods.

When Natural Resource Assessments (trading as NRA Environmental Consultants) was established 25 years ago, its founders were considered eccentric. It was not until the mid 1990s that environmental management gained sufficient legislative support for attitudes to change and natural resource management became the accepted discipline it is today. NRA is based in Cairns and Townsville and was established in 1984 to promote sustainable management of resources. The company predates State and Commonwealth environmental regulatory agencies now in existence. An innovator in the arena of environmental services, NRA provides independent specialist services in environmental regulatory compliance and the management of natural resources throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific Region.