We were lucky to catch up with THOMAS OCOVOS recently and have shared our conversation below.
THOMAS, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
Imagine Main Street in a small city, where family-owned shops and businesses have long been the backbone of the community, fostering genuine human interaction and relationships while providing higher quality products and a level of care for the consumer that is unmatched.
However, as the business landscape evolves and competition intensifies, smaller businesses often find themselves facing significant challenges, including increased pressure from larger corporations. This dynamic presents obstacles for both business owners and employees alike. Local entrepreneurs face a daunting task as they navigate these challenges, including the impact on employee wages and the struggle to maintain product quality and consumer interactions.
In addition to the challenges faced by business owners, employees also feel the impact of competition — With larger corporations able to leverage their resources and efficiency, they create competitive pressures that can lead to reduced hours, layoffs, and a loss of benefits for employees at smaller businesses. As these smaller businesses struggle to compete on a race to the bottom with the lower prices and operational efficiencies intrinsic to big corporations, they may be forced to make difficult decisions that result in job insecurity and reduced benefits for their employees. This dynamic leaves employees facing uncertain futures, as they contend with the consequences of a shifting business landscape driven by competition from larger entities.
For consumers, this shift can also mean a big loss in product quality and personalized human service. While larger corporations may offer lower prices and convenience, they often lack the genuine human interaction, relationships, and level of care for the consumer that local businesses provide. As a result, consumers may find themselves missing out on the unique experiences, products, craftmanship, love and care that come from supporting local businesses.
In contrast, the practices of large corporations, which often prioritize profit margins over environmental and social responsibility, can have detrimental effects on both local economies and the environment. Many big corporations outsource manufacturing overseas to reduce costs, often resulting in illegal and unethical labor practices. This focus on maximizing profits can lead to lower quality products that are quickly discarded, contributing to environmental pollution and waste. For instance, in the fast fashion industry, mountains of clothing waste accumulate as consumers discard items after only a few uses, leading to unsustainable levels of waste and environmental contamination. These unsustainable practices not only harm the environment but also undermine the long-term viability of local economies and communities.
At OCOVOS, we’re committed to being part of the solution by providing essential tools and resources to empower local businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs to navigate these significant challenges. Through services like web applications, design, photography, video, social media marketing, and business intelligence, we aim to help businesses establish their brand identity, understand market trends, and connect with their audience in meaningful ways.
By addressing these concerns and challenges faced by businesses, employees, consumers, and people alike, we believe we can create a more resilient and inclusive business environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My story begins at a little apartment, in Bogotá, Colombia. Growing up with my mother, grandmother, and sister.
The story of a kid playing with a ball.
2006, is the World Cup in Germany. The biggest celebration in the world, that unites people from all nations, playing a sport together, as humanity, that more than a sport is a dance, a strategy, and a passion. Celebrating a beautiful form of art, that I prefer not to call soccer or football, but FUTBOL — That makes us join all together as humanity, despite our differences, a sport that includes everybody, and everybody can play in any corner of the world, no matter how privileged or underprivileged you are.
The most beautiful form of human coordination, synchronization, and skill — demonstrating and challenging our capabilities as bipeds to coordinate locomotion, cognition, motion, physics, emotions, and human interaction.
A demonstration of sheer human skill — as simple as its form is. A simple sport. You need nothing but you and a ball. No equipment. No matter where you are, you can play. Anyone can play. Anyone.
This intrinsic passion for FUTBOL led me to dream, dream about becoming a player, just as I also dreamed of becoming an astronaut one day.
This is how my story begins — when in 2009 my father gifted me his black Toshiba laptop — A world of pure imagination and creativity was opened before my eyes. A white canvas of endless possibilities, where anything that you can imagine can be made and done: bi-dimensional, tri-dimensional, interactive, an endless library of knowledge for the curious, for the creative, for the dreamers. The most powerful tool ever invented.
Computers changed my life, for the better, they allowed me to enter the most creative and fascinating period of my life — And I saw how computers changed the lives of the ones around me, my cousins, relatives, friends…
They allowed me to learn anything I wanted to, by myself, and to build anything I wanted to create. There’s no such thing as the sheer excitement of getting to a properly functioning product, after hours of trial, and error, confusion, and frustration. To solve a problem sparks the most joyful sensation someone can feel. Sheer pure happiness — But is when people see and use what you have created and they smile… that feeling… is what drives me.
And is when FUTBOL and computers collide, that the biggest endeavor of my life starts.
I like to play Bola on Facebook, owned by Argentinian game developer ThreeMelons, acquired by Playdom in March 2010, and later acquired by Disney Interactive on July 27, 2010.
Bola was this simple cartoony social videogame on Facebook, where you could play with friends, and compete with them, to grow your team, and stadium where there are thousands of different combinations, update and upgrade players, change technical directors, and PLAY soccer on the screen. Probably one of the most complete yet simple FUTBOL games ever built.
I was blindly passionate about it, my only goal was to be number one, and just as that premise, I competed and played to be number one. And once I got there, I had nowhere else to go and didn’t have enough friends to keep playing and achieving goals for growth. So I decided to create my own online community, on Facebook. So I embarked on a mission to learn how to create a Facebook Fan Page, so I did. Inside the settings, I found this foreign acronym to my lexicon: FBML (which stands for Facebook Markup Language). A reduced limited version of HTML, limited to Facebook’s interface. That, if activated, would let me have my own custom tab on my Facebook Fan Page, where I could put anything I wanted to: A BLANK CANVAS, TO CREATE.
Google is next, I found a Spanish university’s resource whose name I can’t recall or find it anymore. I try and try different codes, but nothing works. I begin to understand the concept when all of a sudden everything makes a click: I upload the image of a classic black and white FUTBOL Ball (Bola logotype), to Facebook’s Fan Page photo gallery, copy the image URL, paste it into my FBML <IMG SRC=”” /> code… Go to my custom tab where I want to have this personalized interface for everybody to see… And BOOM! A scream and explosion of emotion — I have successfully printed my first image on the screen of a computer, a computer that I still hold to this day. I was 13.
And this began the explosion of events that shaped who I am today. What I do, and why I do it. Is my motivating factor.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective tool or instrument you can use to grow your clientele is to be good to them and genuinely care about them. Even knowing how hard it is, and how busy life gets.
Good marketing sells a product once, a good product sells your brand forever.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Being good to others can take you a long way. Ensuring the highest standards, respect, empathy, and professionalism will make people develop trust in your interactions. Being intentional and purposeful about your actions, taking accountability, trying to negotiate and work things out when things don’t go well, admitting when we commit errors, and being willing to adapt and change, are the best ways to maintain good relationships with anyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thomasocovos.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/THOMASOCOVOS
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/THOMASOCOVOS
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/THOMASOCOVOS
- Twitter: https://x.com/THOMASOCOVOS
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ocovos-austin
Image Credits
THOMAS OCOVOS @THOMASOCOVOS