Visit from Brian Forth

Brian Forth is the CEO and Founder of Sitecrafting and GearLab, a division of the former. While Mr. Forth was teaching in middle school he recognized a need for professionally made websites that he pursued as a side-job while also teaching his students how to do it. In 1998, he founded Sitecrafting to meet the need. Since then, he founded GearLab to provide research and testing for business-minded ideas, and Sitecrafting also offers digital marketing to push web traffic through the fancy new websites you may have paid them to create for you. I found his experience and perspective refreshing. I've often heard that running a business of your own is nothing but being awake to work and eat, and sleeping so you can do it again. Mr. Forth made it clear that while although he's had harder years turning a profit with the site, he's had a lot of good years and time enough to enjoy his life alongside his work.

I asked him about how flexible his employee's schedules are and he told me that it's as flexible as they need it to be. I thought about this for a while, and understanding how technology is so rapidly expanding and growing, there really isn't any excuse for an employer to offer these solutions for working professionals. It left a large impression on me about work environments. Having the freedom and ability to meet work expectations at the location and speed that works best for both the employee and employer seems like it would make a big difference in the quality of the product of the company. That's not to say that this practice can fail, but I can see where having a good work schedule could make the flexibility work very well. I was very impressed with Mr. Forth, and sincerely hope he's hiring when I graduate.