Some of the most successful businesses started in a garage. Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and even Amazon all found their start in home offices then moved to more traditional office settings once they became viable businesses. When I decided to start Logic Solutions, I expected to follow the same path. But as any good entrepreneur knows, you can’t plan for everything.
To focus on launching my business, I arranged for my wife and kids (aged 3 and 4) to travel to our native country in Asia. While they were in Asia, I worked from home and got busy writing the business plan, finding angel investors, writing my initial software program, and recruiting for talented people to join my team.
After two months, my wife and children returned and my work environment changed drastically. With two young children in the house, distractions and noise ruled my home and my office. Soon after their return, my wife decided to search for a daycare so I could work in an environment free of interruptions. One day, she came home with the good news and better news.
“I found a daycare for the kids,” she told me. “And right across the hallway is an office for lease.”
It was a perfect combination. I could take my kids to daycare when I went to the office and bring them home after work. I signed the lease and enrolled my then excitable kids in the daycare and in 1995, I launched Logic Solutions.
For 25 years, Logic Solutions’ team worked in an office space but when COVID-19 emerged, change became necessary for the health and safety of our staff and our community.
In early March of 2020, Logic Solutions migrated from our headquarters into our homes. Shortly after we closed our office space, strict guidelines shuttered office spaces all across the state.
As coronavirus spiraled out of control, what was an empty nest for years became a breeding ground for distractions once again when my oldest and youngest children (now 29 and 25) moved back into the house to work remotely. They didn’t want to work in their rooms since, “it’s a bad idea to work in a bedroom,” so they established their own remote working stations in other areas of the house
It was déjà vu. I was back where I started — working from home where my kids had taken over.
I thought this arrangement would last two, maybe three months; I never anticipated it would last all the way into 2021.
I started going back to the office where I often worked alone. I soon realized that keeping the office space was unsustainable and decided to move Logic Solutions out of our headquarters in Ann Arbor and continue operations remotely. By this time, businesses were allowed to open in a limited capacity and I started working at the Back Office Studio, a dynamic coworking space in downtown Ypsilanti. Thanks to their diligence in following COVID-19 guidelines, staying healthy practicing social distancing was easy.
Then I started looking for a new home for Logic Solutions and found one in Plymouth, Michigan where my team and I now work.
The world has changed so much between my first time working from home and second time working from home. Back in 1995, there was only dial-up internet and AWS was nonexistent. We didn’t have access to Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Jira to run meetings and collaborate on agile development. But one thing has not changed — I work best in an office away from my home where my kids and wife are the governing authority.
Comments 2
Hi Jimmy,
Amazing story! Yes, we all have to adapt when the pandemic hits. Thank goodness it hit at a time when technology is at it’s prime. Can you imagine what a disaster it will be if COVID-19 hits us in 1995?
I’m sure glad we are living in the 21st century.
Best of luck in your new office, sure miss all those dumplings party at hour home!
Have a wonderful day.
Warmest regards,
Leonie
Hi Jimmy,
Read about your experience — and I do read your newsletters. We have been luckier than most since we have individual offices and allowed people to work from home and/or come into the office since day one of this “mess”. There was no ordinance here that prevented us from allowing people to work in the office, but it has been a learning experience. I think those of us in the software business have had a leg up on the brick and mortar places, such as restaurants, that had to close. More people are coming back into the office now that our state is doing well with vaccinations. I, too, work better at the office and I like to keep an eye on people. It is too bad that our paths have not crossed recently as INL is now gone and SCN is very quiet these days. Hope you are all doing well. Lynne