• The novel coronavirus has spread across the US with over 1,000 confirmed cases.
• Nurses, epidemiologists, and other workers in life-saving positions are helping save lives during the outbreak.
• Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we found the average annual salaries for 19 life-saving jobs in the US.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Registered nurses are one of many life-saving occupations needed as the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the US and globally. The epidemic in the US has had over 1,300 cases and 38 deaths so far.

Business Insider took a look at what the typical American who works as a nurse and in other life-saving occupations earns each year.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program offers data on employment and wages across different occupations and industries.

Using that data, we found the average annual salaries, as reported by the BLS, for 19 medical and protective-service roles where saving lives is a part of the job.

Lifeguards tend to make a relatively low annual salary, while firefighters and police officers are well compensated on average. Surgeons are very highly paid.

Here are those occupations, ranked from lowest to highest average salary as of May 2018, the most recent period for which BLS data is available:

SEE ALSO: These are the most in-demand American jobs in the time of the coronavirus pandemic

19. Lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers earn an average of $24,420 a year.

There are 144,370 employed in the US.

18. Ambulance drivers and attendants (except EMTs) earn an average of $29,010 a year.

There are 15,380 employed in the US.

17. Crossing guards earn an average of $31,970 a year.

There are 79,880 employed in the US.

16. Security guards earn an average of $32,050 a year.

There are 1,114,380 employed in the US.

15. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics earn an average of $37,760 a year.

There are 257,210 employed in the US.

14. Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental-health counselors earn an average of $47,920 a year.

There are 267,730 employed in the US.

13. Forest-fire inspectors and prevention specialists earn an average of $49,610 a year.

There are 2,130 employed in the US.

12. Firefighters earn an average of $53,240 a year.

There are 321,570 employed in the US.

11. Fire inspectors and investigators earn an average of $64,140 a year.

There are 12,530 employed in the US.

10. Police and sheriff's patrol officers earn an average of $65,400 a year.

There are 661,330 employed in the US.

9. Transit and railroad police earn an average of $74,450 a year.

There are 4,470 employed in the US.

8. Registered nurses earn an average of $75,510 a year.

There are 2,951,960 employed in the US.

7. Epidemiologists earn an average of $75,690 a year.

There are 7,060 employed in the US.

6. First-line supervisors of fire-fighting and prevention workers earn an average of $80,310 a year.

There are 65,920 employed in the US.

5. Emergency management directors earn an average of $82,570.

There are 9,550 employed in the US.

4. Detectives and criminal investigators earn an average of $85,020 a year.

There are 103,450 employed in the US.

3. First-line supervisors of police and detectives earn an average of $93,100 a year.

There are 116,660 employed in the US.

2. Air-traffic controllers earn an average of $120,830 a year.

There are 22,390 employed in the US.

1. Surgeons earn an average of $255,110 a year.

There are 34,390 employed in the US.

• Remote work has been a growing trend over the past several years, and the recent spread of the coronavirus is compelling more and more companies to find ways to have their employees work from home. 
• Acceleration Partners is a business marketing company that has been working entirely remotely since it began 13 years ago, and has since grown to 177 employees worldwide.
• Founder and CEO Robert Glazer shares his best advice on how to create a thriving and productive company culture when your team doesn't share an office space.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Remote work has been a key topic for years, but it is particularly urgent today, as the spread of the coronavirus is forcing companies as large as Amazon, Microsoft, and Twitter to telework.

While some employees expect to thrive working remotely, others fear they'll feel isolated or unmotivated to work in their own homes. Managers worry about keeping a team motivated and effective without daily FaceTime in the office.

Our company, Acceleration Partners, knows the benefits of remote work. Our entire organization has worked remotely since its founding in 2007, and as we've expanded to 177 employees in eight different countries. We've even been recognized with numerous awards for our industry performance and company culture, and we believe this is because of our remote culture, not despite it.

While transitioning a team to a remote environment isn't always easy, most businesses can excel under these circumstances if they follow certain practices. Speaking from over a decade of experience leading an award-winning remote culture, here are the keys to success:

SEE ALSO: More workplaces are asking employees to go remote due to coronavirus. Here are 11 traits you need to be an effective remote worker.

READ MORE: Google found 3 ways to improve employee collaboration and productivity while working virtually. Here's how your company can apply those principles.

Hire the right people

It's obvious but crucial: You cannot build a successful remote business without hiring employees who excel in that environment. If you're hiring remote employees, you should consider that environment a key point in evaluating whether a candidate is the right fit for your organization.

We've made our remote work policy a part of our interview process. This includes asking candidates if they've considered how they'd make the adjustment. It also involves reminding candidates that not everybody thrives working from home and ensuring applicants are aware of this before accepting the job.

Remote companies shouldn't promise applicants they'll love working from home and dismiss any concerns out of hand. A key driver of any effective culture is an honest hiring process — businesses need to be clear with candidates about what they value and what they expect, allowing applicants to candidly consider whether that culture fits their needs. 

Beyond that, screen for certain candidate traits. Ask interviewees: Do they have trouble setting their own schedule and staying disciplined? Are they self-motivated? These questions will help reveal if a person is right for a remote environment.

Invest in technology

Technology makes it easier than ever for teams to stay connected while working remotely. To ensure employees can connect personally and collaborate professionally, businesses often invest in video conferencing software such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Skype, and project-management tools such as Slack and Asana.

Video is an absolute must for remote teams. Conducting as many communications as possible over video calls, rather than phone, ensures employees are more engaged, personally connected and invested in the success of the team.

These types of tools are also crucial for onboarding new employees, or transitioning a team to a remote environment. Employees need to know their organization is committed to making the remote work lifestyle as comfortable and effective as possible, and these technology investments go a long way in assuring that.

Create organizational transparency

It can be normal, especially in larger companies, for employees to feel disconnected from senior leadership. Under the wrong conditions, this can be especially true in remote organizations, where an employee may go their entire tenure without having a one-on-one conversation with an executive.

Leaders of remote organizations must proactively address this problem. We've made top-down transparency a foundational part of our culture. This includes having biweekly all company briefings where our senior leadership team reports our company financials, progressing sales deals and operational initiatives to the entire company in real time.

When a company's leadership is transparent — and invites regular questions and feedback — it creates an environment of trust for employees. In a remote environment, it's vital for workers to feel safe to be open about their workloads and to bring any potential issues to leadership before they become unfixable.

Host face-to-face company meetings

While remote employees spend most of their time working from home, it's important to create opportunities for workers to interact in person, even just a few times each year. While having an annual in-person meeting is a great start — ours is called AP Summit— there are other creative steps businesses can take to foster in-person connections on their teams.

As part of our hiring strategy, we organize most of the company into what we call "hubs," cities where large collections of our employees are based. This allows us to have semi-annual "Hub Meetings," where large groups of our employees gather to connect in person and share feedback with senior leadership in attendance. It also facilitates regular collaboration days, in-person trainings and social events. 

While remote organizations can't recreate an office environment completely, prioritizing face-to-face meetings goes a long way in bringing your team closer together.

Prioritize professional development

Companies thrive when employees are consistently learning and growing, rising to meet the new challenges as the business grows. Likewise, most employees want a clear path for advancement at work and want their leaders to help them grow even if they aren't at an office every day.

Leaders need to make professional development a top priority — this includes creating virtual courses that employees can take on company best practices and policies, creating mentoring groups where senior team members can share knowledge with new ones, and setting aside time and resources for in-person trainings.

At our company we've taken this a step further — to develop our future senior leaders internally, we've started holding regular, in-person Advanced Leadership Training workshops where employees gather to learn from experts on how to grow their personal and professional leadership skills.

Building a great remote culture isn't easy, especially for organizations that need to make a sudden transition to this workplace model. However, most organizations can develop the culture they need to thrive in this environment if they make it a priority. By creating transparency and trust, hiring the right people, and investing in employee growth and enabling technology, business leaders can create a remote organization that doesn't just match a traditional work model, but outperforms it.

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global partner marketing agency and the recipient of numerous industry and company culture awards, including Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards two years in a row. He is the author of the inspirational newsletter Friday Forward, the books Elevate and Performance Partnerships, and host of The Elevate Podcast.

• The World Health Organization officially labeled COVID-19 a pandemic, but they still believe it can be contained with aggressive action.
• Nineteen US states have declared a state of emergency, and several major events have been cancelled in an effort to slow the spread.
• Companies should have an emergency contingency plan in place, which is a comprehensive set of procedures that helps business leaders face a variety of challenges.
• A contingency plan for COVID-19 should include ways to prevent the spread, how to transition to isolation status, and how to respond if an employee has symptoms or is presumptive positive for the virus.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

COVID-19, the novel virus more commonly referred to as coronavirus, has affected more than 127,000 people around the world and killed over 4,700. These numbers keep climbing. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 is officially a pandemic. The entire country of Italy — 60 million people — is on lockdown due to how quickly the virus is spreading there.

Cases have surpassed 1,300 in the US, where COVID-19 has killed 38 people. In response to an uptick in cases, at least nineteen states have declared states of emergency, and a number of large-scale gatherings, such as SXSW and Coachella, have been cancelled or postponed.

Though we've reached pandemic levels, WHO still believes that COVID-19 can be contained with aggressive action. If you're in a leadership position at your company, the time to implement your emergency contingency plan is now. If you don't have one of those, we've outlined what they are and some tips on putting one together.

What is an emergency contingency plan?

An emergency contingency plan is a comprehensive set of procedures businesses put in place in case they experience an event that could impact operations or employee well-being. This could range from a data breach to a natural disaster, like a tornado, to a high-level executive suddenly leaving. 

A plan like this "empowers employees to respond quickly and effectively to an evolving disaster or emergency incident," explained Patrick Hardy, creator of the Disaster Hawk disaster preparedness app. 

According to Janet Phillips, vice president of people at tech company Kong, the main components of an emergency contingency plan include:

• A designated emergency response team, including people who are trained in evacuating staff from the building safely
• A list of predefined scenarios that may require a rapid and/or sustained response
• A comprehensive communications process for notifying and updating staff, customers, and partners about the emergency

"Every company needs an emergency contingency plan because each company, regardless of its size or where it's based, could potentially face [different types of] emergencies," said Phillips. 

How to devise a contingency plan

Start off by making a list of key risks the company could face, along with their possible impact. What events and scenarios could interrupt everyday operations? What functions and departments would be most impacted, and how? Map out every possible outcome.

For example, if the whole building loses power, every employee who works there will be affected. Wireless internet won't work, severely hampering external communications. Parts of the office will be poorly lit, and the air conditioning or heat will shut off.

Once you have your comprehensive list, create a plan of action for each scenario. For the example above, a few things you'd want to think about are:

• If your office building has a generator and whether or not you have access to it
• Who owns and maintains the building and how to contact them
• How long you want to wait to see if the power kicks back on 
• How employees should do their work if the power doesn't come back on

This should be a discussion among key business leaders in an effort to make sure your team thinks of every possible scenario, impact, and solution.

When the contingency plan is complete, share it with staff. Transparency is key to forging trust and making sure employees feel safe and know what to do. The last thing anyone wants to be doing during an emergency is, well, trying to figure out what they should be doing.

Since this plan could change, the best way to share it is on a company intraweb where it can be easily updated. To increase the chances of all employees knowing it exists and exactly where it is, require managers to discuss it with their direct teams.

"Managers are typically the first line of communication with employees," shared Phillips, "so it's quite important to establish a climate of communication and trust so topics like these can be raised and discussed. This is not the time to wing it." 

Developing a contingency plan for COVID-19

COVID-19 is a rapidly developing situation, and there's a lot we don't know. A few things we do know, though, are: It's spreading quite quickly, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and it can be fatal, especially to vulnerable populations. Businesses absolutely, without a doubt, need to take aggressive action.

"When creating an action plan specifically for [an outbreak like] COVID-19," explained Jeanniey Mullen, chief innovation officer at financial services company DailyPay, "businesses must consider ways to minimize their employees' exposure to potentially contract the virus and infect others." 

According to Hardy, a COVID-19 response plan should include the following: 

• Preparedness — taking measures to prevent an outbreak among staff
• Isolation — steps to take to prepare for transitioning to remote operations/if your office has to shut down
• Activation — the planned response if the company has an employee who tests positive for COVID-19

With all of that in mind, here are some steps you can take to build out your company's COVID-19 contingency plan.

Know exactly what to do if someone at your office tests positive for COVID-19

If an employee tests positive and has been at the office, the rest of the staff in that location needs to be informed immediately. 

However, you should do your best to be confidential and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The office space should be disinfected, and any employees who worked in close proximity to the infected individual should self-quarantine at home for 14 days. 

If possible, the safest route would be to quarantine all employees who work at that location. Either way, the entire staff should conduct a risk assessment on themselves.

Communicate clearly and regularly about the virus

Source all of your updates from the CDC and WHO, and regularly check to see if your state has declared a state of emergency and, if so, what that means for your company.

Be extremely clear about any changes to any policies, encourage public health habits (like proper hand washing and sneezing into your elbow), and designate a person or a small group of people who employees can go to if they have questions about COVID-19 in relation to business operations.

"Additionally, this may seem fairly intuitive," said Jennifer Ho, vice president of human resources at Ascentis, "but make sure your employee contact information is up to date and available virtually, as you might need to contact your employees after hours, or other times none of you are in the office."

Assess the essential functions of your business and cross-train your team

In order for your business to continue operating, what functions can it absolutely not go without? For example, if it's a direct-to-consumer company, you'll likely need to ensure you can still produce and ship your product. But, perhaps you can lay low on social media efforts. Make a list of all vital tasks.

If only one person can carry out a certain vital task, others need to be trained on it. If there's only a single employee who knows how to reset the office WiFi when it acts up and she gets sick, you could end up operating sans internet for a while. Create in-depth documentation outlining exactly how to do each necessary business function. 

Revisit the company's paid sick leave policy

In times like this, your current policies may be too stringent. If an employee has extremely limited sick time, they may feel discouraged from staying home, instead opting to hide their suspicions about being infected and still coming into the office. This puts everyone at risk.

"PTO and sick leave policies should be revisited to allow for potential exemptions and leniency in these kinds of situations," Ho shared. "In doing so, employees will have the assurance they won't be penalized for taking needed sick time, which can also reduce the spread of COVID-19." 

Take note that, on March 6, Senator Patty Murray introduced a bill that would require employers to provide all workers with emergency paid sick leave during public health emergencies like the COVID-19 spread. The bill's still pending, so keep an eye on it. Some companies, such as Walmart, have already implemented new sick leave policies themselves in response to the outbreak.

Additionally, be advised that the CDC says you should not ask for a doctor's note to prove an employee's virus status in order to avoid putting even more stress on the country's medical system.

Implement a work-from-home policy

If it's possible for your organization to do this, it'll be a great help for employees who are quarantined but can still work, or if the entire office or building needs to be shut down. But be clear — employees should actually be working from their house, not holed up in a coffee shop where they could catch or spread the virus. 

There are a number of tools companies can use these days to more easily facilitate remote working (some organizations are even making their tools free right now!).

"Remote work is more than just simply email correspondence and phone calls," said Ho. "By leveraging the right technology, companies can keep teams engaged and productive."

Ho also suggested devising ways to establish accountability for remote workers, as expectations around availability, productivity, and time management may be different when employees work off-site. Discuss these expectations with your whole team, and decide how often and when you'll check in during the day.

Provide a working environment that's as clean as possible

The space you require employees to come to every day should be safe and clean. Stock up on tissues, hand soap, no-touch trash receptacles, and disposable wipes. Everyone should be washing their hands frequently and disinfecting high-touch objects regularly, and they need the resources to do so.

Enforce travel guidelines

Areas with CDC travel notices should be avoided as much as possible. If there are any business trips currently planned to one of these locations, cancel them.

While you can't control what an employee does outside of the office, encourage them not to travel to any of these places. If they do, require them to self-quarantine for 14 days before coming back to the office.

At Drift, a marketing platform company, all employees have been asked to let leadership know about their international travel plans.

"We're requiring any employees who return from travel to China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Iran, and Italy to work from home for two weeks prior to returning to the office," said Drift's Chief People Officer Dena Upton. "This includes flight layovers and applies if a member of an employees' household has traveled to those countries."

Devise backup plans for client meetings and conferences

As of right now, the average incubation period for COVID-19 is five days, meaning that it could take that long for an infected person to even show symptoms. So, it's better just to err on the side of caution and not be around a ton of people.

For any in-person meetings you have with clients or vendors, opt to conduct them virtually. There are a bunch of great tools you can use that'll allow you to video chat with others, share your screens, and show presentations and documents easily, such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Google Meet.

Large in-person conferences and other events should be avoided right now, too. Drift's annual conference, for example, was supposed to be in May, but has been rescheduled to September due to the pandemic.

"As a result, our demand generation team has had to pivot," explained Upton. "We decided to partner with over 15 other members of the SaaS community to put on a free, two-day marketing and sales virtual event."

Obviously, postponing or going virtual won't be possible in every case, but it's worth considering so that you don't have to cancel completely.

Analyze your spending and cut costs where possible

If your operations are interrupted, that means your revenue could be impacted. Since we have no idea what the next few weeks or months look like, you should do whatever you can to make sure you can keep paying the team you have.

Are there any subscriptions you don't need for right now? Any unnecessary perks, like unlimited seltzer and weekly office lunches? Look at every line item and see what you can eliminate, even if just temporarily. 

Navigating such uncertainty isn't easy. The more prepared you and your staff are, the better. Reprioritize your current tasks so that creating and implementing an emergency contingency plan is at the very top of your list. 

SEE ALSO: Here's the exact action plan managers should use to calm coronavirus anxiety at the office, along with the emails you should be sending to staff

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Cindy Zuniga, an associate attorney at Venable LLP law firm, racked up $215,000 in student loan debt after completing her law degree at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2015. 
• Zuniga's experience resonates with about 45 million other Americans who owe more than $1.6 trillion in loans, according to the Federal Reserve.
• She decided to refinance her loans and created a zero-based budget, which helped her fast-track repayment by five years. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Nothing could have prepared Cindy Zuniga for adulthood and $215,000 of student debt — not even law school. 

Zuniga, 30, completed her bachelor's degree at the State University of New York, then went on to pursue a 3-year law degree at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She graduated with cum laude recognitions and earned a full-time offer as an associate attorney at business law firm Venable LLP shortly after — all in exchange of more than $200,000 in loans. About 90% of her loans were from law school, 5% from college, and the remaining 5% from credit card debt, she previously told Good Morning America.

Zuniga is not alone. About 45 million other Americans collectively owe more than $1.6 trillion in student-loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve. College tuition rates have surged over 538% since 1985, and 3.9 million undergraduates with student debt actually dropped out during fiscal years 2015 and 2016 to pursue alternative career options, according to the US Department of Education. 

"I went from a broke college student, to a very broke law student, to earning a six-figure salary as a lawyer in New York City," she said. "It was a major life change for me, and the transition was overnight." 

Zuniga was raised by two immigrant parents in a low-income community in the Bronx. She lacked financial literacy and took a standard approach to paying off her debt in the first year. Like many others, she was automatically put into a 10-year repayment plan of a $2,000 a month. Everyone around her followed the federal plan and paid whatever the government told them to pay, so Zuniga did the same, she told Business Insider. 

Zuniga never thought twice about the strategy until she received a loan statement in 2016 confirming that only $4,000 of the $24,000 she paid in the first year went towards her debt repayment. The rest went to interest. 

"That was my breaking point," she said. "That was the point where I realized I need to get a hold of this. I refuse to be in debt forever."

Here are the exact steps Zuniga took to pay off $215,000 in four years. 

Here's the budget she used

Zuniga was employed at a New York City law firm right after graduation, and earned a six-figure salary. She declined to state what her salary was at the time. Here is Zuniga's budget breakdown based on post-tax income. The percentages represent the portion of her total income that she allocated for each expense. 

She turned to influencers for help 

Zuniga went to Google for answers. 

She needed a crash course on the basics of money management, like budgeting and saving, and the internet served as a non-judgmental space for her to ask questions. 

"I was just Googling when I came across this whole world of personal finance influencers — these finance gurus — and I just started following them," the lawyer told Business Insider. 

Three influencers that stood out in the process are Bola Sokunbi, founder of finance blog Clever Girl Finance,Jamila Souffrant, founder of podcast "A Journey to Launch," and Yanely Espinal, who runs the YouTube channel MissBeHelpful.

Zuniga started following these influencers on social media. She listened to their podcasts, followed them on YouTube, and kept tabs on their Instagram pages. She explained that these influencers weren't over-complicating the financial issues the way that a lot of books had been doing, and she was able to understand money concepts a lot easier.

For example, Zuniga knew that she wanted to learn more about investments, but she first needed to understand budgeting and saving beforehand. By simply Googling, "How do I get rid of student loan debt," she was able to access thousands of different strategies. 

Refinancing her loans sped up her repayment plan by five years 

In the midst of self-educating herself and engaging in media platforms, Zuniga decided to refinance her loans.

The way it works is: She took out a new loan with a private lender in exchange for lower interest rates. Under her private repayment plan with SoFi, Zuniga decreased her interest rate from 9% to 4.5%. She saved more than $40,000 in return.

Nevertheless, refinancing was just one part of the equation. The strategy that allowed Zuniga to cut down her time in debt by five years was her meticulous budgeting system — the zero-based budget.

For example, if you make $5,000 a month, you should know the exact proportions in which it will go toward your groceries, rent, loans, savings, and so forth. You can devote $2,000 to your living expenses (rent, utilities, and cell phone bill), and the rest can be assigned to pay off your debt and personal expenses. When you account for every dollar with a specific "job," you should be left with zero. 

"Every dollar you bring in, whether it's through your income or side hustle, it's designated to a specific category," she told Business Insider. "Every single dollar gets a job."

A zero-based budget doesn't mean you have to spend every dollar and live paycheck to paycheck. Assigning a "job" to every dollar simply helps you keep track of exactly where your money is going. Zuniga used the EveryDollar budgeting app to help organize expenses. She was very strict with spending during the first few years while paying off her debt. But she struggled to stick to the plan because limited spending is hard, she told Business Insider. 

"I hated budgeting, and I thought it was a waste of time." she said. "I was constantly going over budget until I finally got a hang of it and realized it was actually really useful and effective. It worked."

Zuniga's zero-based budgeting strategy has been successful for others, including Andy and Nicole Hill, a couple who paid off their $195,000 mortgage in under four years, Business Insider previously reported.

How much you should spend on living expenses and your debt payment each month depend heavily on your income and lifestyle. Zuniga stressed that her strategy is entirely different from that of a married person or someone with children. She said a general rule is to dedicate 50% of your income to necessary expenses, 30% to personal unnecessary expenses, and 20% to your financial goals like paying off debt. Nevertheless, the associate attorney admitted that she was a lot more "aggressive" with her debt repayments and made more transactions to speed up the process. 

Paying off her debt inspired her help others

Zuniga created an Instagram account in 2018, focused on developing personalized budget plans, and soon picked up a side hustle in finance coaching. 

She told Business Insider that she works seven days a week, juggling between a full-time associate attorney job and about a dozen clients a month from her side gig. 

"My goal is to have one session with each client, and leave them with a custom plan for the next couple of months," she said. "It's not like I'm meeting with the same client every week or anything like that. That's not my business model."

The majority of Zuniga's clients are women, and most of them are women of color in their mid-twenties and thirties. Though Zuniga is currently debt-free, she sticks to her zero-based budget and she advises her clients to do the same no matter what. 

"The goal should never be about debt freedom," she said. "It should be financial freedom. That includes increasing your net worth. I want to make sure that my money is still working for me and it's still going towards my overall financial goal — financial freedom." 

SEE ALSO: Read the unorthodox résumé a college dropout used to beat out 1,500 applicants and land a 6-figure marketing job

SEE ALSO: Successful side hustlers reveal 4 key steps for getting a new business off the ground in 3 months or less for entrepreneurs who want to fast track a side gig into a full-time career

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• A ZipRecruiter report found that at the start of 2020, the 5 states with the fastest growth in jobs related to AI were: Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Texas, and Arizona.
• These 5 states saw a 93% increase in AI-related job postings from 2018 to the start of 2020.
• At the start of 2020, more than 90% of AI-related jobs were in California, Washington, New York, and Massachussetts. The number of new AI job postings in these 4 states, on the other hand, only increased by 35% from 2018 to 2020.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The number of new jobs in AI keeps growing, and the most growth isn't coming in Silicon Valley.

A new ZipRecruiter report reveals that jobs related to AI increased by 93% from 2018 to 2020 in Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Arizona, and Texas.

ZipRecruiter estimates that California's notoriously high income taxes and cost of living might be pushing people — and AI jobs — to lower-cost states. California lost 691,000 residents and New York lost 458,014 in 2018, according to Census data.

The vast majority of jobs in AI — more than 90% — were in California, Washington, New York, and Massachussetts, in that order, but the overall growth in the space was just 35% from 2018 to 2020.

Here are the 5 states that are seeing the largest increase in AI jobs heading into 2020:

SEE ALSO: Openings for AI jobs have already increased by 44% in 2020. Here are the 6 fastest-growing jobs in the space.

1. Colorado has the third-highest concentration of college graduates among all states.

AI-related jobs per 100 ZipRecruiter postings: 4.8

Share of population over 25 and with a bachelor's degree: 40%

Rate of job growth from 2017 to 2019: 6.9%

Net migration per 1,000 residents: 7.6 

Read more: Forget San Francisco: Here are 5 rising tech hubs across the US where housing is still affordable for software engineers
 

2. Utah had the fastest job growth of any state between 2018 to 2020.

AI-related jobs per 100 ZipRecruiter postings: 5.2

Share of population over 25 and with a bachelor's degree: 32.4

Rate of job growth from 2017 to 2019: 10.1%

Net migration per 1,000 residents: 5.08

Read more: The 6 highest-valued HR startups that are using AI to help companies like Deloitte and Disney make hiring more efficient and fair, including by reducing unconscious bias
 

3. Virginia is one of 2 states with the fastest-growing number of chatbot-related AI jobs.

AI-related jobs per 100 ZipRecruiter postings: 6.2

Share of population over 25 and with a bachelor's degree: 38.1%

Rate of job growth from 2017 to 2019: 2.9%

Net migration per 1,000 residents: -1.15

Read more: We've been worried about technology stealing jobs for 200 years but one solution is plain to see 

4. Texas is rapidly increasing the number of drone-related AI jobs.

AI-related jobs per 100 ZipRecruiter postings: 4.7

Share of population over 25 and with a bachelor's degree: 28.9%

Rate of job growth from 2017 to 2019: 7.2%

Net migration per 1,000 residents: 2.88

Read more: The 30 highest-paying jobs in Texas, where everything's bigger — including the salaries
 

5. Arizona had the third-fastest job growth from 2018 to 2020 among all states.

AI-related jobs per 100 ZipRecruiter postings: 4.3

Share of population over 25 and with a bachelor's degree: 28.7%

Rate of job growth from 2017 to 2019: 8.6%

Net migration per 1,000 residents: 11.6

Read more: An apartment development that bans cars is being built in Arizona — here's what it will look like
 

• Working from home can be hard if you don't know how to keep yourself organized and on task — and many more workers are about to start working remotely.
• I've been working at home for nine years, and I've discovered several hacks that keep me productive throughout my day.
• They include getting dressed like I would for an office job, making sure to take small breaks, and learning to master online organizational tools.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

I have been working from home since early 2011, when I was let go from a Hollywood agency after the summary firing of my boss. It's a long story, but in the end, it led to the start of my full-time writing career.

At first, working at home as a freelance writer was a challenge, and a bit terrifying. Not only was I without a guaranteed paycheck and a set of expected daily duties, but I was also suddenly in charge of my own schedule, obliged to create my own workspace, and left without any human resources team to support me.

In the first year or so I spent working from home, I often found myself bouncing between projects without making much progress on any of them, leaving my desk at random times in the absence of an established schedule, and often returning to work late in the evening well after I should have been relaxing or even asleep.

Through a slow, organic process, I began to identify what habits led to the most productive work from home experience, and what hacks I could use to keep myself on task, managing my time, meeting deadlines, and also enjoying a good work/life balance — no easy task when your home life and workplace are one in the same.

With that in mind, here are nine of my best productivity hacks that keep me on task while I work from home.

SEE ALSO: More workplaces are asking employees to go remote due to coronavirus. Here are 11 traits you need to be an effective remote worker.

DON'T MISS: Google found 3 ways to improve employee collaboration and productivity while working virtually. Here's how your company can apply those principles.

1. Get dressed for your home office just like you would for a professional workplace

When I first started working from home, often I would put on running shorts and a T-shirt in the morning, knowing I'd be going for an afternoon jog later.

But I came to realize that the overly casual outfits were making me feel like I was just hanging out at home, not working from home.

Now I go through a full battery of morning ablutions, dress in clothes just short of business casual attire, and I even put on a pair of leather shoes worn only in the house. Once my work shoes are on, my work day has begun, and I can literally feel it right down to the soles of my feet.

2. Keep a schedule and make sure others respect it

One of my major challenges in learning how to work from home was establishing and maintaining a real schedule.

Now I start work at quarter to nine almost every day, I eat lunch at about the same hour, and I take an afternoon jog every day, too.

The next hurdle was making sure other people respected my time. Sure, I work from home and might not appear to be more available for this call, that meeting, or this favor from a friend, but with occasional exceptions, when I'm within my work hours, I am at work and not free.

3. Take real breaks during the workday

Along with keeping a real schedule to make sure your work-from-home arrangement remains productive, you need to take real breaks during the day to make sure it stays manageable.

When I go up to the kitchen for coffee, I'll allow myself five minutes to flip through a magazine or scroll through a website, and when it's time for lunch, I hang out with my wife if she's home, or watch a show or read for fun if she's not.

Unless I'm in a crunch, I don't do work at my desk while eating, because I need a break just like any employee in an office.

4. Create and maintain a real workspace

My office is built into a corner of our basement, and I'm fortunate to have the space for a large desk, an armchair, bookshelves, and just enough room for pacing when thinking or on calls.

But even if you work out of a small apartment, you can create a dedicated workspace, it just might need to be rearranged at the start and end of each day. Always put your computer, phone, papers, and coffee cup in the same place on your table and your workspace appears. However you establish a workspace at home, keep it as consistent as you can.

5. Learn to use lists and workflow management software

Even if you are a full-time employee of a company who just happens to work remotely, working from home puts much more of the burden on you to manage your projects and deadlines. And if you are self-employed, this is so much truer.

I'm not naturally prone to using lists and calendars and generally organizing things all that well, but I have learned to create and maintain systems without which I would have no idea what to prioritize and when.

While you can use programs like Slack and Trello to organize your workload and coordinate with colleagues who also work remotely or work in an office, one of the best platforms is simply Google. Between Google's calendar, with its customizable reminders, and Google Drive, which allows you to access files from anywhere, Google software is a force multiplier when you are your own human resources team. And it's free at that.

6. Don't treat home like home

There are a million projects I could tackle around my home right now, from a clogged gutter to a blown bathroom light bulb to organizing the whole garage and then some, but here's the thing: I'm at work.

If you allow yourself to blur the line between home and work during work hours, you will quickly start to lose time as the home projects snowball on you. It has happened to me so many times in the past that I won't consider even a literal one-minute light bulb swap until the work day is done. I'm just sure I'd spot a scuff on the wall that needed painting or a wobbly shelf that needed tightening.

7. Get some fresh air and, ideally, some exercise

Breaking up a work-from-home work day with fresh air and getting the blood moving (as at a gym) is essential for keeping your workdays low stress and even enjoyable.

Without the proximity of colleagues who can often offer respite from the grind of work, taking a walk or going for a run or bike ride are great ways to reinvigorate yourself. Or, like I do, you can use afternoon exercise to transition out of working: When I return to my house after my jog, the work day is over and I'm just home.

8. Make sure there's plenty of light in your workspace

Even if you tend to keep your home more softly lit in general, during the workday your workspace should be brightly lit. This will help increase your energy, reduce eye strain, and keep you better focused.

Swap out bulbs or get a bright desk lamp that produces full spectrum light similar to that of natural sunshine.

9. Don't spend all of your working time at home

Even if your home is your primary workplace, you should occasionally try working from a coffee shop or library, and take meetings at colleague's offices or restaurants from time to time. This will keep things fresher, help prepare you for work on the road during travel, and also help you keep up your interpersonal skills for that time when you may again work in an office setting.

This story was originally published on Business Insider September 30, 2019.

• A record 4,399 investments were made in female-founded startups in 2019, according to new data from All Raise and Pitchbook.
• The funding helped boost a record number of startups with at least one female cofounders to unicorn status in 2019, meaning that they hit a valuation of $1 billion or more.
• Here are the 21 startups with female cofounders that hit valuations over $1 billion in 2019.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A record 4,399 investments were made in female-founded startups in 2019, according to new data from All Raise and Pitchbook. That's a 500% increase from the number of investments made in 2009. 

Admittedly, that number takes on a different meaning when compared relative to the entire venture capital landscape. As Axios points out, only 16% of total venture funding went toward women last year — down from 18% in 2018.  

In fact, a new Crunchbase reportshows that women consistently receive less funding at all rounds - while male-only founders raised $195 billion in 2019, female-only founded companies raised just $6 billion. Companies with founding teams consisting of both men and women did better, raising $20.9 billion in total. 

But some blockbuster funding rounds helped usher in an unprecedented number of companies with at least one female co-founder into the "unicorn club," the report says. That, in itself, is viewed with optimism by some female investors in Silicon Valley. 

"What I love about the female-founded unicorns that have emerged this year is what incredible role models they are for the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. From Rent the Runway to Glossier, these founders are setting examples that will inspire the next generation,"Inspired Capital founder Alexa von Tobel told Business Insider's Megan Hernbroth at the end of last year. 

We took a look at the Crunchbase data to see what startups had made that elite club, and who its founders are. 

These are the 21 companies that are being hailed as trailblazers for women in tech: 

Rent the Runway

Rent the Runway was originally conceived as a solution for women who didn't want to invest in gowns and cocktail dresses that they might only use once, but has since expanded to offer a subscription service for everyday professional wear, Indian formal wear, and even a partnership with West Elm that allows subscribers to rent pillows, throws and quilts for their homes and apartments.

The company, founded by Harvard Business School classmates Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman, raised $125 million in its last fundraising round in March 2019 according to Crunchbase, which pushed its valuation up to $1 billion. 

Based: New York

Founded: 2009

Founders: Jennifer Fleiss, Jennifer Hyman

Valuation: $1 billion 

Glossier

Online beauty company Glossier found its success in selling makeup directly to customers through Instagram, where it has more than 2.7 million followers.

The company was started by Emily Weiss in 2014, and stemmed out of her well-known blog Into the Gloss. The cult beauty brand is often credited with turning traditional beauty retail on its head by choosing to bypass department stores. 

A $100 million Series D round in March 2019 pushed the company's valuation up to $1.2 billion, per Crunchbase. 

Based: New York

Founded: 2014

Founders: Emily Weiss

Valuation: $1.2 billion 

The RealReal

The RealReal, an online marketplace for used luxury goods, is founded and led by Julie Wainright, the former CEO of Pets.com. 

After the company went bust during the dotcom boom, Wainright realized that her job prospects were "just horrible," so she'd have to create her own opportunities, she said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Anh-Minh Le.

The company made its debut on the public market in June 2019, and is now valued at $1.7 billion according to Crunchbase. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2011

Founder: Julie Wainwright

Valuation: $1.7 billion 

Away

Buzzy luggage and travel brand Away became a unicorn in May, after a $100 million funding round bolstered the startup's valuation to $1.4 billion. 

The company has had some executive turbulence since then - the Verge's report on the company's allegedly toxic culture prompted CEO Steph Korey to resign - and then later announce that she would be stepping back into the company as co-CEO, with her newly hired co-CEO Stuart Haseldon. 

Based: New York

Founded: 2015

Founders: Jen Rubio, Steph Korey

Valuation: $1.4 billion 

Guild Education

Guild Education works with companies to offer online programs and degrees as a company benefit to its employees. It does so by connecting them with a network of universities that offer such programs. It also lets companies reimburse tuition for online degrees obtained by employees, that lie outside the network. 

The company became a unicorn in November 2019, after a $157 million funding round per Crunchbase. 

Based: Denver 

Founded: 2015

Founders: Brittany Stich, Rachel Carlson

Valuation: $1 billion 

FabFitFun

FabFitFun is a subscription box service that sends full-sized beauty products and other accessories every three months.

The company raised $80 million in a massive Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins in January, and was valued at $1 billion. 

Currently, Daniel and Michael Broukhim serve as co-CEOs of the company. Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens is the Editor-in-Chief of FabFitFun's media arm. Sam Teller works outside the company, as a partner at the investment firm Valor, per LinkedIn. 

Based: Los Angeles

Founded: 2010

Founders: Daniel Broukhim, Michael Broukhim, Sam Teller, Katie Rosen Kitchens

Valuation: $1 billion

Coursera

Coursera is an online education platform that offers over 3,200 classes from 150 universities across the world.

The company announced in April that it had raised $103 million in Series E funding, allowing its valuation to go "well north" of $1 billion, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. The company had around 40 million learners at the time. 

Daphne Koller, the company's female co-founder, no longer has an active role in the company according to her LinkedIn profile. She is now the CEO of healthtech company Insitro. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2012

Founders: Andrew Ng, Daphne Koller

Valuation: $1 billion

ezCater

ezCater is an online catering marketplace that allows individuals to order food from local caterers in the US.

The company raised $150 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture partners, a round gave it a valuation of $1.25 billion. 

Based: Boston

Founded: 2007

Founders: Briscoe Rodgers, Stefania Mallett

Valuation: $1.25 billion

Horizon Robotics

Beijing-based Horizon Robotics develops artificial intelligence chips to power surveillance cameras, autonomous vehicles, robots, and Internet of Things devices.

The company raised an outsize $600 million in February, in a Series B round led by South Korean conglomerate SK. The company's valuation skyrocketed to $3 billion. 

Three of the Horizon Robotics' five founders are former Baidu executives, including its CEO Kai Yu. Fang Yi, one of the company's two female co-founders, is no longer with the company, according to LinkedIn. 

Based: Beijing, China

Founded: 2015

Founders: Annie Tao, Chang Huang, Fang Yi, Kai Yu, Ming Yang

Valuation: $3 billion

Confluent

Confluent offers a streaming platform based on the open source Apache Kafka project that enables companies to easily access data on orders, sales and customer experiences as real-time streams so systems can make faster decisions. 

The company founders left their positions at LinkedIn to found Confluent after realizing the enthusiasm around Kafka.

Confluent announced it had closed $125 million in new funding in January — a deal valuing the company at $2.5 billion.

That same month, Confluent co-founder Neha Narkhede announced that she was stepping down as CTO of the company, but would stay on as a board member. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2014

Founders: Jay Kreps, Jun Rao, Neha Narkhede

Valuation: $2.5 billion

Vlocity

Vlocity, a startup that provides services on Salesforce's platform, offers industry-specific cloud and mobile software for companies in five industries, including telecommunications and healthcare.

CEO David Schmaier and his core team did something similar with great success at Siebel Systems in the 1990s and 2000s, where he was one of the first employees. 

The company secured a $60 million funding round co-led by Salesforce Ventures in May,that valued it at $1 billion. Its founding team all continues to work at Vlocity, per LinkedIn.  

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2014

Founders: Craig Ramsey, David Schmaier, James Ramsey, Mark Armenante, Young Sohn

Valuation: $1 billion

Hims & Hers

San Francisco-based startup Hims & Hers helps men and women get access to wellness products like skin care, hair loss prevention, and prescription medicine like birth control for women and Viagra for men. 

The company first launched the 'hims' site for men in 2017, to help "guys find answers to all of the things that they're super concerned about, then make it incredibly easy to get access to care, talking to doctors with zero friction," CEO Andrew Dudum told Business Insider. 

A year after its launch, Hims cofounder Hilary Coles helped the company launch hers, a similar website catered to women's skin, hair, and sex concerns.  

Viral ad campaigns have propelled the San Francisco-based company to prominence, allowing it to raise $100 million in January 2019 according to a Recode report, and pushed it toward a $1 billion valuation.

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2017

Founders: Andrew Dudum, Hilary Coles, Jack Abraham

Valuation: $1.1 billion 

Airwallex

Australia' first ever fintech unicorn Airwallex was started by a group of founders, most of whom first met at the University of Melbourne. 

The company is an international payments platform, offering solutions to businesses for any cross-border transactions.

The company's $100 million funding round was led in March by DST Global, propelling its value to $1 billion in less than four years. 

Based: Melbourne

Founded: 2015

Founders: Jack Zhang, Jacob Dai, Ki-Lok Wong, Lucy Yueting Liu, Max Li

Valuation: $1 billion 

Scale AI

Scale AI services the AI supply chain by labelling data and training algorithms for companies like Waymo and Airbnb, according to TechCrunch. 

The face of the company is 22-year old CEO Alexandr Wang, who left MIT after his freshman year and co-founded the company with Lucy Gou. Gou is no longer involved with the company, however, and told Business Insider that she was currently focused on her role as a startup investor. 

Within three years of its founding, the company announced that it had raised $100 million in Series C round led by Founders Fund, propelling the company's value to $1 billion. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2016

Founders: Alexandr Wang, Lucy Gou

Valuation: $1 billion

Judo Bank

Australian neobank Judo Bank was founded by a group of former executives from National Australia Bank in 2017. The company targets small and medium-sized businesses. 

Unlike American fintech startups like Chime and Robinhood, Judo Bank actually posseses a banking license granted by the Australian government, the Guardian reported in April. That allows it to take on Australia's four dominant banks. 

Judo Bank has raised $400 million AUD  (roughly $259 million) in a Series B funding round in July, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Based: Southbank, Australia

Founded: 2017

Founders: Alex Twigg, Chris Bayliss, David Hornery, Joseph Healy, Kate Keenan, Tim Alexander

Valuation: $1 billion

Poshmark

Poshmark is a online platform for buying and selling clothes. Unlike operations like eBay or Amazon, Poshmark bills itself as a 'social' marketplace because its network allows people to follow each others' virtual closets, share items they find interesting, and buy from each other. 

The company had initially planned to IPO last year in the fall, but put it off until this year, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2011

Founders: Chetan Pungaliya, Gautam Golwala, Manish Chandra, Tracy Sun

Valuation: $1.25 billion

Relx Technology

Chinese vaping startup Relx Technology was founded by a group of former employees at Didi Chuxing, the dominant ride-hailing service in the country.

Similarly to San Francisco's Juul Labs, the company aims to use its sleek e-cigarettes to capture large sections of China's tobacco market. Relx CEO Kate Wang has previously said that she was motivated to help her father, who smoked at least two packs of cigarettes a day, quit smoking. 

It quickly became the country's dominant seller of e-cigarettes and controls more than 40% of the country's vaping market, but could soon face troubles as the Chinese government clamps down on smoking, the New York Times reported. 

The article noted that Relx has nearly $286 million in financing from major venture capital firms like Sequoia China.

Based: Beijing

Founded: 2018

Founders: Du Bing, Jiang Long, Kate Wang, Tony Tang, Wen Yilong, Yang Yangzi

Valuation: $2.4 billion

Rivigo

Indian logistics-tech company Rivigo aims to solve a country-wide shortage of truck drivers by tracking and managing truck shipments. Drivers can meanwhile use an app to navigate routes and accept assignments.

The company uses a relay model, allowing a driver to haul a section of the trip before handing it off to someone else and bringing a different shipment on the way back. Truck drivers can go home, while trucks remain on the ground around the clock. 

It's a task that is uniquely difficult to tackle, given India's infrastructure. When national highways are clogged with congestion and filled with potholes, coordinating the logistics of truck delivery shipments grows complicated. But Rivigo claims that it can halve usual delivery times, according to the Financial Times. 

Both Rivigo co-founders Deepak Garg and Gazal Kalra are McKinsey alumni, and have attracted funding from a range of investors including the American private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The company closed a Series E round of funding in September, and was valued at just over $1 billion, per Crunchbase. 

Based: Gurugram, India 

Founded: 2014

Founders: Deepak Garg, Gazal Kalra

Valuation: $1.09 billion

Vinted

2019 was a good year for fashion marketplaces trading secondhand clothes — both Poshmark and Vinted hit unicorn valuations.

For the Lithuanian startup Vinted, the company's rise to the milestone is especially noteworthy: the company was founded during the 2008 financial crisis, and came close to running out of money in 2016, according to TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden.

But in 2019, the company raised just over $140 million in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with previous backers Sprints Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Accel and Burda Principal Investments also participating.

Like Poshmark, Vinted's platform plays up the social element, using an online chat feature to help people buy, sell and swap clothes at a low cost. 

All three founders remain involved in the company. 

Based: Vilnius, Lithuania

Founded: 2008

Founders: Justas Janauskas, Mantas Mikuckas, Milda Mitkute

Valuation: $1 billion

Vir Biotechnology

Vir Biotechnology, a San Francisco-based infectious disease researcher, hit the unicorn milestone after raising $327.6M in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund in January, according to data from Crunchbase.

Later that year, the company made its debut on the public market, where the IPO valued the company at $2.2 billion, according to Reuters. 

Both the company's founders, Robert Nelson and Vicki Sato, currently serve on the company's board of directors but not its management team. Sato, a Harvard professor who taught courses at both the Harvard Business School and the university's biology department, has been chairman of the board for a little over three years, according to the company website. 

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2016

Founders: Robert Nelsen, Vicki Sato

Valuation: $1 billion

Figure

Lending startup Figure Technologies uses blockchain to provide consumer-oriented financial solutions for home improvement, debt, and retirement planning.

The company raised $103 million in a December Series C round of funding, which gave it a $1.2 billion valuation, Axios reported. 

Figure COO June Ou founded the company with three other female cofounders, as well as her husband Mike Cagney. Cagney, Figure's CEO, previously built the student loan financing giant SoFi, but left amid questions over sexual misconduct. Four months or so later, he staged a comeback with Figure.

Based: San Francisco

Founded: 2018

Founders: Alana Ackerson, Cynthia Chen, June Ou, Michael Cagney, Sara Priola

Valuation: $1.2 billion

• Shanna Goodman has worked with hundreds of small businesses over the last 15 years.
• She is an avid reader and says it helps her better advise clients.
• Read the books in the order they're listed, and use them as a framework to determine why and how to grow your business.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

As a small business owner, I constantly seek out resources to grow my own business and to also help other small businesses succeed. I'm an avid reader and have read 50 to 70 books every year for the last 10 years. I often choose books that will help me learn how to run my business better, to live more happily, or a combination of those things. 

Last year, my marketing strategy agency surveyed our clients about the biggest challenges they face. Nearly all said they wanted to grow their businesses. This seems like a goal every business owner should have, but if you don't find the right environment to grow in, there's potential for that growth to be really painful.

Consider these questions: In what way should you grow? Is it to earn more money? Will having a larger team give you higher prestige in your market? As you're growing, should you stop doing technical work or admin work to focus more on the big picture? Figure it out before you sink a bunch of money into expanding your team.

If you're unsure where to start, I highly recommend you check these books out. Read them in order, because the later books build on the foundations of the early books. All seven of them are on my own bookshelf, referenced regularly, and full of sticky notes with underlines and notes in the margins. If I'm stuck on a strategy question or implementation problem for a client, I'll pick up a book and thumb through to brainstorm solutions. Here are the exact books that helped me figure out the hard questions for my business.

SEE ALSO: 8 tips for crushing your job while working from home, from 6 leaders who have worked remotely for years

1. 'The E-Myth Revisited' by Michael Gerber

The reading list starts with this book because it gives you a framework on the role you play in your business, which was a huge mental shift for me when I first read it many years ago. Most small business owners take on too much and end up being miserable, and sometimes even broke. 

Gerber wrote this book after decades of consulting small businesses. One of his key points is that the entrepreneur is an entrepreneur only for a second before switching to "The Technician" and/ or "The Manager." For example, when a really great electrician decides to start his own business (to give himself a better job), he's first creating a job for himself as a "Technician." As the business grows and he hires more electricians, he transitions to a "Manager," which he may not be good at or enjoy — and this is why most small businesses fail. It takes different skills to be a really great electrician than it does to be a really great manager.

Perhaps instead of growing the business by hiring more electricians and doing more jobs, the electrician could bid for more complex, higher paying jobs and do the same amount of work but for a higher price. Or, he could grow his business by creating resources to help other people learn electrical work, such as resources for DIY homeowners or new electricians right out of school. In teaching others, he could charge for in-person workshops or online programs. The key is to determine the role you want and then how to make repeatable processes around that role.

Find it here »

2. 'Start with Why' by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek's Ted Talk, 'How Great Leaders Inspire Action,' has more than 48 million views on YouTube. In this book, Sinek helps people find work that inspires them — he believes that great leaders inspire others by putting purpose first.

This book is great for figuring out what you want your role in your business to be, and it provides a guiding framework as things evolve in your business (because they'll always be evolving). 

For example, when I started my company five years ago, I assumed my growth trajectory would be hiring more people like myself, bringing on more clients, and increasing revenue while maintaining a certain profit margin.

What I realized was that if I was an agency with a 20% margin, the same percentages applied whether I had a $250,000 company or $1,000,000 company. The risks were just bigger as the size of the team grew larger, and I'd end up spending most of my time in administration and managing a large team, which isn't what gave me energy.

"Start with Why" helped me define what truly motivated me and what I wanted to accomplish in this world: helping small business owners live a more fulfilled life. This knowledge created a flexibility for my business to know what things to focus on and what I could leave behind. 

Find it here »

3. 'Find Your Why' by Simon Sinek

One of the main points of Simon Sinek's second book is to guide people through the process of writing their own "Why." This book is a facilitator's guide for leading group discussions on how to discover their "Why," complete with specific exercises and questions. We've actually used this book to lead "Why" workshops with clients.

Defining your "Why" can simply be a contribution and impact statement. The contribution is what you have to share with the world and the impact is what you'd like to accomplish. 

To arrive at a contribution statement, you have to write out a statement like this:

We exist to [contribution] to [impact].

For example, my company's contribution statement is "We exist to help businesses rethink their marketing to discover new opportunities."

This process was really helpful for our brand strategy agency several years ago, and then we revised our "Why" as our business evolved to focus more on small business owners.

If you're a solo business owner, have a small team, or have a clear idea why you're in the business you are, Find Your Why might be overkill, but I found it tremendously helpful in turning my ideas into words.

Find it here »

4. 'Positioning' by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Now that you've figured out your role in your business and your specific "Why," you need to think about how to communicate your message to your customers so they can find you (and buy from you). 

This classic is the first marketing book I ever read and is probably the most important marketing book, in my opinion. The premise is that because people are inundated with messages on a regular basis, your company's message needs to cut through the noise. You do this by having clear and distinct attributes of your product. Your brand must have a lasting identity and "positioning" in the consumer's mind.

The book explains the concept that you don't have to actually be the first, but to be thought of first. For example, the iPod wasn't the first mp3 player on the market, nor was the iPhone the first smartphone. 

The book offers plenty of other real world examples of big brands that have accomplished carving out their own unique positioning in order to stand out from their competition and a wealth of other ideas on how to do it.

Find it here »

5. 'Building a Storybrand' by Donald Miller

Telling your story is surprisingly difficult for most small businesses, but critical in standing apart from the crowd. You'll probably have to dig deep on this. Give yourself the space and time to really process this book and take advantage of the free online resources the author provides. 

Too often, small businesses make everything about them ("Here's what we offer," and, "We'd love to have your business"), but that's the completely wrong approach. To be honest, no one cares. But it's your job to make them care.

The author presents classic story arcs as a solution to simply tell your story in a way that people can relate to. This book provides a step-by-step approach on how to craft a brand story that puts your customers' stories above your own. Additionally, it makes the case for why a super simple story arc is necessary — we're constantly scanning our environment for relevant information and skipping over things that don't apply to us.

Read more of my key take-aways from this book on my blog here: Craft a Compelling Company Story 

Find it here »

6. 'Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion' by Robert Cialdini

This is another classic marketing book. It dives into the elements that make us trust people and buy what they're selling, even if they're not selling anything. Cialdini says employing six "weapons of influence" (reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity) in a thoughtful way is key to good business.

For example, the book explains the phenomenon I experienced when trying to sell a weird statue at a garage sale years ago. When it was marked "Free!" no one even looked at it. After looking up similar types of statues online, I realized it was worth potentially $150. I then made it an exclusive "Item of the Hour" and slapped a $75 price tag on it. I started talking it up and telling people about the company that made it (from the info I found online) and within 15 minutes I had two customers fighting over it, ultimately selling for $85.

Three important weapons were used in that garage sale experiment of mine — my authority stating the name of the statue's artist and the price of similar work, social proof in printing off similar statues, prices, and testimonials from the artist's website, and scarcity by nature of my only having one statue to sell. At the time I didn't know what I had stumbled onto, but it made perfect sense after reading this book. 

Find it here »

7. 'Creating Customer Evangelists' by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell

I first heard Jackie Huba speak at a social media conference in 2013 where she talked about Lady Gaga's massive early success and encouraged business owners to use those same techniques.

While Lady Gaga's rise in career may sound like an unlikely business topic, this book does a great job describing why and how to encourage enthusiastic word of mouth buzz for your business. For example, the main component of Lady Gaga's marketing strategy was to identify her superfans and give them opportunities to share their love, making them unofficial ambassadors. 

Lady Gaga's team lovingly named these superfans "Monsters," and these fans in turn loved being called out and recognized for their loyalty. Lady Gaga's team continued to put these super fans on pedestals, collecting their information and offering special access and exclusive deals. This created even more excitement for the superfans, and they were continuously rewarded for promoting buzz around anything Lady Gaga was doing.

In a really practical way, this book breaks down how you, a small business owner, can reward your best clients, and then have them talk you up to basically everyone they have influence on. The idea is "word of mouth" on steroids, because the steps mapped out are really intentional in moving toward an identified desired outcome.

Read more of my key take-aways from this book on my blog here: Creating Customer Evangelists

Find it here »

• Companies around the world are laying off workers as demand in industries from travel to events decline sharply because of the coronavirus pandemic. 
• Norwegian said on Thursday it would temporarily lay off up to 50% of its workforce across all departments. 
• After canceling its annual event, South by Southwest is laying off a third of its workforce. 
• Here's a list of companies laying off employees because of the coronavirus pandemic. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As travelers and event-goers stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, companies are taking a hit and some are laying off employees. 

From airlines like Norwegian to events like South by Southwest, workers around the world are feeling the impact of the coronavirus. 

Here's a list of companies laying off employees due to the pandemic.

Work at a company that cited the coronavirus as a resaon for layoffs? Contact the reporter of this piece, Bryan Pietsch, at bpietsch@businessinsider.com

Norwegian

Norwegian said it would lay off up to 50% of its employees across all departments because of a decline in flights. 

The company said that because of the pandemic and President Trump's restrictions on some travel from Europe for 30 days, it would ground 40% of its long-haul fleet, and cancel up to 25% of short-haul flights through the end of May. 

Norwegian is consulting with unions and will contact impacted departments and employees. 

South by Southwest

South by Southwest canceled its annual event in Austin, Texas because of the coronavirus, and said that because of the cancellation it would lay off about a third of its full-time employees, as first reported by Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Findell and confirmed by a spokesperson to Business Insider.

"Due to the City of Austin's unprecedented and unexpected cancellation of the SXSW 2020 events in March, SXSW has been rigorously reviewing our operations, and we are in the unimaginable position of reducing our workforce. Today we said goodbye to approximately one-third of our full-time staff," the spokesperson said.

South by Southwest has around 175 full-time employees who work on the event year-round, the Wall Street Journal reported, so the move will cut jobs for around 58 people. 

Port of Los Angeles

At the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest shipping port in the country, 145 drivers were laid off and other employees were sent home with no pay, according to a report by The Washington Post. 

Workers told The Washington Post that the port has become a "ghost town" since ships from China stopped arriving, and that the port is more empty than it was during the Great Recession. 

Christie Lites stage-lighting

Christie Lites, a stage-lighting company that services events across North America, laid off more than 100 of its 500 workers, according to The Washington Post. 

The company's CEO, Huntly Christie, told The Washington Post that the company will likely lay off 150 more employees, as event companies around the world are grappling with cancellations and declining attendance. 

China Visa Service Center

The Washington Post also reported that the China Visa Service Center in Los Angeles let go of around 20 employees. 

The center had previously processed visas for Americans traveling to China at a rate of 400 visas per month, but only 22 processed in February, according to a former employee quoted in the report.

Work at a company that cited the coronavirus as a resaon for layoffs? Contact the reporter of this piece, Bryan Pietsch, at bpietsch@businessinsider.com

• Major law firms are seeing a dropoff in deal work as a result of coronavirus, with practice areas affected including mergers and acquisitions and other corporate work, sources inside and close to firms tell Business Insider.
• The slowdown isn't limited to corporate work, though, with depositions and at least one major trial over the opioid crisis being postponed. 
• It's been 11 years since law firms experienced the last major crisis that upended their own businesses, resulting in layoffs, mergers, and bankruptcies of their own.
• Visit BI Prime for more stories.

Major US law firms are already experiencing a dropoff in deal work as a result of the coronavirus, sources inside and close to firms tell Business Insider, with practice areas such as mergers and acquisitions and other corporate work seen as particularly vulnerable. 

The malaise could lead financially strong firms to poach from weaker ones, with clear winners and losers emerging from the turmoil, recruiters and consultants said. 

Firms with practice areas in private equity, bankruptcy, restructuring and litigation, such as Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, are expected to fare well, while firms that are already grappling with turnover — and comparatively lower profits — may be targeted in a hiring war.

Kent Zimmermann, a law firm consultant with Zeughauser Group, said some law firms may merge with each other to shore up their balance sheets.

"Some will do deals out of necessity," he said. "The unknown is how bad it gets and for how long until rebound."

The legal profession employs more than 1 million people across the country, according to the US Bureau of Labor, but there are only some tens of thousands of lawyers who comprise "Big Law," or the nation's most elite attorneys who often advise blue-chip corporations. 

The past 11 years have been relatively good to this field overall, with many of the top 100 firms increasing salaries of entry-level associates. The very top of the market pays $190,000, plus bonuses of $10,000, to graduates right out of law school. 

But now with the spread of coronavirus and global markets tanking, attorneys at the largest firms expect a financial toll to hit their businesses. 

Business Insider spoke to 16 lawyers, recruiters, and consultants to determine which firms are best positioned and who may be hit the worst. 

Deal disruption

Already, some lawyers are scrambling as companies rush to close deals threatened by the coronavirus.

On Wednesday news emerged in the New York Post that Eldorado Resorts -- the chain of gambling houses that agreed to buy Caesars Entertainment last summer in a $17.3 billion deal -- was accelerating talks to close the deal after conferences in Las Vegas were cancelled and hotel revenue declined as a result of coronavirus. 

Other deals that hadn't been inked are falling through entirely, though lawyers declined to cite specific examples that haven't been reported publicly.

"On-site meetings, which are critical to due diligence, are being cancelled, halting the ability of deals where that diligence is necessary from proceeding," said Michael Hong, a corporate partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, in an e-mail. 

On top of that, bankers and lawyers are now grounded from international travel and, with markets in chaos, it makes it hard for companies to negotiate deal terms and IPO exits are unattractive propositions.

Numerous other attorneys also reported deals getting held up, though they were unclear whether it was temporary or long-term. 

"How do you get out there with management teams if you're banning travel?" said Ira Coleman, chair of McDermott Will & Emery."People want to look you in the eyes before they sell a company to you."

Joe Alexander, a senior private-equity partner at DLA Piper, told Business Insider that business is starting to slow. "Corporate is starting to slow down, no question," he wrote in an email. "They are starting to delay deals."

At the same time, Brian Hamilton, a senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell wrote that he had seen one deal "put on hold" but that other deals are in motion. 

"Hopefully just a speed bump rather than a brick wall," he said. 

Practices with clients in the travel, hospitality and logistics industries are likely being hit the hardest, one lawyer said.

"I have been involved in two potential deals in the logistics industry — both simply died," said this lawyer, who declined to be named publicly to preserve relationships with clients involved. 

Another M&A lawyer who works at a firm where corporate makes up much of its business said attorneys are traveling "rarely" and that even though new matters are coming in, "it is hard to feel optimistic about the economic environment, at least for the next couple of months."

"It is challenging for business executives in many sectors to make bold moves at this time," he said, declining to speak publicly because he was not authorized to do so. 

Some firms, though, with private-equity and restructuring practices, will be better positioned to weather the storm, lawyers and consultants said. 

Private equity gears up for business

Private-equity shops with mountains of dry powder are sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see how businesses cope before they swoop in, place their bets, and buy troubled companies, lawyers said. 

"What you will typically see is a very robust period of activity once that clarity steps in," said David Gibbons, the head of Hogan Lovells' private-equity practice in London.

That hasn't happened quite yet, though when it does, some firms stand to benefit, including firms with large private-equity practices such as Ropes & Gray, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher and Kirkland & Ellis, consultants said.

At the same time, lawyers are gearing up for restructuring work stemming from companies that nosedive as a result of limited travel and slowing of business, consultants said. 

Firms specializing in these areas include Weil Gotshal & Manges, Skadden Arps and Latham & Watkins. 

Delays in trials and lawsuits expected

As far as litigation goes, some law firms are seeing trial dates postponed and one source said that some on-site depositions were also being rescheduled.

A Slovak court said Thursday that it had postponed the March 17 trial of a former soldier in a case over the killing of an investigative journalist and his fiancee, pushing back the court date to late March, while a New York court pushed back the trial date over the drug industry's involvement in the opioid crisis, telling parties to reconvene April 14 to determine next steps.

But lawyers also say that they expect to see additional lawsuits as a result of coronavirus, including disputes over busted mergers and acquisitions. 

These include so-called "material adverse effect" cases, where a buyer has remorse after a merger agreement is struck and unexpected events reveal that the target company is less desirable than initially thought. 

Meanwhile, many firms are busy taking precautionary measures to protect their own workforce. 

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath closed all 22 of its offices earlier this week, and Quinn Emanuel, the giant litigation firm, closed its New York City office after one of its partners tested positive for coronavirus, though the office is expected to re-open next week.

To the extent that law firms are looking to gain from the downturn by poaching attorneys from other firms, several names are being discussed in the market as susceptible to turnover, according to people familiar with the matter. These include Boies Schiller Flexner and Irell & Manella which have both seen multiple partners join competitors in recent months. 

Contacted on Thursday, these firms did not immediately provide comment. 

SEE ALSO: Bad timing: Hotly anticipated tech IPOs are dealing with a brutal one-two punch of coronavirus fears and election uncertainty

SEE ALSO: Read the full memo Goldman Sachs top brass just sent detailing the firm's coronavirus contingency plans, including separating employees into 'blue' and 'white' teams to alternate working from the office and home

SEE ALSO: The $800 billion shadow-lending industry is staffing up with recession pros who can sort out messy credit meltdowns

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 62 new emoji and emoji variations were just finalized, including a bubble tea emoji and a transgender flag. Here's how everyday people submit their own emoji.

• Jason Fried is the cofounder and president of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a privately held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary, of which David Heinemeier Hansson is a partner.
• The following is an excerpt from their book, "Remote: Office Not Required."
• In it, they write that building a routine is crucial to providing boundaries between business and life while working from home.
• They recommend dressing for the work day, creating separate work and play spaces, and dividing the day into scheduled chunks, depending on what works for you.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If nothing else, the standard 9-to-5 job with a commute at least has a solid routine going for it. The alarm goes off at roughly the same time every day, you head into the office on the train, you loosen the tie when you come back home, you pour yourself a scotch on the rocks ... Okay, perhaps your routine isn't quite so 1950s, but you get the point.

Working from home offers you far greater freedom and flexibility. That might seem like an enviable dream to anyone stuck in a cubicle, counting down the minutes until the workday is officially over, but the reality is not quite so clear-cut. Without clear boundaries and routines, things can get murky.

If you don't have to be anywhere at a certain time, you can easily end up lying in bed until close to noon, just casually working away on the laptop. Or you can let work drift into that evening you're supposed to share with your spouse and kids. "Daaad, why aren't you watching the show with us?"

While some might be able to juggle that floating lifestyle, most people need some sort of routine — something they can stick to at least most of the time. We'll cover how to use different technologies for work and play in "Compute different," but, the fact is, there are many tricks you can employ to bring some structure to your day.

Take those comfy sweatpants, for example. They might be great for your physical comfort, but there's good reason to ponder whether they're a great fit for your state of mind. In the same way that there's a benefit to creating a separation between personal and work computing, it can also be helpful to separate the clothes you wear, depending whether you're in work or play mode.

This doesn't mean you have to dress up in a suit every day (but if that's what floats your boat, get that bow tie spinning!). We're merely suggesting that you demarcate the difference between work and play. Simply looking presentable is usually enough. One of our employees, Noah, likes to demarcate using his slippers: He has both a work set and a home set! Not everyone uses such props, or even requires the mental separation they're meant to create, but if you're having trouble getting into work mode in the morning, try putting on some pants.

Another hack is to divide the day into chunks like "Catch-up,""Collaboration," and "Serious Work." Some people prefer to use the mornings to catch up on email, industry news, and other low-intensity tasks, and then put their game face on for tearing through the tough stuff after lunch.

Depending on your time zone, you might do the same, but in reverse. For example, when David is working from Spain, his early mornings are great for getting stuff done before anyone from the United States is awake. After a mid-morning to afternoon break spent with his family, he uses the evenings for collaboration.

Finally, you can use the layout of your house as a switch. Make sure that real work only happens when you're in your dedicated home office. No checking work email or just getting a little more done in the living room or your bedroom.

Different strokes for different folks, so consider all these suggestions for how to build your personal routine as merely that — suggestions. If you're getting everything you need to get done just freewheeling, more power to you. But most people will need some semblance of structure to get the most out of working remotely. Find what works for you, pants or no pants!

Excerpted from "Remote: Office Not Required." Copyright © 2013 by  Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Published by Currency, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Jason Fried is the cofounder and president of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a privately held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. David Heinemeier Hansson is a partner at Basecamp. Together, they are the coauthors of "Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application,""Remote: Office Not Required," and the New York Times bestseller "Rework."

SEE ALSO: I've been working from home for nearly a decade — here are my top 9 productivity hacks to stay organized and avoid distractions

NOW READ: QUARANTINE DIARY: I was forced to stay home for 14 days with my fiancé. At first we had steak dinners and did yoga — but by the end we were ready to crack.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Remote work is becoming the new norm with concerns about employee health and safety.
• According to a report by FlexJobs, a careers resource company for flexible work opportunities, remote workers have increased by 159% from 2005 to 2017. 
• Business Insider spoke with executives and workplace experts on how to lead a team during meetings — even if you're working remotely. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Keeping people engaged during in-person meetings is hard. Leading virtual meetings is even harder. 

According to a 2020 analysis by FlexJobs, a careers resource company, flexible-work policies increased by 159% between 2005 and 2017. Today's circumstances mean more people are working from home and companies are leveraging tech tools and online-conferencing platforms to making meetings run faster and shorter.

Nevertheless, remote meetings have a separate set of challenges. You can't keep tabs on your employees and make sure they're paying attention to what's being discussed during remote meetings — a 30-minute call can easily turn into a complete waste of time. 

"It's hard to run online meetings — especially if a lot of people are in the meeting and you can't see any faces," said Spencer Waldron, director of global communications at presentation platform Prezi. "That's why we need to set expectations and get creative in how we're keeping people focused."

Business Insider spoke with Waldron and Brie Weiler Reynolds, a remote work expert, on how you can still lead a team during meetings even if you're working remotely. 

Use video-chat functions and collaboration tools to keep people engaged

In an interview with Business Insider, Waldron said that he's been working remotely from Amsterdam for six years, and he's had to lead online meetings from the start. He said Prezi has a rule that people who can't join an in-person meeting have to turn on their audio and video function because being able to see a face through the screen increases focus. Video calls are more engaging due to the lack of visual cues in audio-conferencing, he added. 

"What happens then is you see me and I see you," he said. "I see how you're reacting to something I'm talking about. You're more connected to the person that you're watching."

Reynolds, a career development manager at remote work HR company FlexJobs, recommended that leaders find creative ways to engage employees throughout the course of meetings.

For example, you can take advantage of chat functions embedded in conferencing apps, or you can share your screen within them. You can ask open-ended questions that would fuel further discussion, and you can have pop quizzes halfway through the meeting to check if people are still paying attention, the expert said. 

CEOs and executives are expected to have packed calendars throughout the day, and they should schedule deep-thinking meetings during times when they're most productive, Waldron said. Leaders can share their expectations on best times and practices, and they should also update changes on a regular basis to avoid interruptive meetings, he added. 

Companies with international offices can also use the time zone difference to their advantage. Waldron said that teams often schedule brainstorm meetings at 9 a.m. — a time when he's least likely to come up with game-changing ideas. To combat this, he records his core talking points beforehand, sends it to the team for review, and sometimes skips the meeting altogether. It's the best way to give valuable input without wasting time or his productivity, he said.

You can still build a company culture remotely 

Offices are a great way to establish a company culture that facilitates collaboration across teams. This is especially true for companies with hybrid situations, where you have some employees working in offices and others working remotely, Reynolds said. Nevertheless, you can still incorporate positive work experiences for remote workers with office activities that will expose them to the company culture. 

"On a bigger scale of culture, its also thinking about the things that bring an office together," Reynolds told Business Insider. "So when you have parties to celebrate people's birthdays, promotions, or baby showers, or whatever it might be, how can you do that in a virtual way?" 

Reynolds said that at FlexJobs, employees often have virtual lunches together. Everybody gets together on video and thought it's not mandatory, it gives employees an option to take office breaks together. The remote-working company also hosts seasonal pizza parties, in which pizza is literally delivered to everybody to recreate an office party. 

"You can still celebrate those successes and company milestones even if you're working at a virtual office," Reynolds said.

SEE ALSO: How to keep important meetings focused for people who hate meetings, according to executives who have done it

Join the conversation about this story »

• Multiple Disney theme parks and other amusement parks are closing as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
• Disney employees will still be paid during the park closures, according to an article from The Verge. 
• According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, amusement parks and arcades employ workers in a variety of occupations.
• Here's what the typical worker in each of those occupations makes annually.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As concerns over the coronavirus pandemic increase, some Disney resorts and Universal Studios locations are temporarily closing to protect guests and workers. 

According to The Verge, Disney employees will continue to be paid during the park closings.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program offers data on employment and wages across different occupations and industries.

According to that report, the amusement parks and arcades industry employed about 206,820 people in May 2018, the most recent period for which data is available. Jobs in the industry tend to be lower-paying than average: The median annual wage in the amusement parks and arcades industry was $23,640, far below the median across all industries of $38,640.

Here are all the occupations with at least 1,000 employees in the amusement parks and arcades industry, ranked from lowest to highest median annual wage, along with the number of people employed in each.

SEE ALSO: 6 American jobs most at risk of coronavirus exposure

22. Waiters and waitresses make an annual salary of $19,900.

Total employed in the US: 2,140

What they do, according to O*NET: Waiters and waitresses take orders from customers and serve food and drinks at restaurants or cafes.

21. Lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers make an annual salary of $20,130.

Total employed in the US: 8,020

What they do, according to O*NET: Lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers make sure people are safe in amusement parks, whether they're in the pool or on the slopes.

20. Combined food preparation and serving workers make an annual salary of $20,390.

Total employed in the US: 13,070

What they do, according to O*NET: Combined food preparation and serving workers both prepare and serve food to customers. 

19. Recreation workers make an annual salary of $21,250.

Total employed in the US: 1,900

What they do, according to O*NET: Recreation workers organize and promote activities, including arts and crafts, sports, games, music, and other social activities.

18. Amusement and recreation attendants make an annual salary of $21,640.

Total employed in the US: 51,490

What they do, according to O*NET: Amusement and recreation attendants operate amusement concessions, kiosks, or rides, and maintain amusement park supplies and equipment.

17. Cashiers make an annual salary of $22,390.

Total employed in the US: 10,560

What they do, according to O*NET: Cashiers handle customers' money using cash registers or scanners. 

16. Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers make an annual salary of $22,630.

Total employed in the US: 2,430

What they do, according to O*NET: Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers help customers attending events or lining up for rides. 

15. Cafeteria, food concession, and coffee shop counter attendants make an annual salary of $22,850.

Total employed in the US: 5,410

What they do, according to O*NET: Counter attendants serve food to customers from counters or steam tables. This job category includes cafe servers, cafeteria workers, and snack bar attendants.

14. Janitors and cleaners make an annual salary of $22,890.

Total employed in the US: 7,010

What they do, according to O*NET: Janitors and cleaners keep buildings clean and orderly using equipment ranging from brooms and mops to carpet cleaners and floor waxers.

13. Tour and travel guides make an annual salary of $22,960.

Total employed in the US: 1,010

What they do, according to O*NET: Tour and travel guides escort people on sightseeing tours, giving facts and explaining their significance. 

12. Retail salespersons make an annual salary of $23,550.

Total employed in the US: 7,080

What they do, according to O*NET: Retail salespersons sell merchandise at kiosks, stalls, or shops.

11. Actors make an annual salary of $24,024.*

Total employed in the US: 1,020

What they do, according to O*NET: Actors in amusement parks dress up as various characters and do impersonations, usually for the amusement of children.

*BLS doesn't include annual figures for this occupation; this annual median was estimated by Business Insider using the hourly median wage provided by BLS.

10. Customer service representatives make an annual salary of $26,100.

Total employed in the US: 2,720

What they do, according to O*NET: Customer service representatives assist customers with questions or complaints, either in person or over the phone.

9. Security guards make an annual salary of $26,800.

Total employed in the US: 5,380

What they do, according to O*NET: Security guards monitor premises to prevent people from breaking the rules.

8. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers make an annual salary of $26,890.

Total employed in the US: 1,560

What they do, according to O*NET: Landscaping and groundskeeping workers take care of lawns, plants, and trees. Their duties include sod laying, mowing, trimming, planting, and watering, along with keeping the area free of general trash and debris.

7. Laborers and freight movers make an annual salary of $27,510.

Total employed in the US: 1,350

What they do, according to O*NET: Laborers perform any sort of general labor, including moving freight or boxes.

6. Stock clerks and order fillers make an annual salary of $29,080.

Total employed in the US: 1,010

What they do, according to O*NET: Stock clerks organize shelves and tables of merchandise in stores and stockrooms.

5. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers make an annual salary of $33,170.

Total employed in the US: 1,650

What they do, according to O*NET: First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers coordinate workers to ensure efficient customer service.

4. Maintenance and repair workers make an annual salary of $33,600.

Total employed in the US: 2,720

What they do, according to O*NET: Maintenance and repair workers make sure mechanical equipment is running smoothly. This includes pipe fitting, boiler repairs, welding, carpentry, and other general building repairs.

3. First-line supervisors of personal service workers make an annual salary of $35,110.

Total employed in the US: 4,360

What they do, according to O*NET: First-line supervisors of personal service workers coordinate personal service workers like make-up artists, caddies, or maids.

2. All other managers not otherwise categorized make an annual salary of $72,240.

Total employed in the US: 1,240

What they do, according to O*NET: Managers supervise amusement park employees in general.

1. General and Operations Managers make an annual salary of $76,310.

Total employed in the US: 1,540

What they do, according to O*NET: General and operations managers oversee other workers in a variety of tasks, whether they're administrative tasks or manual labor.

• I've been working from home for years, and there's no real "trick" or magic pill to make it easier.
• I perform just as well, or better, from home in my sweatpants and working from my couch instead of a desk. But it does take some getting used to. 
• Thankfully, I don't need to go out and buy anything new or special for my job. All I need is a laptop and an internet connection — two things I already have.
• The best tip I can give to people who are new to working from home is to set a hard cut-off time to end the work day. It's easy to keep working and burn yourself out if you don't have your usual commute home to declare the end of the day. 
• Over time, working from home becomes much, much easier. Of course it takes adjustment — it's a generally new experience and environment for office warriors. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thankfully, Business Insider lets me work from home a few days of the week so I can avoid my long and expensive commute, and I've been able to successfully do my job partially from home for the last four years without compromise.

And now as businesses and cities across the United States push for employees to work remotely to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, innumerable colleagues and professionals are finding themselves working from home, too. For the vocal some, many are clearly having a hard time. For others who haven't commented about working from home, you're clearly loving it.

As a "WFH" veteran, I've been asked what kinds of rituals and routines I partake in, and what tools I use to perform at home as well as I do at the office. If you were looking to unlock the mystical secrets to working from home effectively, prepare to be sorely disappointed, because there's nothing to it. 

Here it is:

SEE ALSO: The Galaxy S20 Ultra is too fragile for a $1,400 smartphone

Working from home takes a bit of time to get used to.

I've seen numerous articles and blog posts telling those new to working from hom how to do it. For the most part, these tips and tricks I see all over the place make working from home a bigger deal than it actually is, and I couldn't agree less with most of them.

With that said, the experience of working from home is different for everyone. Do whatever makes you feel most comfortable. If some tips you see elsewhere sound good, give them a shot!

But as I think about how I became so comfortable working from home, I'm realizing that it wasn't always as easy for me. I certainly felt a lot more pressure to perform and be more present at first. But once I showed my employer that I can communicate and perform just as well — or better — as I can from the office, the pressure subsided.

Over time, after just a month or so, working from home became second nature. It's almost like settling into a new office at a new job — there's the initial pressure, stress, and uncertainty, but then you get into a rhythm and flow.

All I really need is a a laptop.

From my laptop or desktop, I can do 100% of what I need to do for my job. I have a web browser (I'm using Microsoft's Edge, most recently), I have Slack loaded up for staying in constant communication with my team, and I have all the apps and tools I need.

I'm taking more meetings over video chatting services as a result of working from home, and I normally use my laptop's built-in speakers and microphone. But sometimes, I need a headset.

I also have an internet plan, and a WiFi router. And that's basically it. You use what you need. There's no major secret.

Specifically, I use a mesh WiFi system, which transmits glorious internet at high speeds throughout my home. 

If there's something you specifically need to work that you don't have, I'd get in touch with someone at your company who handles things you need for work.

Some people say they need to get dressed up to go to work, even if that's a home office. I recommend anything that will make you most comfortable to do your work well — and be presentable on conference calls. I wear sweatpants, a t-shirt, and some comfy slippers. Behold, my work from home uniform:

I work from my couch, or my desk where my big powerful desktop and large monitor sits. Come to think of it, I rarely sit at my desk at the office, anyway. I usually sit on a couch there.

I recommend taking periodic breaks to stretch or take a walk. Just communicate to your team that you'll be away.

I realize that some people feel the pressure to be extra "present" when they're working from home, but just because you're working from home doesn't mean you need to lock yourself up. If you take a walk during a normal work day, then take a walk when you're working from home! Just let people know on your team's communication app (like Slack), and let them know when you're back. 

I turn on the TV at a low volume, usually to something passive like a nature documentary or a sports game I don't care about, to create a little background noise in the atmosphere, which helps with feelings of solitude.

If I do have one useful tip, it's to set a hard cut-off time to end your work day, and begin your personal mode.

I've heard that one of the hardest things about working from home is firmly establishing a cut-off time, like you would at the office when to begin a commute back home at the end of the day. 

You need to do the same for when you work from home. Otherwise, you'll burn yourself out and you won't get any of your personal stuff done.

Setting a hard cut-off from work at the end of the day is also helpful to control the urges to do personal stuff during the work day that you wouldn't normally do at the office. Setting that time means you know for a fact that you'll be off the clock at a certain time, and you can get your personal stuff done then.

• Most of tech's most powerful CEOs are married. 
• Not everyone is coupled up — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have girlfriends, while Jack Dorsey and Tim Cook appear to be single. 
• But for those who are married, many of them have been with their spouses for years or even decades. 
• Here's a look at the lives of the spouses of tech's biggest CEOs. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It takes a special type of person to become the partner of a high-powered tech executive: From long weeks at work to intense stress, the spouses of CEOs have probably seen it all. 

Like most other industries, many of the top executives in tech are partnered up. Not all of them are married — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Apple CEO Tim Cook appear to be single, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an on again, off again relationship with singer Grimes, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is newly divorced and back in the dating game. 

But top executives at companies like Google, Facebook, IBM, Alibaba, and Microsoft are all married — some of them for decades. 

Here's a look at the lives of the spouses of some of tech's richest and most successful executives. 

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have feuded for over a decade about space travel. Here are 9 rivalries between some of the world's biggest tech CEOs.

Priscilla Chan

Partner: Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook

Years married: Seven

Who she is: Priscilla Chan is a pediatrician and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Chan graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biology and attended the University of California, San Francisco, for medical school. She worked at San Francisco General Hospital as a pediatrician after finishing her residency in 2015, but has since left to manage the daily operations of CZI. Chan is also cofounder of The Primary School, a private school that offers free healthcare and education to low-income children in the Palo Alto area. 

Chan and Zuckerberg met in line for the bathroom at a Harvard frat party in 2003 and married in 2012, right around the time Chan graduated from medical school and Facebook went public. The couple has two daughters together, Max and August. 

Laurene Powell Jobs

Partner: Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple

Years married: 20, until Jobs' death in 2011

Who she is: Laurene Powell Jobs is a philanthropist and the founder of Emerson Collective, an organization focused on social change. Powell Jobs attended University of Pennsylvania, majoring in economics and political science, and worked at Goldman Sachs before getting her MBA at Stanford University. 

After Steve Jobs' death, Powell Jobs inherited his wealth, mostly in the form of Apple and Disney stock — today, she is currently worth $24.5 billion, according to Forbes. Powell Jobs is an active philanthropist, with a focus on education and the environment. Through Emerson Collective, she has funded news organizations like ProPublica, acquired media properties like Pop-Up Magazine and The Atlantic, of which she has a majority stake, and invested in Axios and the podcast giant Gimlet Media. She is also an avid contemporary art collector and has a multi-million-dollar yacht called the Venus as well as a $16.5 million home in San Francisco.  

Powell Jobs met Steve Jobs in 1989, when she was seated next to him at an event he'd been invited to speak at on campus. The couple had three children together: Reed, Erin, and Eve. 

Dennis Troper

Partner: Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube

Years married: 21

Who he is: Dennis Troper is also an executive at Google — he currently serves as director of product management for Wear OS, the company's smartwatch operating system. He's been at Google since 2003. Troper got his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Austin and his master's at UC Santa Cruz. 

Troper and Wojcicki's house in Menlo Park was the birthplace of Google: the couple rented out their garage and two bedrooms to Sergey Brin and Larry Page when the company was starting out. 

Troper and Wojcicki now have five kids together.

Miranda Kerr

Partner: Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO of Snap

Years married: Two

Who she is: Miranda Kerr is an Australian model and the founder and CEO of Kora Organics, a company that makes beauty products using natural ingredients. Kerr began as a runway model before landing a contract with Maybelline and, later, Victoria's Secret and Clinique. 

Kerr and Spiegel met in 2015 at a dinner by Louis Vuitton in Los Angeles. The night they met, Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey said to Kerr, "I bet you two are going to get married." The couple tied the knot in a top-secret ceremony in May 2017, and now have two sons together, Hart and Myles. Kerr also has a son, Flynn, from her previous marriage to Orlando Bloom. 

Melinda Gates

Partner: Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft

Years married: 25

Who she is: Melinda Gates is an active philanthropist, most recently pledging $1 billion toward improving gender equality in the next 10 years. Along with her husband, Melinda founded the Gates Foundation, which if focused primarily on poverty and healthcare worldwide. In 2016, Melinda was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. 

Gates attended Duke University, earning a bachelor's degree in both economics and computer science, as well as an MBA — all in five years. Gates was recruited by Microsoft as a product manager shortly after the company went public, and she eventually worked her way up through the ranks of the company. Gates had a high-powered role until she decided to leave when she got pregnant with their first child. 

The couple met in 1987 at a company picnic — when Bill Gates asked her out for a date two weeks from then, she initially turned him down. Eventually, they went on a date and were together for seven years before getting married in 1994 in a reported million-dollar ceremony.

The couple has three kids: Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe. They share a home in Medina, Washington, that was last estimated to be worth $125 million, a luxury car collection, and a private plane. 

Mark Rometty

Partner: Ginni Rometty, outgoing CEO of IBM

Years married: 40

Who he is: Mark Rometty is famously private, and there's not a lot of information available about the outgoing IBM CEO's husband of four decades. Back in 2011, The New York Times reported that Mark Rometty was a principal investor in the Bam Oil Company, although it's unclear whether he's still with the company. 

But in 2015, Ginni Rometty did mention Mark in a commencement speech at Northwestern University, her alma mater. In the speech, Rometty described how Mark supported her early in her career and pushed her to take an opportunity when she was second-guessing herself.

The couple met early on in their careers, when they were training in the General Motors Institute. They split their time between New York and Bonita Springs, Florida, and like to go scuba diving together and see Broadway plays, according to The Times. 

Sydney Shapiro

Partner: Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber

Years married: Seven

Who she is: Sydney Shapiro is a former preschool teacher. Shapiro and Khosrowshahi met in 2008 when they were set up on a blind date. When Khosrowshahi arrived in a suit and driving a Volvo, Shapiro thought, "he's going to be this arrogant, egocentric, just ... douche," she told The New Yorker. Khosrowshahi surprised her by being funny and asking her a lot of questions, she said, and the couple got married in 2012 in Las Vegas while Shapiro was wearing a Slayer t-shirt. They now have twin sons, Hayes and Hugo. 

Lucy Southworth

Partner: Larry Page, cofounder of Google

Years married: 12 

Who she is: Lucy Southworth is a former research scientist. She attended University of Pennsylvania and has a master's from Oxford University. She was also a doctoral student at Stanford, according to Reuters. 

The couple reportedly got married on Richard Branson's Necker Island in 2007 and has two kids together. They reside in a Palo Alto compound that includes a $7 million home and an "eco-mansion" with a rooftop garden and solar panels. Page and Southworth also have a $45 million super-yacht called "Senses," which has a helipad and a Jacuzzi on its deck.

Clara Wu Tsai

Partner: Joseph Tsai, cofounder and executive vice chairman of Alibaba

Years married: 23 

Who she is: Clara Wu Tsai got her undergraduate degree at Stanford University and an MBA at Harvard Business School before working at both American Express and the Chinese shopping site Taobao. 

The Tsais bought a 49% stake in the Brooklyn Nets in 2017, and in August 2019, purchased the remaining share to become the sole owners. The couple also owns Barclays Center, the arena the team plays in, as well as the WNBA team, the New York Liberty. 

In October 2018, the Tsais made a significant contribution to Stanford's neurosciences institute, which has since been renamed the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

Wu Tsai is also an activist for criminal justice reform, and in early 2019, launched the Reform Alliance along with Meek Mill, Jay-Z, Robert Kraft, and 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin. The initiative's goal is to reform the probation and parole system. 

The couple got married in New York City in 1996 and lived in Hong Kong for 13 years before moving to La Jolla, California. They have three children: Alex, Dash, and Jacob.

Lynne Benioff

Partner: Marc Benioff, founder and co-CEO of Salesforce

Years married: 13

Who she is: Lynne Benioff is an active philanthropist, serving on the board of numerous causes, including the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and the Benioff Ocean Initiative. Lynne and Marc Benioff have also signed the Giving Pledge, which states that they'll give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetime or in their will. 

The Benioffs own multiple houses, including a five-acre estate in Hawaii— Hawaii is also reportedly where the couple got married in a top-secret ceremony in 2006. 

Anu Nadella

Partner: Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Years married: 27 years

Who she is: Anu and Satya Nadella had a complicated — but romantic — immigration story: The couple got married in December 1992, when Anu still lived in India. While Satya had a green card, immigration authorities rejected Anu's visa application due to a long wait list. Satya gave up his green card and got an H-1B visa instead in order to make the immigration process work for Anu.

The couple now has three kids, including a son with special needs. Both Satya and Anu have been open about the challenges of raising their son, Zain, who has cerebral palsy — as a result, Anu is closely involved with Seattle Children's Hospital, including co-chairing the "It Starts With Yes" campaign, an effort to raise $1 billion to improve children's health. 

Nicole Systrom

Partner: Kevin Systrom, cofounder and former CEO of Instagram

Years married: Four

Who she is: Nicole Systrom is the founder of Sutro Energy Group, which is aimed at funding the clean-energy sector. Systrom has spent her career focused on energy and the environment — she went to Stanford University for both her undergrad and graduate degrees, both of which had an environmental focus. 

Nicole and Kevin Systrom met at Stanford, years before Kevin would go on to create Instagram — in fact, Kevin credits Nicole with coming up with the idea for Instagram filters. The couple got engaged over Thanksgiving in 2013, and married on Halloween in 2016, according to Vogue. The couple has a daughter together, Freya. 

Anjali Pichai

Partner: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet

Years married:Over 25

Who she is: Anjali Pichai is a chemical engineer who met Sundar Pichai while in college at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. The couple has two children, Kiran and Kavya, and shares a contemporary home they built themselves, complete with an infinity pool, wine cellar, and underground nanny quarters, in Los Altos, California.

According to her LinkedIn page, Anjali worked at Accenture as a business analyst until 2002, then began working at Intuit as a business operations manager, although it's not clear if she still works there. 

Griffith R. Harsh IV

Partner: Meg Whitman, former CEO of HP, current CEO of Quibi

Years married: 39

Who he is: Griffith R. Harsh IV is an accomplished neurosurgeon who focuses on treating tumors in the brain, pituitary gland, and base of the skull. He's currently the chair of neurological surgery at UC Davis Health. Harsh attended both undergrad and medical school at Harvard University, studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and got an MBA from Boston University. 

Harsh and Whitman met when Whitman was a sophomore at Princeton University. She invited him to her sister's wedding, but he forgot to attend and accidentally blew her off. The couple eventually made up, and got married in 1980. They have two sons together, Griffith V and William. 

Serena Williams

Partner: Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit

Years married: Two

Who she is: Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players, and one of the greatest athletes, of all time. She's won 23 grand slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and has won $92.5 million in prize money over the course of her career. 

Williams and Ohanian met in May 2015 at the Rome Cavalieri hotel, when Ohanian sat down at the table next to Williams' outside by the pool, according to Vanity Fair. When they first met, Ohanian had never watched tennis and Williams knew nothing about Reddit, the platform Ohanian cofounded in 2005. The couple had their first official date in June of the year, and by December 2016, Ohanian proposed at the hotel where they met.

In early January 2017, Williams found out she was pregnant— she gave birth to their daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., in September of that year. The couple got married two months later in front of a star-studded guest list that included Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian. 

MacKenzie Bezos

Partner: Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon

Years married: 26, until their divorce in 2019

Who she is: MacKenzie Bezos is a writer and philanthropist. She is the author of two novels, the first of which won an American Book Award.  

Bezos studied fiction at Princeton University and worked as a research associate for investment management firm D.E. Shaw, where she met Jeff Bezos. They were married within six months, in 1993. MacKenzie Bezos was one of Amazon's earliest employees, working as an accountant for the company.

In early 2019, MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos announced they were divorcing. In April, she announced she was granting Jeff Bezos 75% of their jointly owned Amazon stock, which left her with an estimated $35.6 billion stake, making her one of the richest women on the planet. She has since signed the Giving Pledge. 

Nicole Shanahan

Partner: Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google

Years married: About a year

Who she is: Nicole Shanahan is the founder of a legal tech company called ClearAccessIP, which builds an analytics tool for patent lawyers and inventors. She has also been active in women's health and fertility, helping to fund a research center focused on reproductive health through her foundation, the Bia-Echo Foundation. 

Shanahan and Brin were first linked in 2015 after they were spotted together at the Jamaica wedding of a dating app CEO. In October 2019, it was revealed that the couple had been married since 2018. They have one child together, a baby girl, who was born in late 2018, according to Page Six. Brin has two other children from his previous marriage to 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, whose older sister is Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube.

• As the coronavirus outbreak grows, more job candidates are likely to schedule video interviews. 
• Paul J. Bailo, a digital executive and author of "The Essential Digital Interview Handbook," told Business Insider that it's important to test-run your equipment and select a distraction-free background before a video interview.
• We've compiled a list of tips to help you ace your next video interview.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

As coronavirus fears sweep the country, more job candidates may find themselves meeting interviewers over video chat.

Video interviews are typically faster, easier, and more cost-effective than an in-person meeting or a long phone call. With more than 121,2000 people around the world infected with coronavirus, workplaces may turn to video interviews as a safer option.

If coronavirus concerns have forced you to switch from an in-person interview to a virtual one, use these eight tips to help improve your video-interviewing skills and land the job:

1. Double-check your audio, video, and internet connection

Always test your video and audio right before an interview to ensure everything is working properly. Just because it worked a month ago doesn't mean it's going to work today — and you don't want to risk the headache or embarrassment of technology issues during a conversation with a potential employer.

A stable wireless connection is also essential, so be sure to choose a location where you know spotty connection won't disrupt your video.

2. Pick a distraction-free background

You want the focus to be on your face and what you're saying during the interview, so choosing a clear background that's business-like and free of distractions is key.

Avoid windows and walls full of pictures, posters, or knickknacks. Clear all books and clutter off your desk — basically, you want to eliminate anything that could draw the interviewer's attention away from you. If you can't find a good backdrop at your office or at home, then just use a solid wall.

"You want a clean, sterile environment when you're doing a video interview," says Paul J. Bailo, a digital executive and author of "The Essential Digital Interview Handbook. "The main thing you're trying to do in an interview is communicate on a human level, so you have to make it easy for people to focus in on you. I like to tell my clients to watch '60 Minutes'— there's nothing glorious about it; they're really just talking to you."

3. Make sure you're in a well-lit room and the interviewer can see you clearly

Pay attention to the lighting. You want the interviewer to be able to see your face clearly, so try a test video beforehand to make sure lights aren't casting any shadows on your face. Bailo says people often have just one overhead light shining down on them from the ceiling, but this creates shadows and can be unflattering.

Aim to have one light coming from behind you, one light on your right, and one light on your left to create a glow around you.

4. Angle and eye contact are critical

Where do you look during a video interview? It's one of the most common questions people have, and it's easy to get thrown off if you're not used to video chatting. Although it may not feel natural at first, you want to speak to the camera, not the screen.

Always position your camera at eye-level, not above or below you. "The angle is so critical," Bailo says. "You don't want the camera looking up your nose, and you don't want the camera looking down at you. The psychology behind it is if I'm looking down at the camera, I'm looking down at the hiring manager, and they feel subservient."

5. Frame yourself from the chest up

Showing yourself from the waist or chest up is generally recommended for video interviews, so you don't look like a floating head. You don't want to be so close to the camera that the interviewer can count your nose hairs.

Bailo explains that the triangle formed from the top of your head down to your shoulders is the focal point, because all of your communication is going to be coming from your face — your emotion, your expression, your smiling — and that's what's going to get you the job.

6. Dress for the job you want

While it may be tempting to do the interview sans pants with your nicest shirt, resist that urge. You want to dress exactly as if you were going for the interview in person. This can have a strong effect on your mindset, and if you're too comfortable in the boxers or sweatpants you're rocking out of frame, that will come through in your attitude and speech.

You always want to look your best for an interview, so wash your face, brush your teeth, comb your hair, and prepare the same as you would for an in-person meeting. Your dress and level of formality should match the industry for which you're interviewing; if the job is at a firm where workers wear suits every day, you should wear a suit for your video interview.

Keep makeup natural-looking, and avoid wearing too much jewelry, which can be distracting and catch light from the wrong angle. Choose clothing colors that complement your skin tone, and make sure your clothing melds well with the background as well, Bailo advises. 

7. Keep your body language open

Just as with an in-person interview, it's important to be cognizant of your body language in order to leave a positive impression on the interviewer.

It's fine to gesture while you speak, but be careful to keep your hand movements contained and within the video frame, and be aware that your gestures aren't always going to translate over video the same way they would in person.

It's also crucial to maintain a pleasant facial expression during the interview. "You're creating an image of yourself as soon as you turn on your camera," says Barbara Pachter, etiquette and communication expert and author of "The Essentials of Business Etiquette: How to Greet, Eat, and Tweet Your Way to Success."

"You want the person to like you and hire you, so smile!" she added. "If you look frozen or scared for your life, why would they hire you?"

8. Think of it as a show

Bailo tells his clients to think of video interviews as one-man studio shows.

"With the audio, the video, the lights, and everything else, you want to realize that we're building a studio," he says. "And you're the star — you have to prepare because you're the sound person, you're the light person, you're the camera person, you're the copyright person, you're the makeup artist. You're everything to put this show on, so you really have to think of yourself as a Hollywood star."

Katherine Noel contributed to an earlier version of this article in 2016. 

SEE ALSO: How to keep yourself happy and productive if you're working from home because of the coronavirus outbreak

SEE ALSO: I'm the CEO of a company with 177 employees that's been entirely remote for 13 years. Here are 5 ways we built a thriving remote work culture.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Harmless lies that can help you ace your job interview

• Nicole Roder is a freelance writer who works from home.
• She's also a homeschooling mother who teaches 5th and 6th grade to her two oldest daughters. Her younger two children attend public school. 
• She writes that it is actually possible, albeit more frustrating, to do one's  job with the kids home from school.
• Explain the situation to your kids, create a "busy box," and get creative with when and where you're willing to put in work time. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  
  

I'm writing this from the toilet. (Don't worry, the lid is closed and I'm fully dressed. I'm just hiding from my children.)

I'm a freelance writer who works from home. I'm also a homeschooling mother. I teach 5th and 6th grade to my two oldest daughters. Additionally, I have an 8-year-old son who attends public school five days a week, and a 4-year-old son who attends pre-K three days a week. So my house is a little chaotic. 

I've been working from home for three years, and in that time I've completed some feats that are weird at best — and hair-pulling madness at worst. I've typed an article one-handed with a nursing baby on my breast. I've conducted interviews on speaker phone while driving my kids to appointments and admonishing them to please, for the love of God, not say anything about poop, butts, or penises while mommy is on the phone. 

(A couple of years ago, I interviewed a remarkable woman about a very serious subject. When the interview was over, I left my phone sitting on the table. Big mistake. A few hours later, I picked up my phone to discover that my middle two kids, ages 8 and 6 at the time, had texted my interviewee over 70 times. The texts were almost entirely about poop. I tried to contact her to apologize, but I was too late. She'd already blocked my number. To tell you the truth, I'd have done the same thing.)

When news began to spread of the novel coronavirus washing ashore in the US, my first thought was, "Good thing I homeschool and work from home. We can all hunker down if it comes to our neighborhood." 

Now that schools are beginning to shut down as a result of the outbreak, many fellow work-from-homers might be joining the ranks of parents who now have to work with kids in tow. 

Yes, it can be done

Yes, I know that your world is being disrupted. Just a few weeks ago you had it made. The cozy home office. The cup of tea. The black lab snuggled at your feet as you typed away, uninterrupted, for all those hours that your kids were at school. I've fantasized about this lifestyle myself many times.

Not to worry. While I won't lie — it won't be easy — I'm here to tell you that it is actually possible, albeit more frustrating, to do your job with the kids home from school. I've been doing it for three years. This is how I make it work.

SEE ALSO: Here's how I stay productive working from home in a tiny NYC apartment with my husband and 2 kids just a few feet away

1. Explain the situation to your kids.

I'm sure you remember being a kid and finding out that school was closed for the day. Score! A free day to watch TV and do whatever I want! That may work for the occasional snow day, but if your kids are off school for a prolonged period of time, they'll need to understand that it's not going to be an endless free-for-all. Tell them that you are going to have to get some work done during the day, and they are going to have to do some self-entertaining. 

2. Make a schedule of "office hours."

Let your kids know when you will be working, and when you will have time to spend with them. Think about your expectations for them while you are working, and clearly communicate that to them. Promise that if they keep their end of the deal, you'll be able to stop working at the designated time and do something fun with them later.

3. If you have any big kids, assign one at a time to be "on duty" with the littles.

 The days when my 4-year-old is home from school are by far the most hectic. I have to teach school and work at the same time, and the little one doesn't like being ignored. Those days, my two daughters and I rotate between work and entertaining their little brother. 

4. Switch your working hours to the evening when your kids are asleep.

The best part of working from home is the flexibility to choose your own hours. If you can't work during the day, you may have to temporarily put in some hours at night, after bedtime, or early in the morning before anyone is up. 

5. Keep a "busy box" handy with games and toys to occupy the kids while you work.

Fill a bin with puzzles, MadLibs, coloring books, and quiet toys. If your kids interrupt you during your office hours, try sending them to the busy box to choose an activity.

6. Even if you don't homeschool, you can still assign schoolwork.

I do spend hands-on time each day teaching my kids, but a lot of their school assignments are independent. They usually involve reading something and then answering questions. While they're doing their independent work, I work too. Many traditionally-schooled kids will balk at this idea. But face it, if school is closed for more than a few days, they can't just do nothing to exercise their brains. 

Most homeschoolers buy at least some of their curricula, but there are plenty of free or cheap resources online for homeschool worksheets and assignments. Try Khan Academy or just Google "free homeschool worksheets." If you don't mind spending a small amount of money, Teachers Pay Teachers and Education.com have a lot of resources, most of which cost between a few cents and a few dollars. 

7. Bring your phone to the bathroom and answer emails from there.

Just wash your hands and wipe your phone down when you're done! 

8. Play a mindfulness meditation from YouTube.

There are hundreds of free meditation videos available on YouTube. Try searching the site for "5 minute meditations for focus,""mindfulness for kids," or "calming meditations for kids." Just get everyone in a comfortable spot, play the video, and follow the instructions. Do this at the start of the day, and maybe right after lunch too. It will both focus your mind so you can concentrate through the chaos, and calm the kids down.  

9. When all else fails, give them some extra screen time.

Personally, I don't like my kids to have more than 30 minutes of screen time per day. I've even gone so far as to put my kids on screen detoxes in the past, as screens inspire addictive behavior in my children. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that for children 6 and older, parents can safely make screen time plans that are individualized to your family's needs. Just be sure that you place consistent limits on screen time, and don't allow it to take the place of physical activity, sleep, or spending time with the family. And remember, this is a temporary situation brought upon you by an unusual global health situation — your kids won't be TV zombies forever. 

10. Use leave, if you have it.

It is absolutely possible to work from home with kids, but it might be difficult to sustain a full time schedule for more than a few weeks. Personally, I work about 25 hours a week. I could work more if I worked longer days and gave up weekends. I've done that before when I've been on a tight deadline or had an unusually big workload. But if I had to do it all the time, I'd be exhausted. If your financial situation allows it, and your kids' school is going to be closed for more than a few weeks, you might want to cut back to part-time. And if you are an employer asking your staff to work from home due to COVID-19 concerns, please consider the feasibility of working without child care and give extra leave if you can. 

Nicole Roder is a freelance writer and mother of four. She specializes in health, mental health, and parenting. Her work has been published in Today's Parent, Parents, Cancer Wellness, the Baltimore Sun, and more. Find her online at http://well-parenting.com.

• As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, many companies, school districts, and universities are requiring people to work from home or learn remotely. 
• This may be a problem for US cities with lower rates of broadband internet penetration at home.
• Using US Census data, Business Insider found the metro areas in America with the lowest shares of households with broadband internet access and computers in their homes. 
• Five of the 17 metro areas with the lowest shares were located in Texas, including Victoria and McAllen. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As more cases of coronavirus are confirmed across the US in almost every state, more and more businesses and schools are making the decision to require people to study or work from home. 

Universities like Harvard and Princeton are moving to virtual classes in the upcoming weeks and companies like Amazon in Seattle are telling employees to work from home.  

This change to help minimize the spread of the coronavirus and keep people safe might be a problem for some Americans. Not every child or household in America has access to internet or a computer at home to do their work or partake in a virtual school lesson. 

The Wall Street Journal reported an Associated Press data analysis of US Census data that showed 17% of US students don't have a computer and 18% don't have broadband internet access at home.

The Wall Street Journal article also reported that Northshore School District in Seattle "had to lend out computers to more than 2,600 homes and provide many with wireless hot spots as well."

Additionally, there are differences among demographic groups in the share of households with internet subscriptions or computers.

According to 2018 US Census data, 5% of white American households and 8% of black American households have no computers. Of the households with a computer, 89% of white Americans have an internet subscription and 82% of black Americans have an internet subscription.

Not only are there demographic differences, but there is also a geographic digital divide across the US. 92% of households in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Boulder, Colorado; Washington, DC; and Ann Arbor, Michigan; have an internet subscription. However, many cities have far more households without internet access in their homes. The average share of households without an internet subscription among US metro areas is 16%.

Business Insider used data from 2018 Census American Community Survey at the metro area level to find which cities could be most affected by an increase in families working or studying from home. 

We created an overall index where we averaged the share of households in each metro area that have a computer at home and the share of households that have a broadband internet subscription. We ranked the metros and found which ones scored the lowest on that combined average.

Of the 17 lowest scoring metros, multiple metro areas across the South in states like Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Alabama were at the bottom of the list.

Read on to find out which cities could be most affected by major working and studying from home requirements, along with their share of households without a computer and share of households without a broadband internet subscription.

SEE ALSO: 6 American jobs most at risk of coronavirus exposure

17. Decatur, Alabama

Share of households without a computer: 16.3%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 23.7%

16. Florence, Alabama

Share of households without a computer: 16.1%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 25.2%

15. Danville, Illinois

Share of households without a computer: 17.8%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 23.8%

14. Laredo, Texas

Share of households without a computer: 14.1%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 28.1%

13. Texarkana, Texas

Share of households without a computer: 16.8%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 26.2%

11 (tie). Farmington, New Mexico

Share of households without a computer: 15.4%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 28.1%

11 (tie). Las Cruces, New Mexico

Share of households without a computer: 12.7%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 30.8%

10. Victoria, Texas

Share of households without a computer: 14.4%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 29.2%

9. Beckley, West Virginia

Share of households without a computer: 18.0%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 25.8%

8. Dothan, Alabama

Share of households without a computer: 18.2%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 26.0%

7. Florence, South Carolina

Share of households without a computer: 15.7%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 30.2%

6. Monroe, Louisiana

Share of households without a computer: 19.9%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 26.9%

5. McAllen, Texas

Share of households without a computer: 16.0%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 31.1%

4. Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Share of households without a computer: 14.7%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 33.6%

3. Shreveport, Louisiana

Share of households without a computer: 12.5%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 36.3%

2. Brownsville, Texas

Share of households without a computer: 17.1%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 44.0%

1. Valdosta, Georgia

Share of households without a computer: 22.1%

Share of households without a broadband internet subscription: 45.1%

• People who have been forced to work from home due to COVID-19 may not know what apps are best for collaborating with their remote teams.
• These tools are recommended by CEOs and executives who've been working remotely and managing remote teams for years.
• Apps for aligning priorities and workflows, like Asana and Trello, keep coworkers on track, and collaboration tools like Slack, Zoom, and Confluence make group projects easier to work on.
• Incorporating fun opportunities for bonding virtually, like taking a break to play Jackbox Games, is also important.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Amid concerns of the COVID-19 coronavirus spreading rapidly across the population, companies worldwide are recommending that employees work from home. 

I've spent most of the last decade working remotely, so these closures don't affect me — except for the flurry of text messages I've received this week from friends:

Any tips for working remotely?

What's the best app for a team video call?

Sooo — how exactly do you stay productive working from home?

First things first: Make sure your internet speed can handle your working needs. I thought mine was sufficient, but realized I needed a bump up when my husband — who normally never works from home — and I tried to hold video calls simultaneously. 

A site like Speedcheck can check your connection's upload and download speeds. Not sure what you need? Skype has outlined recommended speeds based on the type of call you're trying to do (voice vs. low- or high-quality video) and the number of people involved. 

At this point, no one knows how long we'll be working from home, so you may also want to consider a workspace that involves more than your kitchen table and your laptop. 

"Most experienced remote workers find that some additional equipment helps them be more comfortable and productive during the day: a separate, larger monitor or dual monitors, a full-sized keyboard and mouse (wireless is a top choice for both), and a headset that works with your computer and/or cell phone," said Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, a job board featuring exclusively work-from-home gigs. 

If you don't have this setup, Sutton added, "Check with your company for possible technology reimbursements or stipends, or the ability to take some of your in-office equipment home with you."

If your office doesn't have specific tools for you to use while remote, such as instant-messaging apps or screen-sharing and web-conferencing programs — or doesn't have particularly effective ones — now's a great time to suggest the tech that will help everyone work more effectively. 

To help you out as you set up your home office, I've rounded up the best tips and tech for your work-from-home life, courtesy of people who've done it for years. 

Apps for aligning priorities and workflows: Trello, Jira, and Asana

"Managers need to take the time with their teams to set clear objectives and define the results they're trying to achieve as a team," noted Deidre Paknad, CEO and cofounder of WorkBoard, Inc., which has 150 people distributed across 15 locations in the US and India. "When everyone's clear on the outcomes they're driving, they can more easily work independently from their own locations on work that really matters."  

She also emphasized the need for process transparency, which she said enables managers and teammates to see how everyone is making progress toward key results without having to ask constantly.

Tech tools can help. "We keep a public roadmap on Trello, which helps us have a single source of truth for what we're planning to do," said Sten Pittet, cofounder and CEO of Tability, a plan-tracking platform that helps teams stay focused and accountable. "We also use Jira internally to split big roadmap items into smaller pieces." 

Michelle Penczak, CEO of virtual-assistant company Squared Away, said her top two favorites are Trello and Asana. 

"Both are easy to use for collaboration on teams, so it just comes down to which platform you prefer," she added. 

If you're not sure, give them all a try — each has a free plan, then goes up to $14 to $31 per user, per month.

Apps for collaborating on projects: Google Drive, Confluence, Milanote, and Figma

As for actually getting those priorities accomplished, using collaborative online tools is an easy way to work together in real time, whether you're creating a meeting agenda or designing a new product. 

"We like Google Suite since you can see what people are typing and use it during remote collaboration meetings," said Anita Anthonj, CEO and cofounder of Talaera, a platform for personalized professional English training, who runs a remote team spread across different countries. "Milanote is great for flowcharts (similar to Mural and Miro) and brainstorming. We also use Figma (our design tool of choice) to draw together." (Figma's Starter plan is free and larger plans go up to $45 per user per month.)

Pittet's team plans to switch to Figma as well (they currently use Sketch and Dropbox together for design work). "You want to make it as easy as possible for devs and designers to collaborate," he said of the tools.

His company also uses Confluence, which has templates for shared projects, like marketing plans or project timelines. "It makes it super easy to share feedback and iterate on specific items," he added. Pricing starts at $100 for one to 10 users and goes up from there.

Video chat apps: Zoom

Yes, the ability to work in pajamas and not see anyone all day is appealing, but actually getting face-to-face time with your coworkers and boss can go a long way in making solo work feel less isolating.

For larger team meetings, Zoom gets the votes of many longtime remote workers I spoke with. 

"It's like being in person without the hand sanitizer," Jennifer LeBlanc, CEO and founder of ThinkResults Marketing, an agency she's headed up completely remotely since 2003. In the free mode, you can host up to 100 participants for meetings up to 40 minutes and access features like screen sharing, breakout rooms, and whiteboarding. (Business plans range from $14.99 to $19.99 per month, per host.) 

"It's an incredible platform and so user friendly," said Penczak, who uses the platform regularly for meetings with her virtual team of 89. She structures meetings so that they feel as close to in-person events as possible. 

"We catch up for a few minutes before officially starting and then we have volunteers share highs/lows for the week," she shared. "And we always end our team calls with high-fives." 

(One really fun feature: If you don't want your manager to see piles of laundry in your apartment, check out Zoom's Virtual Background, which can make you appear like you're working in a completely different space.)

Group messaging apps: Slack or Microsoft Teams

LeBlanc, Anthonj, and Penczak's teams all use Slack for group messaging, the app PC Mag names the editor's choice for the best business messaging apps for 2020, citing its features and integrations as being better than competitors like Google Hangouts Chat and Microsoft Teams.

Penczak said that her employees are broken into Slack channels of eight to 10, spearheaded by a manager.

"This allows for our team to get to know a smaller group of folks on a more personal level," she explained. "Of course, we have our larger channels that allow for building community with everyone at Squared Away. It also allows for a manager to dive in with a team member and be a phenomenal level of support."

With that said, Paknad cautioned that it's important to know when to jump from text-based chat to face-to-face. "If the chat is longer than three lines, click the video call option on Slack or Microsoft Teams instead," she said.

Calendaring apps: Meetingbird 

When you're in an office, people can pop by to ask you a quick question, but when everyone's at home, they might feel the need to schedule a call or meeting. Anthonj's team uses open Google Calendars, so everyone can see each others' schedules, while Pittet recommended Meetingbird, which integrates with Google or Office calendars to let others see when you're available for meetings. 

"Only some parts of my days are available for meetings," he added. "It helps me block good chunks of time for focused work."

Just-for-fun apps: Jackbox Games

Just like your week at the office is interspersed with jokes and happy hours, make sure you add some fun into your work-from-home time, too. 

"For many, work is a highly social function," said LeBlanc. As such, she encourages her team to meet weekly, without her, for a "virtual water cooler session." 

Maxeme (Max) Tuchman's company, Caribu, an app that lets families read and draw together via video, takes it a step further. Every other Friday, the remote team from the US, Canada, and Brazil get together for a virtual happy hour. 

"We all get on Google Hangout, screen-share jackboxgames.com, and then we play trivia, drawing, and spy games on our phones and tablets," she explained. "We consciously take an hour out to get creative and get to know our teammates better, which inherently builds trust." 

Speaking of trust, remember that what's behind all these tech tools is people — people who may have never worked remotely before. 

"For team members that normally spend a lot of time with customers and in high engagement roles — often because that's how they're wired — a week of work from home will be hard and a longer run even harder," said Paknad. "Managers need to think beyond the obvious Zoom-and-Slack response to the human aspects that keep our teams happily and purposefully engaged." 

In other words, make sure you're going out of your way to strengthen relationships with your coworkers. A few things the WorkBoard team has implemented: A Slack channel for office views, where people post photos of where they're working, all-hands meetings designed to "keep silos down and create more pathways for conversation," and a weekly "Ask me anything" call where Paknad answers questions while walking and encourages employees to do the same.

And perhaps the most low-tech, high-happiness touch of all: "We're sending spring flowers to people's houses to bring the outside in and brighten whatever it is they're using for a desk," added Paknad  "They're $7 on Amazon — a ridiculously simple way to refresh moods and rooms." 

SEE ALSO: Here's the exact coronavirus contingency plan every leader should create to keep their teams from panicking and build trust in a time of crisis

READ MORE: Here's the exact action plan managers should use to calm coronavirus anxiety at the office, along with the emails you should be sending to staff

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• Jason Fried is the founder and CEO of Basecamp, which provides workflow management tools for businesses and freelancers.
• Basecamp, which pulls in tens of millions in profits annually, already operates with employees working remotely, a strategy many companies are now implementing to protect workers during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
• Fried took his employee care to the next level: He told his workers to take a four-day weekend to prepare themselves and their loved ones for life during the pandemic.
• "We need time to think, consider, and take care of personal business," he wrote, sharing the letter on Twitter to encourage other companies to do the same. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Jason Fried, CEO of work-management tool developer Basecamp, knew the coronavirus pandemic would change the way his employees operated. To date, there have been almost 138,000 cases of COVID-19 across 117 countries and more than 5,000 deaths worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins' Center for Systems Science and Engineering live tracker. And that number is growing quickly.

"Internally, I could sense some kinds of stress and anxiety; we run our internal communication on Basecamp, and you could see messages like, 'Schools are closing and I need to figure out childcare but I can't do it because I'm at work,'" Fried told Business Insider. "So we knew we needed to give people some space here."

The United States, currently fielding more than 1,800 confirmed cases, just declared a state of emergency over the pandemic, and closed borders from many countries across Europe and Asia for the next 30 days. More than half of US states have declared states of emergency to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

So workers and companies have had to adapt, from implementing emergency contingency plans to enforcing remote-work strategies.

Fried took it a step further. Basecamp, which provides workflow management tools for businesses and freelancers all over the world, has 50 employees spread across 32 cities and garners tens of millions in annual profits. The 21-year-old company's mission stresses that all of their employees are free to work and live wherever.

Ahead of increased quarantines and stress proliferated by the virus' unpredictability, Fried told his workers to take time off to prepare, sharing the letter on Twitter to encourage other companies to offer similar long weekends.

"We knew that the weekends were going to be mobbed, because during the week people are at work, so we wanted to give them Friday and Monday to get settled," he said. "And obviously lots of kids are going to be out of school on Monday, so it was the right thing to do for people."

The internal response was thankful, he shared. Fried hopes that people can take the time they need, depending on their personal and family circumstances. He also hopes that companies take similar steps to help their employees, encouraging managers to copy and paste his own letter if they don't know what to write.

"Not every company can do this for a variety of reasons, but a lot of them can, and if they can, they should," he added.

The letter that Fried sent to his employees

There's a lot going on here at Basecamp.

We're in the home stretch for HEY, we have Basecamp customers to support, we're giving away books and comping accounts for first responders and health care workers.

On top of that, the world feels like it's coming apart. Countries are shutting borders, travel is grinding to a halt, schools and universities are closing up, and the news is not good. The risks are real. And for once, the reality is likely worse than the news. Can you imagine? Everyone's nervous, anxious, and, soon, exhausted.

We all need to breathe a bit. And we all need some time to make adjustments in our lives. Either stocking the fridge, helping the elderly in our families cope with the new normal, or figuring out what to do with the kids when they're home for weeks without school or daycare. We need time to think, consider, and take care of personal business. And it's hard to do that while you're holding down a full-time job.

So let's take a couple days off of work. No work this Friday, no work next Monday. That'll give most of us a four-day weekend to get things in order. Obviously we'll need to continue to support our customers and our infrastructure, so Support and Ops will need to watch those front lines, but we can relax all non-essential work there, and trade off different days off. Everyone should get at least two days off within the next seven days.

We're still aiming to release HEY.com in April, but that's our self-imposed deadline. We can always move it if we have to. But for now I'd like to keep one eye on that prize, but we'll keep our other eyes on the reality on the ground.

We're wishing everyone well during these trying times. If you can stay out of the public square, stores, and what not, we'd advise you to do that. Be safe, be smart, and be good to one another and those in need.

Much love.

Jason + David

SEE ALSO: 6 CEOs and executives who've been managing remote teams for years share the tools they use to keep their employees motivated and happy

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