When Tom Simic, Principal CFO Advisor and founder of Simic Financial, participated in the Deakin Business Development Clinic, he wasn’t walking in with a predefined problem to solve. Like most BDC clients, he came in with an open mind and a genuine desire to grow – and handed the reins to a team of student consultants to do what the BDC does best: start from scratch.
Using the 7 Levers Framework, the student team conducted a comprehensive health check of Simic Financial’s business model. Their analysis pointed to a clear opportunity in the Suspects Lever – the top of the sales funnel. The recommendation? A more structured, consistent, and strategic approach to seminar-style events run in partnership with complementary professional service firms.
It wasn’t a complicated idea. But as any small business owner knows, it’s rarely the complicated ideas that move the needle.
The Recommendation That Changed the Game
Before the BDC, Tom was running partner events on an ad-hoc basis. The student team’s analysis revealed that this inconsistency was leaving a significant volume of qualified prospects on the table.
Their recommendation was clear: formalise the event’s cadence to one partner seminar per month, and be more selective about which partners to collaborate with – specifically focusing on those with strong ideal-client crossover.
Tom backed the students’ strategy and ran with it.
“The main recommendations were about implementing more seminars to increase lead flow – and that’s something I’ve done quite a bit of. Even last week, I did a podcast and also ran a seminar with some lawyers in Melbourne in a small boardroom style. I’ve been actively trying to do one of those events per month, which is mostly what the students recommended.”
The Numbers That Followed
The results have been meaningful. Since implementing the BDC recommendations, Simic Financial has seen:
- Monthly partner seminars: moved from ad-hoc to a consistent, structured 1 per month
- New potential clients reached: doubled
- New leads (meeting bookings): up by at least 25%
- Sales close rate: up by more than 42% (following the engagement of a sales training specialist as a complementary step)
- Team growth: actively hiring an additional Virtual CFO Advisor to meet growing demand
That last point says it all. When a professional services firm needs to hire, the pipeline is working.
A Student Team. A National Award. A Connected Story.
The timing of this story has an interesting twist. Shortly after the BDC program, Tom was named the CAANZ Young Chartered Accountant of the Year 2025 – one of the most prestigious recognitions in the Australian accounting profession.
The award recognises Tom’s visionary approach to redefining financial strategy for SMEs across Australia, and reflects the firm’s evolution from a small tax practice into one of the region’s most respected Virtual CFO firms. OpenPR
While the award recognises Tom’s broader body of work, the growth story that sits underneath it – a more structured lead generation engine, a growing client base, a team expanding to meet demand – has, in part, the fingerprints of a group of Deakin business students on it.
That’s the BDC in a nutshell. Students don’t just complete an assignment. They build something real.
What the BDC Did Here
Like the FutureNRG and OhCrap case studies before it, the Simic Financial story is a reminder that the BDC’s blank-canvas approach works precisely because there’s no predetermined answer. The student team didn’t walk in with a solution looking for a problem. They did the work – the health check, the analysis, the 7 Levers deep dive – and let the data point the way.
In Tom’s case, the data pointed to events. Specifically, to doing them more consistently, more strategically, and with the right partners in the room.
Simple. Structured. And it worked.
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Tom Simic is the founder and Principal CFO Advisor at Simic Financial, a Geelong-based Virtual CFO and business advisory firm. He was named CAANZ Young Chartered Accountant of the Year 2025.
Simic Financial participated in the Deakin Business Development Clinic as an SME client.
The BDC is open to small and medium-sized businesses across Australia. [Register your interest here.]