How Kathi Built a Bookkeeping Business for Tradies

Kathi started Tradie Books Australia around 15 years ago, after deciding she wanted to be her own boss and help small businesses manage their books properly. Today, the firm works exclusively with tradespeople, a decision Kathi made early on and has never questioned.

"I love tradespeople," she says. "They are so down to earth, honest and easy to deal with, I decided to only deal with them."

Alongside job postings on platforms like ServiceSeeking, the team cold-calls tradie businesses around the country to ask if they need support and relies on a network of referral partners built over years of work.

"Referrals are the best new leads," Kathi says. "Posts about wanting help are good too, as they are warmer than cold call contact." To keep referrals flowing, she invests in relationships with other professionals whose clients overlap with hers, so the introductions make sense on both sides.

ServiceSeeking has played a steady role in the business since Kathi first turned her attention to the trades sector. She described our platform as a way to build a lead pipeline when she was still establishing herself in the space.

"When I began focusing on trades businesses, I used ServiceSeeking as a cost-effective lead source to get started and find a few new clients," she says. "This helped me establish a baseline revenue so I could grow faster by leveraging."

She also points to our platform's usability and support as reasons she has stuck with it. "It's very easy to use and has very good customer service," she says.

Running a bookkeeping firm for tradies means that Tradie Books Australia relies on many of its own systems. Digital filing, digital service agreements, workflow management and accounting software all keep the operation moving, and Kathi is direct about the value of choosing tools carefully. Her advice to anyone starting out is to be discerning about marketing and website offers, many of which she has found to be of little worth.

The business has faced setbacks along the way. In December 2025, the team unexpectedly lost a key staff member to a heart attack. Kathi describes it as a shock that the whole team had to work through together.

"I jumped back onto the tools to fill the gap, and other team members rallied so we covered the workload while we created some new systems and processes to handle the clients' work," she says. "I was very impressed and grateful to my team for how we overcame that loss together."

One client experience stands out to Kathi as a reminder of what the work can mean for the people behind the numbers. A business owner once came to her in tears after the ATO took her to court over a decade of unlodged BAS and tax returns.

"The judge told the client if she didn't come back with a plan to fix the issue, she should bring her toothbrush," Kathi recalls. Her team brought in a tax accountant and worked through a ten-year backlog of bookkeeping, BAS, and tax lodgements within three months, keeping the client out of court and out of jail. "An excellent outcome we achieved by making a plan of action, getting the professional support needed, and helping the client through a very stressful period," she says.

Kathi measures the business by recurring monthly revenue growth rather than one-off wins, and she is clear-eyed about where she wants the firm to go. She hopes to make Tradie Books Australia a household name for bookkeeping in the trades across Australia, whether that happens through franchising, licensing the brand, or growing the business internally.

Outside work, Kathi keeps half days off regularly to stay balanced through busy periods, and turns to painting, sewing and resin art as a break from spreadsheets and lodgements.