Meet the Team
At Newcents, we specialise in one thing: helping people buy businesses. Not general advice. Not broad consulting. Just sharp, experienced guidance for buyers who want to move with confidence from first look through to settlement.
Our team has lived on both sides of the table. We know what good businesses look like, what bad ones are disguised as, and how to make sure you never confuse the two.
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FounderNick Richards spent years in corporate banking and finance before making the move into business ownership himself. Holding a Master of Commerce with a specialisation in Banking and Finance, he understands how lenders think, how deals are structured, and where buyers most commonly come unstuck.
After founding multiple businesses and working through the acquisitions process firsthand, Nick built Newcents around a simple idea: buyers deserve the same quality of advice that big end of town deals get, without the corporate price tag or the runaround.
Today Nick leads the business buying practice at Newcents, working directly with clients on due diligence, deal structuring, valuation, and negotiation. He is straight talking, commercially sharp, and has no interest in telling you what you want to hear if the numbers say otherwise.
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Hospo SpecialistZoe Richards has done every job in hospitality, and she means every job. She started at the bottom, worked every station, managed every format, and ran venues that ranged from your neighbourhood cafe to late night venues that most people wouldn't dare step foot in before midnight. Cafes. Fine dining. Bars. Nightclubs. Venues that operate in the grey. She's seen it all, and she's still standing.
Over more than 15 years, Zoe has held almost every role the industry has to offer. Short order cook. Bartender. Bar supervisor. Bar manager. Shift supervisor. Venue manager. And yes, front of house at McDonald's (she owns it proudly). She knows what a well run operation actually looks like from the inside, which means she also knows immediately when something has been dressed up to sell.
In between, she spent three years in China importing specialty coffee and managing international trade shows, an experience that gave her a sharp commercial lens most hospo advisors simply don't have. She's been on both sides of a deal table, and she doesn't fluff the numbers to make them feel better.
Hospo is full of turkeys. Zoe has worked for enough of them to know exactly what bad management does to a business, and more importantly, what it does to the numbers you're about to sign your life away for.
Now based on the Gold Coast, Zoe brings all of that firsthand experience to Newcents Hospo, working with buyers who are serious about getting into the industry but smart enough to know they don't want to do it blind. She's not here to sell you a dream. She's here to make sure the business you're buying actually stacks up when the doors open on day one.
If you're nervous about buying a hospitality business, good. That means you're paying attention. Zoe's job is to turn that nervousness into confidence, one uncomfortable question at a time.
Who we are
We built Newcents because buying a business is one of the biggest financial decisions a person can make, and most buyers go into it without the right support.
We are not a brokerage. We don't represent sellers. We sit entirely on the buyer's side of the table, which means our only job is to make sure the deal you're doing is the right one, at the right price, with the right protections in place.
No fluff. No conflicts. Just honest advice from people who have been through it themselves.
