Cash flow becomes harder to predict.
Growth advisory for founder-led businesses
Building businesses ready for what’s next.
Salt works alongside founders and leadership teams to strengthen commercial performance, improve decision-making and build the capability required for sustainable growth.
The growth inflection point
Growth should create opportunity without unnecessary complexity.
The systems, reporting and leadership that built a successful business are not always enough for its next stage. Salt helps strengthen the foundations before growth becomes a constraint.
Project and commercial visibility declines.
Decision-making becomes reactive.
Founders and key leaders become the bottleneck.
Who Salt works with
Built for businesses where growth creates real operational complexity.
Salt works with founder-led and project-based businesses that have outgrown informal ways of operating but do not need another layer of generic consulting.
Civil Construction
Infrastructure
Utilities
Engineering
Mining Services
Project Businesses
Salt is usually most valuable when:
01
Revenue is growing, but cash, reporting and project visibility are becoming harder to manage.
02
The founder or CEO is carrying too many decisions and the leadership team needs greater accountability.
03
The business needs stronger commercial discipline without building a large corporate overhead.
04
A major growth, funding, systems or succession decision requires experienced executive judgement.
How Salt helps
Experienced support where it creates the greatest value.
Engagements are shaped around the needs of the business, from a focused diagnostic through to an embedded growth or strategic CFO partnership.
Growth Diagnostic
Identify the constraints, risks and priority actions across finance, commercial performance, systems, leadership and governance.
Growth Partner
Embedded executive support to implement improvements, strengthen accountability and build a scalable operating platform.
Strategic CFO
Cash flow, WIP, forecasting, management reporting, banking, major bids and practical financial leadership.
Executive Advisory
Clear, commercially grounded support for founders, CEOs, leadership teams and boards navigating growth and change.
The Salt growth journey
See clearly. Align. Lift. Thrive.
Sustainable change starts with understanding the business, agreeing the priorities and working alongside the team to embed better ways of operating.
See clearly
Gain visibility across performance, projects, cash flow, systems, risk and leadership capability.
Align
Bring strategy, people, priorities, KPIs and accountability together around a common direction.
Lift
Implement practical improvements across commercial performance, reporting, systems and leadership.
Thrive
Embed capability and build a stronger, more resilient business that can continue to evolve.
Experience in practice
Commercial issues rarely arrive in neat functional categories.
Stephen’s experience has been built inside complex operating businesses where finance, projects, people, customers, banks and boards all intersect.
Project controls
Restoring visibility as a contractor scales.
Strengthening WIP, forecasting, reporting and leadership rhythms when revenue growth has moved faster than the business’s operating discipline.
Better visibility. Earlier decisions. Clearer accountability.
Cash & funding
Leading through periods of cash pressure.
Managing cash priorities, banking relationships, working capital, stakeholder communication and practical recovery actions when timing matters.
A credible plan, communicated clearly and executed calmly.
Growth & change
Building the platform for the next stage.
Supporting acquisitions, restructures, systems change, finance-team development, governance and executive decision-making as complexity increases.
Capability that remains in the business without creating dependency on an adviser.
About Stephen Kemp
Financial insight. Operational discipline. Strategic thinking.
Stephen’s experience sits at the intersection of finance, commercial management, operations and strategy, with deep practical experience in civil construction, infrastructure and project-based businesses.
Salt was established to give growing businesses access to experienced executive leadership without forcing every challenge into a traditional CFO, COO or consulting model. The focus is simple: understand the business, work alongside its people and leave it stronger.
Embedded approach
Working with leadership teams, not outside them.
Commercially practical
Advice grounded in how contracting businesses actually operate.
Outcome focused
Focused on improvements that create lasting value.
Flexible engagement
Diagnostic, project, retained or embedded support.
Salt insights
Practical thinking for growing businesses.
Perspectives on construction cash flow, project performance, forecasting, finance capability and sustainable growth.
Project forecasting
View all insightsBad News Early Is a Problem to Solve
Why an honest forecast gives management time to influence the final result.
Construction cash flowWhy Profitable Construction Businesses Can Still Run Out of Cash
The balance sheet and working-capital pressures that profit alone does not reveal.
Fractional CFO BrisbaneWhat Does a Fractional CFO Actually Do?
Where CFO-level leadership fits before a full-time appointment makes sense.
Leadership & governance
Supporting leaders beyond the numbers.
Salt also works directly with finance leaders and boards, providing practical guidance drawn from real executive experience.
CFO Mentoring & AdvisoryExperienced, practical support for CFOs and senior finance leaders. Stephen provides a trusted sounding board across leadership, commercial decision-making, board engagement, team capability and career development.
Board & Advisory AppointmentsStephen is available for selected non-executive director and advisory board appointments, particularly with growing, founder-led and project-based businesses seeking strong financial, commercial and governance capability.
Let’s build what’s next
Your business has grown. Now its operating platform needs to catch up.
Start with a practical conversation about where the business is heading, what is getting in the way and where experienced support could make the greatest difference.
stephen@saltstrategicadvisory.com.au