Jacob Nicotra, CEO and Founder of Jacob Nicotra Web Development Discusses Operating a Small Business from Home in a Remote Economy/INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE NEWS

Jacob Nicotra is the founder and CEO of Jacob Nicotra Web Development, a premiere web development company specializing in custom web development, eCommerce solutions, and WordPress design and development. Jacob comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has always been interested in business and technology. After working in web development for several years, Jacob decided to open his own company. With a strong background in STEM, biochemistry, and thousands of clinical hours, Jacob Nicotra decided to redirect his career in 2021 to pursue a path in the tech industry as a software engineer.

After evaluating market trends and employment opportunities, he underwent a 6 month software engineering course. To date, Jacob Nicotra has developed 4 full stack web applications, as well as launched an online web development business, focused on building websites for small businesses. He is currently developing an estimation tool for a painting and construction company that will support a streamlined estimate process and help generate new business and increased revenue. In addition to his busy schedule in software development and running his business, Jacob has continued to volunteer for many different causes but especially for organizations that focus on mental health counseling.

“I started my business during the COVID pandemic, which meant that remote work was non-negotiable. These are some of the pros and cons that I have experienced or identified, as well as some thoughts on how to counteract the negatives.”

Pros

Better work-life balance

The ability to work remotely can help make it easier to maintain a work-life balance. Living in a big city like Chicago can mean spending a lot of time commuting if you have to work in an office setting. Depending on how many hours you spend each day commuting, it can add 10-15 hours per week to your work schedule. By working remotely, I am able to have much greater control over my schedule and to cut out a significant amount of time spent commuting. With working in web development and software, I also have the flexibility (to a certain degree) of working at whatever time of day works best for me. Clearly, I need to spend a fair amount of hours working, or at least be available to clients for calls and meetings, during “typical” business hours such as 8am-6pm. But if I am awake late at night, I can be productive and get a jump start on the next day, as opposed to getting a bad night’s sleep and then not being at my best the next day in the office.

More freedom

I am able to meet with clients and my team from home. The ability to meet my clients over video call and give live demos is far more convenient and just as effective as a presentation in a meeting room at an office building. Another benefit is the ability to work with clients from all over the country. This is mainly possible because of the shift in perspective of business and consumers since the pandemic. Remote is no longer an exception to the norm, it has become commonplace. As a new business owner, I simply took advantage of this shift in the market.

Improved employee experience

With no daily commute, no excessive coffee breaks, and no long hours away from friends, family, and kids, remote work greatly improves employee experience and well-being. Offering optimum employee experience creates a culture of high performance and efficiency where employees actually want to improve and succeed at their work.

Decreased infrastructure costs

When fewer employees come to the office every day, you need fewer desks and equipment to support them. Moreover, you would also need a smaller space to accommodate all the employees coming to the office, leading to lowered rent costs. In fact, according to a study, organizations can save up to $2,000 for every employee that goes remote by simply saving on their office space and overall infrastructure.

Increase in productivity

Unlike traditional office employees who might feel frustrated after spending an hour or two in the morning commute, remote employees feel more positive and fresh in the morning when they start their work. Also, with no excessive coffee breaks or interruptions, employees can completely focus on their work, leading to an increase in productivity. In fact, over 75 percent of employees agree that they have fewer disruptions when they work away from the office, and 77 percent of them claim to be more productive while working from home.

Ability to hire and retain top talent

Over 83 percent of employees claim that the ability to work remotely, at least in some capacity, is one of the major deciding factors when considering a job offer. 74 percent of employees would quit their jobs to work at an organization that allows them to go remote more often, even if their salary remained the same.

For organizations, that means, offering remote working perks is not an option anymore. It’s a necessity if they want to hire and retain top talent. Companies offering flexible working arrangements, whether it is in the form of full or partial remote work can make a big difference for the candidates looking for their next career move.

Cons

No face-to-face connection

One negative is no physical office space. The lack of this physical space means a different dynamic between myself and clients, as well as between team members.

With no face-to-face interactions or team meetings, it can be difficult for newly remote teams to work together. Managers worry that their team members might not work as efficiently as they did in the office (even though research indicates otherwise). Similarly, employees can struggle due to reduced guidance and support from managers. In many cases, employees even feel left out when remote managers are out of touch with their needs and challenges.

How to avoid this: Managers can carefully plan weekly 1:1 meetings with each team member.

Lack of access to information

Without the right onboarding process or help, it can be challenging for remote employees to find and locate all the information they need to manage their work. On average, employees spend 30 percent of their workday searching for information. While working remotely, this number gets further increased as employees are on their own and they can message their colleagues for help only so many times which invariably decreases productivity and employee engagement.

How to avoid this: Integrate a unified digital workplace platform to make it easier for the employees to access all the work-related data and applications.

Decreased collaboration

When teams work remotely, there are fewer chances of employees talking to each other about random day-to-day things over lunch or coffee break. While these conversations may seem unnecessary from a distance, they actually help improve team coordination and communication.

When remote teams strictly restrict their conversations to work with no informal chats, it makes team members feel uncomfortable in reaching out to their coworkers about any challenges or problems that might be affecting their work.

How to avoid this: Organize informal discussions with the whole team where everyone can connect and catch up on a personal level.

Loneliness and isolation

Going to the office every morning adds structure and routine to people’s lives. In an office, you spend time with people around you and even talk to employees working in other departments as you take the elevator, grab a cup of coffee, or sit down for lunch.

But working remotely all by yourself with just a laptop in front of you can be incredibly isolating and lonely. While some people choose to work through a coworking space or cafe to avoid loneliness, it isn’t really possible right now with social distancing norms in place. Continuous isolation with no engagement with the team can eventually lead to frustration, burnouts, and lowered efficiency.

How to avoid this: Routinely organize virtual team-building activities for all the employees in the company.

A few tips:

While you cannot meet your clients in person, it is up to you to do your best to emulate the personal connection that forms during physical meetings. I focus on video calls, in which I show my face which looks professional and share my screen to give a live demonstration of the product that I offer. This allows people to see and understand the tailored service that my business provides, more so than a mere phone call or email chain.

While operating a remote business, a strong internet connection is vital to host video meetings and perform daily tasks on the web. A quality microphone also goes a long way- and is much more valuable than a quality web camera. People are much more forgiving of a granular video image, than they are of a low-quality microphone which can cause echoing, background noise interference, buzzing, and other types of distractions.