John Birch says he can sit down with an employee for just a few minutes and know whether they’re cut out for a job in a cubicle or on the open road. He says he can spot a narcissist or a sociopath from a mile away.
Birch is what one might call a small business doctor. About 30 companies throughout the state — ranging from nonprofits to manufacturing firms — have hired him to repair the inner workings of their operations. Since 1997, he has operated The Birch Group in New Britain. He employs 10 part-time staffers to assist in efforts to restructure businesses with 5 to 500 employees. And he says he will soon be looking for a partner so he can eventually “retire to working a 40 hour week.”
Even with the sinking economy, he says businesses want his services and his revenues have grown by at least 10-15 percent each year since he started out.
What makes Birch different from many others consultants, he says, is his ability to deeply read the people he works with using not only behavioral and personality mapping tools, but his instincts. Though he holds degrees in finance and economics, he is also a certified professional business coach who understands, first hand, what it feels like to work in the wrong job.
After spending nearly 20 years doing strategic and expense planning in the insurance industry, Birch realized it wasn’t for him. Following what he describes as a fortuitous layoff, he heard “entrepreneurship” calling his name and from that point on he says he never looked back.
“The best description of an entrepreneur is someone who’s just too dumb to quit. It’s all about the tenacity,” he said.
Ironically, Birch began his small business ownership operating a struggling restaurant in Hartford. Although he says he had ample patrons during lunch hours, he realized Hartford was a “commuter parking lot” with not near enough customers to sustain his business. He shut down the operation after a year, “flushed a lot of money down the toilet,” but decided to take a stab at starting a second business out of his home. That became The Birch Group.
“There were times when I wanted to pack it in. I called my master coach and he helped me overcome my own fears and insecurities we all have. It was life changing,” Birch said, noting it would benefit all new business owners to have a similar mentor.
Birch says one of his most satisfying business experiences came two years ago when he helped a company with a 60 percent yearly turnover rate do a better job of retaining its employees. By using a TriMetrix Job Benchmarking System that maps behaviors and work styles with what he says is a 96 percent accuracy rate, Birch was able to help the company identify the right — and wrong — hires. Today he says he’s pleased to see many familiar faces still on the job there.
He says he feels privileged to help small businesses stay afloat.
“We need to be proud of our businesses, believe in what we do and share our enthusiasm and stories with existing and potential clients,” he writes in his monthly newsletter.
Although he frequently observes how the tumultuous economy is negatively impacting employees, he sees hope.
“One of the things I’ve noticed since the bad recession is that the companies that are continuing to market and promote themselves are coming out strong for the most part. A lot of people are dismal about the future of the country. When I take a look at the people I work with, I’m optimistic for the future,” he said.
Joanna Smiley, a Hartford area freelancer, writes the weekly Local Interest column for The Hartford Business Journal.
