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NYC Tech Firm Embraces Remote Work in Brooklyn Apartment Building
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Co-working from your apartment building could be part of the post-pandemic hybrid workplace.
Remote work may be here to stay, but Metro Tech Services has put a new spin on it by operating out of a new co-working space in a Brooklyn apartment building.
Tony Dopazo’s Williamsburg apartment building Level converted party rooms on the first and ninth floors to fully functioning work spaces with desks, computers and private conference rooms that are free for those who live there. Dopazo also pays about $80 a month for space on the balcony that offers picturesque views of the city and meets the technology standards of a growing New York tech company.
“Signing that long-term lease, the huge capital outlay to design and build out your office space, I think, that people are thinking long and hard about that now,” Dopazo said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
He calls co-working in apartment buildings a “piece of the puzzle” for hybrid work that will enable companies to minimize the risk of signing long-term contracts for corporate office spaces when it may not be necessary anymore.
“Other enterprises right now are really looking at that as a good model for them in the near-term,” Dopazo said.
The Brooklyn tech owner told WCBS 880’s Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso that downsizing made sense for his firm to cut costs and he’s enjoying the flexibility, but he noted some workers are not well-equipped to work from home. He’s been getting calls from employers who hire Metro Tech Services to outfit their employees’ remote work spaces to avoid any disruption of their operations.
“Everyone is moving to voiceover I.P. because it allows you to bring your handset to your home, plug it into your router, and make and receive phone calls from your regular handset,” said Dopazo.
Metro Tech Services has about 90 clients across various industries.
Embracing remote work has made Metro Tech and its clients more nimble, but in reducing managerial oversight, it has opened the door to allow talented workers to pursue new opportunities at the same time. Dopazo realized this after turning a couple workers into contractors. One moved to California and the other started his own business.
“They’re now contractors for me so we maintain that relationship, but I’ll also say, projecting now that things are getting a little hectic, I do need to bring in full-time folks now so this is the next challenge,” he explained.
“Unfortunately, they’re great, but I don’t see them as full-time. In other words, they’ve gotten spoiled and good for them. I think they’ve both done well.”Dopazo now discourages his workers from moving out of New York to work remotely.
See the co-working space in Dopazo’s Williamsburg apartment building on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Olympian Amanda Beard Feels ‘Sad and Proud’ About Simone Biles’ Withdrawal in Tokyo; What to Know about the New Dangerous Phase of the Pandemic
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the Olympics put the issue of mental health back in focus.
WCBS reporter Marla Diamond spoke with Olympic gold medal swimmer Amanda Beard about the pressures athletes’ face and her own struggles on The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez.
Plus, the CDC says the Delta variant has changed the war against COVID-19 as it releases new data justifying its recommendations to wear masks regardless of vaccination status and millions face evictions Saturday as the national moratorium ends.
Subscribe and download The 880 Weekly Rewind podcast for in-depth reporting and deeper analysis of the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso, for WCBS-AM New York.
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Achieving Work-Life Balance in a Pandemic World
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — It’s okay to work hard and play hard.
The age-old struggle for work-life balance is in overdrive during the pandemic. Those who are working remotely are often working longer hours, feeling like they can never tackle their entire to-do lists. The surging COVID-19 infections this summer are introducing more social anxieties.
Christy Wright has spoken about balance for 11 years at Ramsey Solutions where she hosts a national radio show based in Nashville, TN focused on personal growth. In her upcoming book “Take Back Your Time: The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance,” she writes it’s important to prioritize work and life so you’re “doing the right things at the right time.”
“If what’s right right now is a busy day at work then it gives me permission to not only shake the guilt from the things I’m not doing, that are not right right now, it also helps me be present for the moment I’m in and be proud of how I’m spending my time,” she told WCBS 880’s Neil A. Carousso, noting, “The opposite is also true.”
The best-selling author explained that sometimes it’s okay to put your phone down to enjoy family and friends. Other times, your attention should be on work.
Wright ties balance to guilt. She used to think about her kids when she was working and thinking about work deadlines when spending time with family and found many others were in the same monotonous cycle.
“If you live your entire life this way, always focused on where you are not, then of course you feel guilty because you’re always focused on what you’re not doing,” she said.
Wright advises people to be confident in their decisions. She told WCBS 880 that often leads to happier and more fulfilled lives.
She also mentors women who are looking to start their own businesses and side-hustles and speaks on the topics of confidence and fear. Wright is frequent guest co-host on The Dave Ramsey Show.
Watch Neil A. Carousso’s full conversation with Christy Wright about ways to achieve work-life balance on the video above.
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NYC Tour Company Grows Revenue with New Profitable Services
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A New York City tour business has been growing despite the pandemic shutdown by adding new viable services.
Cindy VandenBosch and Andrew Gustafson are the husband and wife duo at the helm of Turnstile Tours. Both of them have decades of experience in history, museums and tourism. Over the past 10 years, they’ve built a diverse portfolio of programs with unique New York stories at historic sites such as the South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
They focus on the “people in the place” to develop the most compelling content. That recipe translated to virtual tours in the pandemic, which helped them amass an audience outside New York.
“We’ve just been able to spread our wings and share so many more stories through the virtual format,” VandenBosch told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
Quickly, they figured out a way to offer daily virtual tours on a variety of subjects to both educate and entertain. VandenBosch and Gustafson hosted more than a 100 consecutive virtual programs at one point as the coronavirus kept people home.
As hundreds of people signed up to participate in interactive virtual tours, they launched a monthly membership program.
“People sign up for a monthly membership, and then, they get access to a certain number of programs per month, and then, they can they can access our library as well,” said Gustafson. “That ongoing revenue has been really important to us.”
Now that Turnstile Tours is back in-person, they host members-only events to retain repeat customers for its premium service. They plan to continue virtual tours in some capacity even though COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted because of the opportunity to reach a mass audience.
It was their partnerships with non-profits that helped them become more than a tourism business.
“We could create this kind of suite of services working behind-the-scenes to help either existing institutions be better at what they do or to help them grow a new program,” Gustafson recalled.
As they and their team learned video production and editing engaging content to capture a digital audience, Turnstile Tours began offering those in-demand services to partners and clients.
“This spring, we supported the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for their spring virtual festival. So, we were behind-the-scenes, our team, producing and directing, helping with their ‘Making Brooklyn Bloom’ programming, which they normally do in-person,” said VandenBosch.
“We were really proud to have developed the skills just through practice,” she added.
You can get ideas for creating adjacent services to grow revenue on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Masking in Schools and Combating Vaccine Disinformation on Facebook
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The global surge of the highly contagious Delta Variant of COVID-19 has sparked a divisive debate about whether kids should wear masks in schools. On The 880 Weekly Rewind, a pediatrician tells WCBS why he is adamant about utilizing the effective mitigation measure.
Lynda Lopez also looks at how Facebook can tackle vaccine disinformation with CNET Editor at Large Ian Sherr after President Joe Biden accused the social media company of “killing people.”
We also look at mounting pressure for a congestion pricing plan as Tri-State traffic headaches return for New York City commuters and explore the billionaire space race between entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
Subscribe and download The 880 Weekly Rewind podcast for in-depth reporting and deeper analysis of the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso, for WCBS-AM New York.
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