The Exchange founder Jillian Kilby's pitch to the inaugural Buy From The Bush Big Break competition is in with a shot at winning a share of the $60,000 prize pool.
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Ms Kilby wants to find 10 local champions and together renovate 10 abandoned heritage buildings in their towns to build 10 regionally-based co-working spaces in the next five years.
Her pitch to the new national competition for rural entrepreneurs and bush businesses was one of the top 20 shortlisted entries announced by Buy From The Bush and partner PayPal Australia.
The Dubbo-based organisation along with The Rural Trader of Nevertire are the two hopefuls from the Orana region in the contest, which is offering the winner $30,000 plus a business pack to get their idea off the ground.
Either one could also bring home the people's choice award, which has a $15,000 prize, with voting open until 11.59pm on Sunday.
The community and co-working space that aims to support start-ups and those scaling their businesses to increase their chance of commercial success, recently announced plans for a second location at Narrabri.
Her entry is all about scaling The Exchange "to grow to do more good", she said.
Ms Kilby, a civil engineer, said winning would allow the organisation to do a feasibility study so that its third location was "successful and sustainable", which would allow it to "go to the fourth, the fifth and the sixth".
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"It would be an incredible boost in the right direction and what really attracted us to the [BFTB] Big Break pitch competition was the access to professionals such as Georgie Robertson PR to promote our business and find the local champions, find the new locations, and execute," Ms Kilby said.
"Without that, it can be a long, uphill battle to scale, without great quality support around us.
"And we saw entering this competition to be that opportunity.
"Our pitch wasn't about the money, it was about how far you can go, because to go to 10 locations, the approach you take needs to be well-researched in order to be financially sustainable.
"The most important part of The Exchange is that we are financially sustainable for the long-term, because that means we will stay in our new communities indefinitely.
"We aren't a quick government-funded solution that lasts two years, we're here for the long haul.
"Dubbo, Narrabri, and whatever town is next, and the one after that, getting the business model, the local champion and the building, getting that collaboration right, means we will be a sustainable enterprise in a regional community for the long haul, and that's what matters."
Ms Kilby said she hadn't expected to get shortlisted but was glad she had pitched.
"I'm so glad Buy From The Bush brought this initiative to the regions, because so many business owners have stepped outside their comfort zone to pitch and I hope even those that aren't shortlisted got something out of the process," she said.
"Perhaps they got clarity, perhaps they got more customers, perhaps they got inspired, but overall I hope they enjoyed the process, and I hope that those that weren't shortlisted aren't stopping in their intention to pursue the project they pitched."