How has Big Green IT been dealing with the pandemic and do you have any stories or struggles that have occurred amidst our shelter in place?
From our company’s perspective, all of the infrastructure to work remotely has been in place for years; because of the information technology industry that we’re in. However, we do miss out on face-to-face customer interaction. While we’re doing just fine, that whole piece of the sales mechanism is just broken. We can get it done of course, but it’s missing the extra human touch. But other than that, everything has been really fine. A lot of the tools people use [to work from home] has been out there forever and has been slowly gaining traction. Now, suddenly, everyone’s started using it. I mean, everybody’s grandma knows what Zoom is now. So, the need for what we do has only gone up, because we design and deploy those solutions. The business that we do has been dramatically accelerated by COVID-19. Microsoft is our primary cloud solution, and we’ve had tons of forward progress in the past two months. As a rule, what we do in our daily work, is only in more demand than it was prior to the pandemic.
What we are concerned about, a concern that is very real but keeps getting delayed by stimulus packages and other things, is when clients start being unable to pay us. A big part of our business model involves us extending services to client. And we have to pay for those services regardless of whether or not the customer pays us. We've been very fortunate so far that none of our clients have gone under, and there are a lot of businesses that look like they're going to be in the right line of work to survive. However, some of them may not come out of this at all. In another few months down the road we could be hit with a big wave of bad debt.
How have you been adjusting to working at home now?
For me, I've been working from home for over 20 years, sometimes more and sometimes less, but I developed the work ethic, patterns, and routines I need in order to be effective at that a long time ago. So personally, it’s been great. I’ve been getting all kinds of stuff done. I enjoy this much more than a 3-hour commute and sitting in meetings. Often, travelling for a one-hour customer meeting could derail my productivity for the entire day.
Do you have tips for those that struggle to work at home?
Everybody’s got their own routine. Some people dress nicer on work days than they normally would to just hang around the house. I learned pretty early on that getting up in the morning and taking a shower as if I was driving to the office, and not sitting in my pajamas at my desk all day, just because I could, was my ticket to being productive from home. It’s been hugely helpful to me to do the whole nine yards every morning. It’s the rhythms and patterns, all the same things that make people more efficient and productive in their daily lives regardless of whether they're at home or commuting somewhere.
Another important thing, I think, is to invest in your workspace. Whether investing means spending an afternoon just moving furniture around or actually buying specialized furniture (it depends on what your work consists of). Having a workspace that is work-oriented helps greatly. And, depending on what your home environment is like, you may need some sort of isolation to help others understand that that space, whatever it is, is your work environment. My kids are old enough now that it’s no longer an issue, but I remember working from home when they were younger. Little kids don’t really understand how to respect work boundaries very well, or if they do understand it, they know a great button to push when they want ALL their parent’s attention is to completely ignore those boundaries. If you can make it happen, I strongly recommend an office door you can close!
Why did you decide to go to start coworking?
When I was doing this 20 years ago, coworking places didn’t really exist. Working in coffee shops doesn’t really work when you need to communicate professionally with other people. Many times, you’ll need a more professional environment like Davis Coworking. For plenty of people, that could be how they choose to invest in their workspace. At Big Green, we have a handful of workers that are nearly 100 miles apart, and Davis Coworking has been the perfect compromise between driving all the way into the office and just having video calls.
What do you enjoy most about working in Davis Coworking?
About a year ago, we started trying different places to have an offsite meeting where Jeff [CEO of Big Green IT] and I could meet outside the distractions of the office to get some focused work done. I must have tried a dozen places, from big expensive conference room facilities, all the way down to small coffee shops with an extra room. Many coworking spaces have an open design. Those can be very economical and are just fine for working with headphones on. But, if you need to communicate with another person in the same space as you, it's uncomfortable and can be disruptive to everyone around you. Davis Coworking’s facility turned out to be perfect because it’s got two actual conference rooms with doors where we can speak freely. The monthly subscription model also works well for us and it's almost exactly right in the middle [location-wise] between Jeff and I. So it turned out to be awesome!
