By Dylan J. Stone
Raelene Greeney is well known in Broken Hill, for all of the right reasons.
After sustaining a work-injury in her previous job, which resulted in Raelene needing to finish her employment, she promised herself that she wouldn’t ‘sit around and do nothing, that’s not me.’
While Raelene commented that she ‘took it pretty hard’ when she had to finish at her previous employment, Raelene decided that she would establish Help at Hand Services to support locals that needed some extra help.
Home duties, shopping, yard work, is all included in Raelene’s start-up, which has now ‘taken to fruition and become well known’ in the last twelve months, after 3 years of careful and meticulous business design and planning.
Owning and operating a small business in Broken Hill is full of rewards, according to Raelene. ‘
Meeting the vast cultural diversities within our city and becoming great friends’ with her clients, has been Raelene’s greatest reward.
This has extended to ‘ learning about the multicultural background (that) a lot of families in Broken Hill have.’ For Raelene, it’s the community spirit and the personal touch which she has enjoyed the most in business.
That’s not to say it’s been smooth sailing, COVID has certainly been challenging.
However, Raelene certainly shares the Broken Hill spirit of pushing ahead and keeping her head up, and along with many other small businesses in our community, her business survived the worst of the COVID crisis.
Her survival was due to quick thinking and a good business restructure, which enabled her to provide ‘meals for people who needed it,’ such as those who could not go shopping for a variety of reasons.
For those who are considering launching their own business, I asked Raelene what her advice would be.
Simply, she says to ‘never give up, (and) follow your dreams.
If anyone tells you (that) you won’t make it work, prove them wrong.’
Raelene’s get-up-and-go attitude has certainly helped her through the challenges of small business ownership, and her attitude has ensured her business had not only survived, but thrived through a once-in-a-century Pandemic.
Raelene credits her attitude to her Grandmother, who she says ‘always told us kids to look out for each other and be good to everyone, help who you can and offer help where needed.’
Raelene certainly listened to her grandmother, and our community is now the better for it.
