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Week 3 of Jessica’s Journal

Week 3 of Jessica’s Journal

May 15, 2020 by

Home > Zig Zags > Week 3 of Jessica’s Journal

The governor’s office reported this week that he was going to let the Stay-at-Home order expire at the end of the month. I started to think about how I would handle going back to the office soon if we’re able to.

The governor included strict checklists employers and employees would have to follow to go back to work. The checklist includes not exhibiting any symptoms of illness including coughing (hello, may I remind you we live in Central Texas, and it is allergy season?); diarrhea (TMI); and headache (really?). While the phase one plan doesn’t include offices with more than one person, I immediately see that they’ll probably require the same checklist when they allow regular companies to resume working together.

Here’s where I landed: I don’t really see how we can go back to work without violating people’s privacy and continuing to contribute to everyone feeling safe. As the state slowly starts to reopen everything, Hot Dog Marketing will continue to work from home until we can return to the office under safer more private circumstances. It’s too ambiguous to put so much authority on each employee to decide if their headache warrants them working from home or coming into the office. I don’t expect them to keep two active workstations set-up just in case.

I’ve heard from several business owners this week that they’re either downsizing their commercial real estate space or giving it up altogether now that they see how well working from home is going. I think the commercial real estate industry is about to take a huge hit which means businesses that serve that niche will need to start pivoting. For us, we’ll keep our Hot Dog Marketing office, but we also may not need to expand our office if more people can work from home. The challenge is to maintain and adapt company culture to suit this change. That’s something I’m going to be thinking through in the coming months.

An example of trying to stick to a plan and engage our team came up this week. Every quarter, I give a company update to the staff so they can see how we’re doing. We had an incredible first quarter. In my business plan, I had planned to do surprise waffle breakfasts or ice cream sundae bars – you know fun surprises to thank the team for helping us hit our goals. When your workforce is distributed, it’s difficult to do things like this obviously. I found a company to do work-from-home snack kits and will deliver them to each employee’s home. So, I did that instead. It was more expensive than an in-person treat, but the investment is worth it instead of putting off a celebration.

View this post on Instagram

Thank you, @jscanlon1, for sending everyone these tasty @snacknation boxes as we continue to work from home! . . . . . #DigitalMarketing #WorkingFromHome #Snacks #RemoteWork #CompanyCulture #HotDogMarketing

A post shared by Hot Dog Marketing (@hotdog_marketing) on May 7, 2020 at 12:02pm PDT

We successfully hosted a Hot Dog Marketing virtual happy hour last week too with online games. The team has requested more “social hours” so we’ll be working that into the program.

All-in-all, I think I’ve spent most of my focus making sure we retain some culture, connection, and some routine in the midst of all of this chaos. I’m hoping we get to put some definition around what the “new normal” will be soon so we can make some solid plans, but until then, I’ll keep playing it by ear.

 

Jessica Scanlon

I’m a mom, a small business owner, and I’m a marketing professional with over a decade helping businesses with their branding and online presence. When I’m not spending time with my family or on my business, I love cooking (and eating) and snuggling with my dogs while I binge on TV shows. My favorite authors are Malcolm Gladwell and Steve Martin. My favorite movies are L.A. Story, Little Mermaid, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Trainspotting.

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We have worked with Hot Dog Marketing on a couple different projects and are still amazed at how easy they are to work with. They expedite the... process without cheapening the product. They are affordable, efficient, and have provided us with the guidance and insight we needed for our marketing. We are very happy to be working with them!!read more
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Hot Dog Marketing recently completed the launch of my new business's website and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! They truly listened to... my vision and made it a reality. The design team was so impressive that I chose to also have them design and print my business cards and other print marketing material. My local pet care company, Delighted Paws Pet Care, now has a cohesive and professional (but still fun!) look and brand. Hot Dog was also able and willing to work within my limited budget. They were transparent from the beginning of what they could and could not accomplish within my financial means and executed very much to my satisfaction! Thank you Jessica, Melissa, Brandon, and the entire team at Hot Dog!read more
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Sadly the person that contacted me asked me first what my budget was and if it was between 3,000 to 5,000. When I said no she said I want not their... ideal client.read more
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Awesome casual place...the chili is the bomb
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The entire team at Hot Dog Marketing is very professional and exceptional at customer service. Its refreshing to work with a company that works hard... and clearly wants to do their best each and every time. We highly recommend Hot Dog Marketing if you want to see your company reach its next level of potential! Matt Baker, Realtor/Owner of Baker Realtyread more
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Jessica and her team are AMAZING to work with. I don't know they take the jumbled up notes and conversations and build an entire design and messaging... strategy out of it. They were spot on every time they presented an idea. We will continue to work with them and urge anyone else looking for design, messaging, or marketing to USE THEM!!read more
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I am so VERY happy with the content that the team at Hot Dog Marketing creates every week for my preschool business. From what they write and... articles they choose for my ads/posts as well as the pictures of our students they choose to highlight, they are outstanding on every metric that matters. It's night and day compared to the last company I hired. They are charging me less for doing MUCH better work! Our Google ranking, which was near the bottom of the first page, is now landing on the top half. We are showing up on maps when we weren't before. I've been in business for 12 years and other businesses much younger and smaller than ours were getting better results, but no longer! At our second meeting, they even gave me suggestions for the website, which I have since implemented, like starting a blog, to help drive more traffic to it. If I have a question or don't like something (no matter how small), they are incredibly responsive. And as we grow with more locations, they will grow with me, which I can't wait to experience. I am absolutely THRILLED they are handling my account and am incredibly grateful I found them.read more
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We are extremely happy with Hot Dog and what they have been able to do for us! We went from not having any online presence at all to being found on... Google, Facebook and everywhere else we need to be and have seen an increase in call volume within the first few months. We highly recommend Hot Dog for all your digital marketing needs!!!read more
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Working with Hot Dog Marketing has been the most stress-free amazing experience ever! Jessica and her staff members, Alexa and Brandon, are very... gracious, easy to work with, and extremely responsive. They all listened to me and what I, as a small one-man business, needed from the very beginning. I love my new slink, professional looking, website.read more
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