About
Hi, I'm Heidi. I set up the business side.
25 years running the back office of trade businesses in the UK and Queensland. Safety systems, onboarding, records, books. Now I build them for yours.
Why I do this
You didn't start a trade business to do admin. Nobody set you up for that side of it, and somewhere along the way you decided that was your fault. It isn't. It's the bit I do.
I build it with you: the safety system, the onboarding, the records, the systems and the books. I stay until it's solid. Then I hand it over, so you can run it yourself.
Set up to stand on your own.
How I got here
I started in an estate agent's office in Cornwall, then worked as a ward clerk, medical secretary and research assistant at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. That's where I learned that paperwork has to be right, every time.
In 2004 I co-founded a commercial carpentry company and grew it to around $2m in turnover, working on defence, prison and school sites. Every job came with compliance paperwork, and every head contractor checked it.
When I moved to Queensland, I ran the office for a Gold Coast shopfitting and joinery firm, then co-founded and ran a residential carpentry business for nine years: payroll, estimating, QBCC licensing, WH&S, chasing payments, the lot. I also started a motorhome hire business.
I didn't learn this from a course. I learned it at a kitchen table at ten o'clock at night, and built the systems so I'd never have to do it that way again.
In 2025 I started H&Co Smart Admin to do the same for other businesses. The first was my daughter and her partner's tree-care business, Lop & Drop. I built its whole back office from scratch, plus Joblee, a quoting and job-tracking app for trades.
Giving back
I've always given time to my community. I've set up systems and compliance, pro bono, for Open Haven, a domestic violence charity, for Fishers of Men food relief, and for Bridge to Unity, a UK charity supporting refugee families. I was also Community Coordinator at St Paul's Anglican Church, Manly, for three years. I'm a member of the Redlands Coast Chamber of Commerce, because local businesses do better when they know each other.
What I bring
- WH&S systems, policies and onboarding, set up and kept current
- Employee and subcontractor records that hold up to a head contractor's questions
- Tender-ready paperwork for government and major-project work
- 25 years on both sides of the site office
- Systems and admin set up around how you actually work
- Bookkeeping and the money side, kept tidy
- Websites and custom apps when nothing off the shelf fits
Qualifications
- HND Theology (Distinction), University of Divinity
- Clinical Pastoral Education (chaplaincy)
- Diploma in Business Administration, The Cornwall College Group
- NVQ Level 3 Business Administration
If you're brilliant on the tools and drowning in the rest, say hello.
We'll start with the bit nobody set you up for.
Call 0459 968 616, email heidi@hcosmartadmin.com or find me on LinkedIn