I'm the Office Manager at HQ in Larvik, and I've been working with our CEO Steinar over two periods, totaling approximately six years.

Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm 44 years old, married with two kids. I have a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from BI Bergen in Norway, and I've worked in sales and customer relations more or less since I graduated. Most of my spare time goes to activities with my two boys—football, swimming, schoolwork, etc. I love watching football, and my favorite teams are SK Brann and Tottenham Hotspur. I also really enjoy cooking, especially low 'n' slow BBQ, where I can spend hours making everything from homemade sausages to short ribs and rotisserie chicken.

Balancing work, family activities, and hobbies must be quite a challenge. How do you manage your time effectively?

You know, as the oldest person in the company, I've become a master of routines. I get up at the same time every day, drop the kids off at school at the same time, walk to the office at the same time, etc., etc. It's when the routines fail that the trouble begins.

When you walk into the office, can you tell us how a typical day in your role as Office Manager looks? What do you enjoy the most about your job at avilo?

I usually start my day by chatting with colleagues and bringing a smile to their faces. Then I check if we've received any invoices and approve them, and I also send out invoices to our customers. Since I'm the Office Manager, I'm also the "potato" in the company—I do all sorts of jobs. That can mean meeting with potential new customers with our CEO, sending and following up on offers, conducting training sessions with customers alongside with our apprentice in ICT guy , and sometimes helping with technical tasks like mounting TVs onto office walls with the technology officer when others are on vacation. It can also involve assembling shelves in our warehouse or taking garbage to the dump—pretty much everything.

What I enjoy the most is that I (almost) never know what each day will bring, and I love that we create really cool things that help a lot of people and companies all over Norway.

It sounds like you have a very dynamic and fulfilling role. Can you share a particularly memorable experience or project that stands out to you during your time at avilo and why?

I've been with the company since the very first little thought about Washd began to grow. Being a part of this "thing" that started as "could this actually be something?" through hours and hours of brainstorming with the team, seeing the first beta version with cables, wires, and scanners all over the place, and now having it installed in over a dozen laundries is something I'm really proud of.

That’s an incredible journey! Seeing something grow from an idea into a successful product must be so rewarding. What advice would you give to someone starting a project from scratch, like you did with Washd?

When you start a new project, you need to have a system or written document that outlines the goals of the project for every team member. Every member must be able to edit this document as time goes by since changes can occur, and everyone must be informed about these changes. Then, you have to set some "sub-goals" that need to be met to complete the main goal, and everyone must know their role in achieving these sub-goals. I think it's important that the team has weekly meetings so everyone is up to speed and can be informed if, for example, some tasks take longer to complete than expected. This way, you can allocate resources where they are most needed. Everything must be documented! God knows we didn't do this from the beginning, and we learned the hard way.

This is just a small, easy explanation, but I guess you get the idea. Let me know if you need anything more—I think I could write a book about this subject right now.

That’s some excellent advice! Lastly, is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?

Just enjoy life and do what makes you happy.