The tireless but loyal entrepreneur
Allan Daniel Nicholson, 1976 - 2024
There was a point in Allan Nicholson's life where he had tasted business success and tasted business failure. Always receptive to the advice of others, he and his wife had enrolled at university for postgraduate study. It was a challenge to live on a student allowance with three children.
Wise enough to know that the best wisdom is to be obtained from those with lived experience, Allan rang a highly successful Hamilton businessman. Seeking no more than a conversation over coffee, he politely requested a meeting. The response was curt. "Sorry mate, can't help you", said the business man.
For Allan, this was an epiphany. Beyond the confirmation that "business is tough and rejection is real", the entrepreneur's indifference awoke a profound sense of altruism. In a 2022 interview, Allan explained that "I decided at that very moment that when I'm really successful I'm going to give my time and I'm going to give whatever help I can to any person who comes to me and says 'can I shout you a coffee'...[and] if you can't afford the coffee, I'll shout the coffee, because I'll talk about business all day long and I'll help whoever needs help...and the more people who give their time and their energy to people who just need help to get started, the better off we'll all be".
Allan Nicholson was a man not short on philosophy or vision. He believed "we only live once" and said in the same interview, "I don't want to die with regrets - any regrets I want to be the guy that lived the dream all my life". If his time was cut tragically short, he was true to his word.
A work hard, play hard ethic bore tremendous fruits in business, a material success he shared with friends, kin and the wider community but he defined himself as first and foremost "a dad...a husband... [and] a best friend..." In seeking to grow as a person and as a businessman he made a tremendous contribution to Hamilton, literally and figuratively stamping his mark on the city with GLOBOX digital billboard advertising.
Allan Daniel Nicholson was born January 25, 1976, in Te Awamutu, the third of the three children of Phillip Lloyd Nicholson and Pauline Kohakore Nicholson (née Gwynn).
Allan credited "his drive and the determination to go out there and build something" to the example set by "two hard working parents". Pauline was a machinist and caregiver; Phillip worked for Fonterra for 50 years, until his own passing in August of 2023, initially in the cool stores of Te Awamutu, latterly as a tanker driver.
Life in Te Awamutu for a "skinny white boy with glasses", as one cousin described Allan, wasn't short of other lessons. Enjoying a robust relationship with his elder brothers and enduring bullying at school, if he had any frustrations they became the source of unbounded resilience. A burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit , expressed itself at age 8, when he took a job delivering pamphlets door to door. From the youngest age Allan's passion was cars ; if he didn't know exactly what he wanted to do in life, whatever it was it had to facilitate this interest.
Attending Puahue School, Te Awamutu Intermediate and Te Awamutu College, Allan's first employment was as a landscaper. He later began a Psychology degree at the University of Waikato, working part time as a technician at the dental laboratory Wing & Parkin. The job became full time when he elected to discontinue formal study.
In 1998 Allan met Sally Livingstone through a mutual friend. Although the romance developed over time, Allan retained a memory of the shiny purple pants Sally wore that day, a reflection of the impact she made on first meeting as much as his capacity for detailed observation and uncanny memory.
Allan and Sally's first child, Emma, was born in January 2006 and they were to have three further children: Joel, Summer and Boston. An immensely proud, protective father, whatever the time demands of his business pursuits, family remained Allan's first priority and prime motivation.
He and Sally were particular supporters of Southwell School, considering the education of their children at the school a significant accomplishment.
Allan and Sally were married at the Te Awamutu Registry Office in 2009.
Drawing on his experience at Wing & Parkin, Allan opened his own dental laboratory. Concurrent with this, he and Sally began another business, Portable Rooms, constructing and selling portable buildings. Although these enterprises returned considerable profits, Allan felt the need for further growth and craved a challenge. Selling both, he developed a home teeth whitening product called Salon Bright, one designed to be sold in beauty clinics and hair salons.
If Salon Bright was to prove a disappointment relative to investment, Allan dealt with the set back philosophically, considering it a learning experience, one in which fresh business skills were acquired. He and Sally embarked on tertiary study to learn still more. Allan graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Studies from the University of Waikato in 2011.
With an undimmed appetite for risk, the following year he and Sally purchased Wing & Parkin from Allan's original employer, John Parkin. Rebranding the business as Clinico and beginning with a single clinic, Allan and Sally eventually expanded across the Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and wider Waikato, to the point where they owned and operated 9 clinics in all as well as a new, purpose built laboratory in Hamilton.
Around 2015 Allan became interested in advertising Clinico on digital billboards. Frustrated at the extreme cost of such an undertaking - $2000 a week - the experience led to the realisation that there was a niche market, potentially making the new advertising option available to small and medium businesses, not just at corporate level. For 12 to 24 months Allan tested this market, working through a period of research and development, travelling overseas on 15 separate occasions to liaise with various manufacturers and seeking the advice of those who had attempted, unsuccessfully, such an undertaking in the past. By 2019, he had launched a few digital billboards around Hamilton. It was a beginning, but Covid-19 was just around the corner.
The pandemic had a silver lining, least ways for GLOBOX, Allan and Sally's new business. In 2020 Allan's response to lockdown involved communicating with Hamilton small businesses, making offers they could not refuse. High visibility, outdoor advertising at a fraction of the commercial rates such exposure usually commanded was available in exchange for a 12 month commitment.
A week of cold calling resulted in ten new clients on the books. More followed. GLOBOX was up and running and rapidly expanded through new billboards and new clients.
For three years Allan and Sally had invested every cent of Clinico profits into establishing GLOBOX. With this takeup, they decided to sell the dental and hearing clinics outright and fully commit to the new enterprise.
GLOBOX'S success was grounded in Allan's affinity with small and medium business, viewing his clients more as business partners and offering services such as studio facilities and meeting spaces that went well beyond the parametres of the digital advertising itself. More importantly he made himself available for advice and support and was always willing to cut deals, firm in the belief that loyalty would be returned in kind.
Desiring to embed GLOBOX both figuratively and literally in Hamilton, Allan sought to acquire the naming rights to the Claudelands Event Centre, a venue he considered a "national treasure". After over a year of demonstrating to the Hamilton City Council and its managerial arm that the business had the financial wherewithal and was a "natural fit" in terms of commitment to the community, in September 2021 the Claudelands Event Centre formally became the GLOBOX Arena.
If the spoils of his and Sally's labours were considerable, with a fleet of vehicles, inclusive of a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce and sundry muscle cars, such acquisitions were less status symbols than possessions to be shared.
A source of strength and inspiration, with a capacity to connect to anyone from any background, Allan counted both former gang members and a current Member of Parliament as close friends. All benefited from the company of one whose optimism was unwavering and laughter infectious. Whatever his material success, he retained an innate humility, with a firm belief that the key to success in business was to surround himself with those who knew more than he did.
In December, 2023, after feeling unwell, Allan was taken to Waikato Hospital, where a large brain tumour was diagnosed. With less than 11 weeks to live, he and Sally elected to keep the news private.
In 2022, Allan told an interviewer that his life philosophy was simple: "just be a good human". In both words and deeds, he did justthat.
Allan Daniel Nicholson died February 17, 2024. He is survived by his wife Sally, his mother Pauline and his children Emma, Joel, Summer and Boston.