Diana Williams found a gap in the market when she envisioned a gym that only women could attend.

“I envisaged a girls’ club with lovely things women appreciate – like fresh fruit, or flowers,” she said to Fairfax in 2014.

Now the founder of Fernwood oversees 70 sites across the country, having grown from just one in Bendigo.

Since her listing in SmartCompany’s 2017 top female entrepreneurs list, Williams has continued to promote the health and fitness of women.

Speaking to HuffPost Australia last year, Williams said: “Women always put themselves last. If something happens in the family or the kids are sick, the first thing that is cut out is going to the gym.”

Williams is a member of the Franchising Council of Australia’s Hall of Fame and was Telstra’s Businesswoman of the Year in 2005.