I'm Nick. I build businesses, and I help founders build theirs.
Founder and Chairman of TOA Global. Founder of the Ab² Institute of Accounting and Behind the Scale. Husband to Jen, dad of three, and based on the Gold Coast.
This isn't really a story about a business
People usually want to hear about the numbers, and I'll share them. But the most useful part of my story is less about the business itself and more about the person behind it. How I had to change the way I think, lead, spend my time and look after my family as the business grew. That's the part nobody prepares you for.
Where it started
A franchise kid
My parents ran a franchise. I grew up around the long hours, the staff issues, the good months and the tight ones. I learned early that a business doesn't stay at work. It comes home with you, and the whole family lives with it.
That stuck with me. It's why I care so much about building businesses that give their owners a life, not just an income.
I write about lessons like this every week.
Owning an accounting firm
From financial planner to firm owner
I started out as a financial planner, with a commerce degree majoring in financial planning and investments, and went on to own an accounting firm. Like every firm owner I knew, I hit the same wall: finding good people, keeping them, and growing without working myself into the ground. I could see the problem clearly because I was living it.
Building TOA Global
From zero to $148M
That problem became TOA Global. We started from nothing and built a business that now has 4,300+ team members, has supported more than 1,000 accounting firms around the world, and is turning over $148M this financial year.
It has been a rollercoaster. There were highs I'll never forget and lows I'd never want to repeat. Along the way I had to learn to stop being the bottleneck and build a leadership team I could trust, so the business could grow beyond what I could do on my own.
I also founded the Ab² Institute of Accounting, which has trained more than 4,000 accounting professionals.
What I spend my time on
- I'm Founder and Chairman of TOA Global.
- I facilitate four founder boards every month, sitting in a room with business owners working through real decisions.
- I coach five founders a year, one on one.
- I speak to business owners, leadership teams and conferences.
- I write Behind the Scale every week, and I'm launching the Behind the Scale podcast in January 2027.
Life by Design
The business fits around the life, not the other way round
Jen and I have three kids. For a long time the business got the best of me and they got what was left. I learned the hard way that if you don't design your life, your business will design it for you.
These days the calendar starts with family and health, and the work fits around them. I'm not perfect at it, but I'm a lot better than I was, and the business is better for it too.
A few things I've learned
Scale is a people problem before it's a systems problem.
The right leadership team changes everything.
If the business can't run without you, you own a job, not an asset.
Wealth is what you keep, not what you turn over.
Build wealth outside the business too.
You are not your business.
Know who you are without it.
Design the life first.
Then build the business that pays for it.
Want the lessons without the rollercoaster?
Behind the Scale is my free weekly newsletter for $1M+ business owners. It's less about the business and more about the person running it.