General News
11 September, 2020
Local businesswoman wins AusMumpreneur of the year award.
Local Businesswoman Heidi Jonsson, who founded Norsafe has been named the Queensland Regional Business Excellence Award winner in the National AusMumpreneur Awards.
Local businesswoman wins AusMumpreneur of the year award.
Local businesswoman Heidi Jonsson, who founded Norsafe has been named the Queensland Regional Business Excellence Award winner in the National AusMumpreneur Awards.
Due to COVID, the awards were streamed on-line and Heidi and her staff, friends and suppliers held a red carpet party in Heidi’s shed to watch the stream.
“I’m really thrilled; I was really excited when they announced my name,” she said
“Seeing as we couldn’t be there for the presentation, we decided to have the event in my shed.
“The rules were that we had to wear formal dresses with comfortable shoes, either Bloodstone’s or thongs.”
Heidi who was born in Herberton and raised in Ravenshoe, was working at the Mareeba Sugar when she started her business 10 years ago.
Norsafe now employs up to 8 people, doing testing and tagging, RCD testing, thermal imaging and appliance repairs. One of the more unique aspects of her business is that all of Heidi’s staff are female.
Heidi said that she her passion for workplace safety stems from the death of her stepbrother on a farm when they were both children as well as the death of Juanita and Ava Bendel who were both electrocuted on a farm at Tumoulin in 2019.
“Test and tag is an opportunity for me to do my bit to prevent workplace deaths and injuries. I want safe farms and safe places for kids to play,” she said
“A lot of old buildings in the Far North still have the old ceramic fuses and they don’t have safety switch protection.
“We offer an audit service for business and farmers in FNQ, we can come out and check extension leads, old electrical boards and old electrical machinery.”
The annual AusMumpreneur awards are presented by The Women’s Business School to celebrate and recognise Australian mums in business who are achieving outstanding success in areas such as business excellence, product development, customer service and digital innovation.
“The reason I started my own business was so that I could be a better mum, because prior to this I was working 12 hour shifts,” Heidi said
“I wanted to start a business where I could work during the day and pick up my son after school.
“One of joys of owning your own business is that you can attend school functions and open days which can be hard when you’re an employee.”
