How BizWest readers innovated around work amid a pandemic
On Sept. 25, Colorado passed a milestone. Six months ago from that date, Gov. Jared Polis ordered the state to stay at home as much as possible to blunt the rising wave of COVID-19 infections before it overwhelmed hospitals.
As of press date, almost 67,000 Coloradans tested positive for the disease. Of those thousands, almost 7,500 were hospitalized and just more than 2,000 have died.
More than 558,000 first-time claims for unemployment aid were filed, representing hundreds of thousands of state residents who temporarily or permanently lost their income. Meanwhile, an untold swath of small businesses have closed for good, or are teetering on the edge of insolvency as the pandemic grips the local and national economy.
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That, combined with a contentious national election and the impeachment proceedings of President Donald Trump before it, wildfires both here and abroad and the ongoing protests against the deaths of Black Americans have made 2020 a particularly terrible year.
Business is not as usual, and it may never return to what was known as normal.
However, companies across Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley have continued on during the pandemic, making changes as needed to adjust to the new normal. BizWest surveyed its readers on how they innovated and adapted in this perilous time.
Webinars are hot
The pandemic and the federal and state responses to it had a lot of moving parts, and people were looking for advice. Webinars helped fill that void, allowing large numbers of people to get caught up on relevant issues without leaving their homes.
Paul Mueller, managing director of Mueller Pye & Associates CPA in Loveland, said hundreds of people from across the country signed up for the firm’s webinars on tax and regulatory policy starting in mid-March.
“There were so many fast-moving legislative and regulatory changes going on, we felt like we needed to be out there ahead of it, because if we were struggling keeping up and learning all this stuff, then certainly our clients would,” he said.
Larry Chapman of video production company Fort Collins Video LLC said the live events work went to almost zero and hasn’t fully recovered, including the filming he used to do for events at the Lincoln Center.
However, his corporate clients covered that loss by asking for more help in running webinars.
“Initially I expected many requests for help with live video broadcasts,” he said. “But the technology has become friendly enough that most people are doing it themselves.”
Getting out of the house
While work-from-home remains the norm for several companies that traditionally would be housed in an office, businesses and nonprofits have had to pivot to accommodate social distancing.
John Lovell, director of development for Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, said the housing nonprofit took multiple approaches at the outset of the pandemic: The office staff was relocated to homes, and the group’s thrift store workers were offered jobs at construction sites before it was able to reopen in July.
Construction crews and small groups of volunteers were able to proceed in building the eight homes that were either completed or are in construction since March, but with masks, maximum distance and multiple tool cleanings in place.
“While we have adapted, we miss these (volunteer) groups as they are an essential part of what we do,” he wrote.
Scott Ford, Techstars chief operating officer, said the Boulder-based startup accelerator had to close almost 20 offices around the world as COVID emerged as a global threat. While March and April were particularly hectic due to having to reschedule several demo day events, the staff got into gear while working from home.
“We have found our rhythm with 300 people working remotely, while still delivering our products and services at a high level,” he wrote, although he noted employees do miss seeing each other in a physical work environment.
Today, the Boulder office is open for staffers with special needs, with never more than five people at a time in the office that is meant to host more than 100 employees.
Relying on aid
Ultimately, there’s not a lot of ways to innovate around a sudden and severe drop in cash flow. Companies in Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Greeley received almost $386.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds, according to a BizWest analysis of data released in June.
Between Larimer, Boulder, Broomfield and parts of western Weld County, the almost 21,000 companies got support from that program.
