Harry Mavrolefteros’s tutoring business ‘First Education’ earned the esteemed honour of being named ‘Business of the Decade’ at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards, a result he described as “the Everest” in terms of award recognition.
Mavrolefteros attended the Awards ceremony with his wife Tania at the end of last month, held at The Star Sydney, which stand as a national event recognising outstanding small businesses across Australia.
The First Education founder and director admitted their win took him and his wife by complete surprise with them content to just enjoy the spectacle of the dinner and ceremony.
“I wasn’t expecting anything at all to be fair,” he told Neos Kosmos.
The win took them even more by surprise given they had not won in either of the other categories in which they were nominated, that being Children’s Educational Services and Business Growth Award.
“Our name was actually the last to be called as one of the finalists in the Business of the Decade category…I actually thought we weren’t even going to be read out because we were just not even eligible because we didn’t win in either of our earlier categories,” he said.
Mavrolefteros was left gobsmacked when they announced First Education as the Business of the Decade winner, thinking very simply to himself ‘What?!’
“Needless to say, I was extremely surprised…We were just genuinely shocked,” the Greek Australian said.
He noted they are very grateful and appreciative of the award and all the people that have helped make it happen.
“This is definitely a combined effort of firstly my wife Tania, for taking care of our family and supporting me with First Education, all the managers we have had over the years, the tutors, the students and the parents,” Mavrolefteros said.
“I truly believe it is ultimately a win for all of us over the last 15 years.”
The First Education founder admitted he does not believe there is a better award they can win than this.
“Business is obviously not only managed by social validation, but in terms of social validation and recognition, I don’t know how you can do better than this,” he said.
“This is like the Everest for us in terms of a business achievement award, so I feel very honoured we have been recognised in this capacity.”
First Education, which offers one-on-one tuition for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, has grown immensely since its foundation in 2010 with five centres under its banner across Sydney in Bondi, Earlwood, Maroubra, Mascot and Randwick.
Mavrolefteros stressed there are no plans to become complacent after the award win.
“We want to continue our good work. We want to grow but not in a way that jeopardises what we do,” he said.
“I have a very deep belief that everyone can and should enjoy their learning and that it is the path to self-confidence and belief in yourself. Passion and confidence is at the core of what we do and we are going to keep doing that and do it better.”
