The "culture shift" towards remote working has seen internet data usage across the region climb nearly 70 per cent in some areas. Photo / Getty Images
Pat Polharn has gone from stressed to "stress-free" after embracing the "trendy" work-from-home lifestyle.
The 54-year-old beautician had two public-facing businesses before the initial Covid-19 lockdown.
But after two years of struggling to keep the doors open and make ends meet, Polharn started a professional facial and body waxing studio - Wax Works by Pat - from the comfort of her own home.
Now, she says she is "so much happier".
Polharn has worked in the beauty industry for four years. She first opened a waxing studio in 2018 on Haupapa St in Rotorua's CBD. In 2019, she expanded to a waxing and massage studio on Tutanekai St.
But a few months later in 2020, Covid hit and she had to close the business on Haupapa St. When she finished the lease on Tutanekai St, she downsized again to a small business on Hinemoa St.
"I tried to make it work but it was a struggle."
Polharn said she had three staff at the time but lost two staff, for family and personal reasons.
The closed borders also made it hard to hire the experienced Thai massage staff she needed from overseas, she said.
After struggling through lockdowns, Polharn decided it was time to make a change.
"Money would come in and you'd have to pay it back out. I could hardly pay myself.
"It was stressful. I was just trying to make ends meet. I couldn't carry on ... It affected me mentally and personally. I decided no more."
Polharn said she and her clients also often felt unsafe with the crime and homelessness in Rotorua's CBD.
"I didn't feel comfortable."
Staying optimistic, Polharn opened a remote waxing studio in her own home in Pukehangi at the end of August.
"I thought, 'I have a spare room. I can easily work from home'," she said.
"I just wanted to be stress-free."
Even as an at-home business owner she said she still struggled with rising product costs.
"Everything is more expensive now."
But it meant she did not have any large leases or power bills to pay on top of her personal bills. She could also now afford to pay herself.
"I am so much happier. I feel mentally happier and secure."
Working from her home office meant she could plan her day around client bookings, Polharn said.
"It means I can enjoy a cup of tea in my break or give my cats a cuddle. I can go and read a book or prepare dinner.
"It makes your life much more manageable."
Polharn said she felt lucky and thankful many of her clients had stuck with her since the beginning.
"It is all the lovely people who want to support local small businesses. It is just so heartwarming.
"Luckily I made that decision."
Polharn said she had also made new clients who liked the fact she was home based.
"That's been interesting. It is very trendy now."
If Tracey Jeffcoat was to cover daycare costs, pay for petrol, account for travel time, and navigate work hours around school pick-up on a part-time wage, she would be doing it all for an extra $50 in the bank.
After doing the math, the Pāpāmoa florist decided she was better off opening her own florist studio at home. Since then, Jeffcoat says business has blossomed.
"I figured if I could use my skills, why not start my own? To me, it was quite natural.
"Very quickly I was creating a lot better income for myself."
Jeffcoat, who now owns The Occasional Florist in Pāpāmoa, has been a qualified florist for 34 years and previously owned a large retail florist shop in Cambridge for 12 years.
When moving to Pāpāmoa seven and a half years ago, Jeffcoat said she noticed a lot of chatter on social media from people seeking corsages for school balls.
"Being a qualified florist I thought, 'Hey I can do this'," she said.
So Jeffcoat updated her Facebook page, reconnected with her former florist contacts, and business started rolling in.
"Facebook really started me off to be honest. I had quite a good uptake from people looking for ball corsages.
"I was in business before I knew it."
In the beginning, Jeffcoat said it was unusual for a florist to work from home. "But it was embraced very quickly."
Jeffcoat's business grew fast and soon she had to move into a bigger home in Pāpāmoa.
"Four years ago we turned the garage into a proper florist studio," she said.
"Having been a retailer at heart for most of my life, I wanted to front it like a retail store. So every day when I walked through that door, I was going to work."
When Covid-19 hit in 2020, Jeffcoat said she was lucky to be already set up as an online, at-home business. Apart from lockdowns playing havoc on flower supply, it was an "absolute success story", she said.
"We were ready to go. With Covid, it probably doubled the business."
Jeffcoat said about 10 to 15 per cent of her customers were from foot traffic, and the rest was from online.
"With Covid of course foot traffic dropped but the sending percentage just went up a huge amount with people not being able to visit each other.
"For a good two to three years we have really covered all those occasions people haven't been able to see each other for."
She said Covid had increased the awareness and acceptance of businesses working from home, as people sought new ways of getting things done.
"It's almost a two-fold effect in that it has also in some way enhanced the perception of receiving quality products and services- equal to that of a bricks and mortar retail store."
Working from home as a sole trader meant Jeffcoat was doing the work of about three people but she said she felt lucky to have the flexibility with time and to be able to work around her family.
"They have had to be flexible as well. I often go back to work after dinner to prep for the next day and make it all work. It is never easy."
Jeffcoat said she also felt privileged to be able to be home, and still work, while the children have been off school sick, especially in the past few years.
"If they are sick, they are at home, I can manage."
Although she joked that working from home meant she did not have a work-life balance.
"Working in a retail environment meant you could lock the door and walk away.
"Having it so on hand sometimes I don't step away."
But Jeffcoat said owning a retail business for years had given her the knowledge, understanding, and skill base to make her at-home business work.
"It has been an amazing journey," she said.
"It is time-consuming. But it has really worked and it has grown as my family has grown."
Bay of Plenty businesses are adapting to hybrid working models as the region transitions from an office-focused to a flexible workforce post-Covid-19 lockdown.
That "culture shift" in the workplace towards remote working has seen internet data usage across the region climb nearly 70 per cent in some areas.
The ongoing changes to the way people work saw telecommunications provider Chorus' average monthly data usage for residential and small businesses in the Bay rise to 463GB in July 2022 from 279GB in February 2020.
Tauranga's average monthly data usage jumped 53 per cent to 302GB in July 2022 compared to 198 in February 2020. Rotorua's climbed 61 per cent to 549GB from 340GB in the same period.
Western Bay of Plenty's data usage rose 43 per cent to 316GB from 221GB, Whakatane's was up 69 per cent to 515GB from 305GB, and Kawerau's climbed 66 per cent to 493GB from 298GB.
Chorus chief people officer Shaun Philp said the future of the workplace should be a people-led choice.
"People are now more comfortable working from home, following extended lockdowns and the pandemic response.
"While Covid was the catalyst, it's now the environment we're operating in, and that means businesses are having to adapt."
Tauranga's Rightway accounting team leader Rebecca Maulder said businesses embraced the work-from-home life post-Covid-19 but the "reverse" was happening now.
"People are moving back into offices now.
"We are finding a lot of people are moving into shared spaces so they have the option of working from home or from a shared space.
"The option to work from home has definitely increased. Even if it is not full-time, a lot of businesses now have that option available."
Maulder said if a business owner used part of their family home for work, they could claim certain things as a business expense.
That included claiming a portion of their household expenses, such as rates, insurance, power, and mortgage interest. The portion you can claim relates to the area of your home that you use for business.
"Generally, if someone has a separate room it is quite easy to work out a percentage of the house that you use for your business.
"It can get a bit trickier if people use the kitchen, or lounge for meetings, or their garage for storage."
ABC Business Sales Bay of Plenty business broker Murray Kidd said there had been a rise in people wanting to work from home since the first lockdown in 2020 as they sought the "freedom of time".
"We have had a lot of inquiries from people wanting businesses that allowed them to spend more time with their families as they realised what they had been missing.
"That has translated into more people wanting work-from-home businesses but they are at a premium."
Kidd said most remote businesses included online companies, hairdressers, beauty salons, small IT businesses, florists, and coffee or food carts.
"There is a number of financial benefits from working from home, including not having to travel to work or find parking, but also if you own a business you have fewer overheads.
"You're not hiring a workspace somewhere, if you can get a business where you don't need warehousing and you're just working out of your own home office obviously your direct return is higher, you don't have those overhead costs."
Rotorua Business Chamber chief executive Bryce Heard said there was a significant shift toward working from home during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
"This was necessary at the time, but for business and society has sometimes come at a cost."
That cost has been people's face-to-face interactions, he said.
"As humans, we share a need to socialise with others to maintain our own balanced perception of reality, issues and values.
"Coupled with the upsurge in social media, we seem to be encountering more extreme and less balanced viewpoints evolving, in not just the workplace, but in society as a whole."
Heard said some employers were reporting they preferred staff to work at the office, and some school leavers were coming to the workplace ill-equipped to interact with work colleagues.
"There is no substitute for direct one-to-one conversation."
Tauranga Business Chamber chief executive Matt Cowley said demand from micro-businesses or early start-up businesses has been steady for a while.
Overall, he said the challenges are still the same.
Those challenges included access to talent, staff, and mentoring, as well as the rising costs of doing business such as rent and supplies, he said.
Scaling for growth, such as financing and borrowing, cashflow, tax obligations, company structure (staff), and outsourcing roles to enable a variable cost model were also challenging, he said.
"If you’re loyal to them, they will be loyal to you."