I'm on a mission to change
how blue-collar business gets paid.
Not just for one business. For all of them.
Vision
Right now there's a strange duality in how our economy works. In retail, you pay before you get the thing. But in the trades, contracting, manufacturing and services — the people doing the actual work carry nearly all the financial risk. They spend the money, do the job, and then wait to find out if they'll be paid.
And because they carry so much of that risk, when something goes wrong — a non-payment, a liquidation, a client who simply stops responding — the impact can be devastating. Not just for one business, but for the businesses connected to it. New Zealand is a small, deeply interconnected economy. When one part of it gets destabilised, the ripple effect is real.
My vision is a future where those extremes — particularly the lowest of the lows — are lessened. Where blue-collar and trades businesses operate cash flow positive. Where the biggest players in the market can no longer dictate payment terms that quietly transfer all the risk downstream. Where getting paid properly isn't a battle — it's just how business works.
Mission
I work at two levels.
At the macro level, I'm shining a light on something that has never really had a full lens shown on it. Late payment, unfair terms, and the quiet financial exposure carried by the businesses that build, make and keep New Zealand moving — it's talked about, but it hasn't been properly named, properly challenged, or properly fixed. That's the conversation I'm here to open.
At the micro level, I work business by business. Because while there are common threads, every business is different — the way you prefer to work with clients, the type of work you do, the specific risks in your industry, the people in your team. That specificity matters. The infrastructure we build together is built for your business, not a generic version of it.
About Mel
I bring nearly a decade of experience working on the front lines with business owners — not from a distance, not in theory, but sitting across the table from people carrying real costs, real risk, real responsibility.
Through my eight-year partnership with EC Credit Control, I saw what financial exposure actually looks like. The unpaid invoice that never looked risky at the start. The trusted client who stopped paying. The large job that quietly became a cash flow nightmare. The liquidation that blindsided a business that had done everything right. The handshake agreements, vague payment terms, uncomfortable conversations avoided until they became expensive.
I also saw how much of it was simply accepted as "the way things are."
But my work goes beyond credit control and systems. I worked alongside these business owners as people — through their challenges and mine, through growth and uncertainty, through the things that life brings when you're trying to build something meaningful. The owners making payroll while holding everything else together. The couples carrying business stress home. The families navigating succession, illness, and change.
That is where my understanding comes from. Not theory. Proximity.
2022 — the year that clarified everything
I grew up watching my parents build their own business in small-town Waikato — so business pressure has never been abstract to me. From there I built a career across banking, finance and corporate New Zealand, before finding my way to the work that has always mattered most: right alongside business owners in the trades, contracting, construction and manufacturing sectors.
When my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, something sharpened. It reinforced what I already believed about time, family and intention — and it made the work I do feel more important, not less. Building businesses that support the life behind them isn't a nice idea. It's the whole point.
People are precious. Families are precious. Communities are precious. Most business owners didn't get into business to spend their life chasing invoices and lying awake wondering if they'll get paid. They got into business for freedom. To build something on their own terms. A cancer diagnosis has a way of bringing that into very sharp focus — and giving you the courage to say the things that aren't being said, and question the things that aren't being questioned. That's exactly what I'm here to do.
Work with Mel
If any of this resonates — if you recognise your business, your risk, or your story in what I've described — I'd love to work with you.
The Cashflow Reset Workshop is where most people start. Three hours that change how you see every invoice, every client conversation, and every job from this point forward.
The Paid Right Accelerator is where the full infrastructure gets built. Six weeks, in person, working through your business specifically.
Mel's Publications and Media Include
