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Nicole was born and raised in Ayr where her family ran a small truck mechanics business. This is where her desire for a career in business began. Working in Insurance out of high school, a short holiday to Cairns became a permanent move to work as a bookkeeper and payroll administrator for a hospitality and trades labour hire business. After having two children and supporting her partner start a plumbing business, it was finally time to get the accounting degree she had put on hold.
While studying at Central Queensland University and receiving a Bachelor of Accounting (Distinction) Nicole also worked as a bookkeeper for a local building business, having developed an interest for the trades and construction industry.
Nicole has recently worked for a mid-tier accounting firm and developed a wealth of technical knowledge, however the passion for small business, local industry and community has brought Nicole to the Astute team. Nicole is passionate about working closely with clients to support their goals.
Enjoying exploring the many exciting food venues in Cairns with friends, Nicole is also an avid Supercars fan, enjoys a local Cairns Taipans game and of course, running her children around to soccer games, martial arts, and dance lessons.
We have been using John since we bought our first house in 2008 and taken sound advice from him in all our finance dealing ever since; which has included, opening a business, building our second house and now purchasing an investment property. We trust the advice given to us and not understanding the finance world hugely rely on the knowledge given to us in making decisions. We thank Verena very much with her patience throughout each deal and her simple way of explaining the overwhelming fluff that the banks put on paper. Johns stickmen and drawings helped us immensely 🙂 We really feel like we have actually made some good friends when dealing with Astute.
Myself and my partner Patrick are currently in the final stages of the settlement of our first home and as you can imagine it can be a very stressful and difficult time for any new potential home owner. Add to the fact that we are only in our early 20’s, both working full time jobs and both studying full time as well as trying to save to be financially ready to own our own home.
When we were financially ready to go ahead with the first loan process (through a bank, independently) we were absolutely disheartened as we were knocked back and told that we could not get a home loan. As you could imagine two young people scrapping every cent together for a year and to be told no made us feel as if all the hard work we had strived for was for nothing. I then approached my dad asking him what we should do next. He took me to a lady that he had dealt with when he brought his house through commonwealth that had now opened an Astute office.
When Billie welcomed us warmly into her store it felt as if all the stress, worry and confusion were lifted off our shoulders as she went through all the different options that she would try for us in successfully getting a loan for our first house. She really did connect with us through her friendly personality and strived to do the very best for us (not many companies are like that these days). Even after that first initial meeting and the ones that followed she was so caring and supporting throughout the whole process. I don’t think we would have been capable of going through with getting a house loan without Billie helping us. With every silly little question (there were a lot of them) Billie would always respond straight away and would always make us feel that we were a priority to her and in the world we live in, that isn’t always the case. Billie was also always happy to help us out if we were unsure of anything else during the long process and would always say to us to just give her a ring if there was anything else we needed. As clients of Billies we just wanted to pass on to you how much gratitude we have for the support and care she has given us. We are more than impressed with Billie and hope she receives this feedback and that she continues to do the amazing job she already does. From the bottom of our hearts Billie we thank you so much for the continued support. As well as your lovely other staff that have been fantastic to deal with – Seto, Phoebe & Becky!
Thank you for having such a hardworking, fun loving team John. We really appreciated all that you have done, Thank you
My husband and I went to Astute today, firstly met with Shae at the front reception and had a chat with her. It was lovely to chat with such a friendly happy lady who made us feel welcome.
We went upstairs and met with John Watts for some financial advice. We have known John Watts for over 10 years now, and truly admire his honesty and ‘no beating around the bush business eiquette’. We would highly recommend anyone requiring financial advice and/or a financial bank loan to not look any further than that of the ASTUTE team. 🙂 Thanks Astute….
Friendly and very knowledgeable. Made the whole process of getting our first mortgage easy and relatively stress free. Very prompt communication and excellent rates provided on our mortgage.
Excellent team, all staff were professional and friendly, will definitely use their expertise again and recommend to friends and family.
I had no understanding of how the insurance side of Astute worked. After my first visit with Peta I was blown away with how she explained everything to me. And what I didn’t understand she was happy to take the extra time to explain them again. I felt she was very thorough and when I left I was able to think about what suited my needs to make a decision on how I wanted to proceed. Thanks Peta for advice.
John and the team looked after us on many fronts from mortgage, superannuation and even life insurance. We even compared rates on our new vehicle lease and Astute came through better than any bank.
These guys definitely have the XFactor
5 star service Love the Astute North QLD team, especially Billie. Thanks for your honesty and financial advice… will soon have a home for our family 🙂
