If Michael Burcham knows how to do one thing, it's scale a business. The serial Nashville entrepreneur has done so several times in his 35-year business career, and right now, there's a chance to tap into some of that experience. Burcham leads a program called Catalyst, designed to ignite growth at small businesses that have reached a certain level (more information below). The application window closes Sept. 30. Ahead of that cutoff, we spoke with Burcham about the program and how the Covid-19 pandemic altered what he teaches.
NBJ: If you distilled Catalyst to its essence, what is it?
Burcham: Our city is full of smaller businesses that have good products and services and the founder had a massive passion to do something, but really has very few tools to know how to both manage and grow the business. Once businesses reach a certain size, they tend to spin their tires and stay there because the leader, the founder, has done everything they know how to do. They inadvertently do things and make decisions that cause them to lose customers, lose employees, and they end up in a vicious cycle of growing a little, declining a little, growing a little, declining a little. I could walk from the river downtown out West End Avenue, past [Interstate] 440, and I'd pass 300 businesses like that. We show them how to scale, and they're in a peer group with about 40 other small businesses. It's a safe space to ask questions.
Let me ask the opposite: What is it not? It's not an incubator. It's not a place to daydream about what you want to create. It is not a place for you to find the magic wand to fix your business. You have to have something good going. It's about how can you lead it, manage it, and grow it?
How has the pandemic changed what you teach? Honestly, I’ve added a whole lot about a founder’s mental health. Running a business is significantly harder than it was in '18 or '19. Founder fatigue is massive right now. It's very lonely running a small business on your own. We read a lot about people leaving the workforce, or finding other jobs — but if you've mortgaged your house to create a company, you don't get that luxury. You don't get to just walk out the door. I try to be really sensitive that these folks survived not just a pandemic, but many have bet everything they have on a small business. I feel very sober about what I'm there to try to help them do.
How much is the pandemic still a pressing issue for these business owners? Today it is much more the residual effects … and not "in-my-face" problems. Consumers shifted almost entirely to digital purchases during the pandemic. Nashville changed a lot: A whole lot of people moved here from bigger cities. The job market was far more robust. Now, everyone is looking for workers. For some younger companies, sourcing supplies has been a bit of a challenge. You have to have a business model that works in this economy, and that model can't be a simple transactional model.
This program started 11 years ago. Why do you stick with it? In the Nashville economy, we celebrate all these giant businesses coming here, and the new skyscrapers. The vast majority of our economy in the city is run by small businesses. It's not run by big businesses. My passion is helping small businesses have the opportunity … to grow a business in the very new reality of a marketplace that's way different than '18 or '19.
More about Catalyst: Begun by the Nashville chapter of Entrepreneurs' Organization, Catalyst is geared to help companies with at least $250,000 of annual revenue expand to hit the $1 million annual mark, making them eligible to join Entrepreneurs' Organization (better known by its initials). Here's more information on how to apply, course structure and the participation fee.
