New buckaroo – Tanya Van Der Water redefines success for her family business

Curveball

Legacy can be a bit of a loaded term when it comes to family businesses. If you’re taking over at the helm, how do you honour the legacy of those who came before you? Do you keep things as they were, or should you shake things up?

Buckaroo Belts owner Tanya Van Der Water asked herself exactly these questions when her father fell ill in 2013. Unexpectedly, she was thrust into the CEO role in his place.

Once upon a time, she wasn’t even interested in joining his leather-working company, let alone running it. She was a forthright woman of colour. How could she operate at construction sites and convince tradies she knew about toolbelts?

Would a radical transformation of the business work? Could she really save the business while she had three kids under three, and the burden of alcoholism in the family?

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This episode was produced by Liam Riordan. Executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

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