The Summer of Cheap Labor!

16 year old niece Emily took her first plane ride (all the way from Indiana!) to sunny Seattle for a week in July.

 

18 year old nephew Torgeir escaped the brutal heat of Sacramento to explore Seattle in August.

 

 

ZippyDogs put them both to work in a continuation of the Internationally Recognized ZippyDogs Summer Internship Program that began last year with nephew Taylor. When contacted to speak about his experiences and recovery from his week at ZippyDogs, Taylor could not be reached for comment. Perhaps he was nursing a paper cut.

 

This summer our Interns were instrumental in many important tasks. Both were instructed on the finer points of making coffee for Top Dog, for example. Service with a smile required – Top Dog has spoken!

 

     

 

Emily stuffed promo boxes to win new customers, filed, wrote thank you notes, and completed a electronic file compression project.

Torgeir wrote thank you notes, sorted our customer file drawers, and completed a comprehensive report comparing cloud-based business solutions.

When not at the ZippyDogs World Headquarters honing their administrative skills, they enjoyed exploring Seattle!

  

 

For their newly acquired barista skills and more, they are both awarded Employee of the Month!

Red Merle Curran!
Deputy Dog loves the sun…unfortunately her fair skin doesn’t. So what did she do instead?

    

Kristi is off to sunny California for a wedding. What better way for a fair-skinned Seattle-ite to get a little color than to visit the spray tan booth? Too bad it didn’t go better. Deputy Dog is officially a Red Merle!  Congrats Kristi on trying something new and having a good laugh about an experiment gone wrong. WOOF!

Snazzy Kristi prepares the office for a WEBENC inspection!

We now have our WEBENC certification – WOOF!

 

What’s that, you ask?  The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), founded in 1997, is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled, and operated by women in the United States. WBENC, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit, partners with 14 Regional Partner Organizations to provide its world class standard of certification to women-owned businesses throughout the country. WBENC  is also the nation’s leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to America’s corporations.

 

For our certification site visit, Deputy Dog chose to forgo her standard shorts and flip-flop office attire in favor of a little black dress!  She even wore make-up and only swore once during the entire site visit.  And to prove that a dress does not hinder her from being a true Deputy, she vacuumed the entire office and posed for these pictures as proof.  WOOF!

 

Elise Lindborg, Top Dog at ZippyDogs recently learned she was chosen by the National Gay, Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) to receive a full scholarship to the highly regarded executive education course at Dartmouth College. The Tuck Executive Education Minority Business Program runs November 11-16, 2012 at Dartmouth College in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

 
The curriculum of the Tuck business program covers strategy and implementation, analysis of financial statements, managing the customer asset, building strategic alliances and leadership skills. Students will graduate from the week long program with a well-stocked business development toolkit, as well as a strong network of support and potential partners.

 
“Over the past twelve years we have built ZippyDogs organically, through word of mouth, excellent service and networking.” Lindborg said “Local networking can only get us so far and I am looking forward to learning from the pros on how to develop and implement strategic growth plans. Business skills have been learned through trial and error and now through the Tuck Executive Education Program I have a fantastic opportunity to take ZippyDogs to the next level. I cannot begin to express my gratitute to the NGLCC’s for this scholarship! WOOF!”

 
Click here to learn more about the Tuck Executive Education Minority Business Programs at Dartmouth.

 
About the NGLCC:
The NGLCC is the business advocate and direct link between LGBT business owners, corporations and government. The NGLCC represents the interests of more than 1.4 million LGBT-owned businesses in the United States and is the umbrella organization for 61 state, local and international LGBT chambers of commerce and business organizations. www.nglcc.org

 

 

   

For the 3rd year in a row, Kelli Henderson, Chili Dog dominated the sales competition at ZippyDogs. “At one point during the year, another sales person was within $591.32 of taking over my lead” said Ms. Henderson. “It was touch and go throughout the year however, I rallied and sold $20K worth of T-shirts in late December, therefore crushing the competition”. Ms. Henderson has won the coveted antique Barbie Doll trophy that spins and plays Moon River at sporadic times – especially late at night when a person is alone in the office. Ms. Henderson won Sales Person of the Year in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Top Dog, Elise Lindborg declined to be interviewed for this announcement but did say as she walked away “Whatever”.

Congratulations Kelli. ZippyDogs salesperson of the year 2011! WOOF!

 

Deputy Dog is our employee of the month!  She single-handedly held down the dog fort during the Big Dogs’ trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Good job, Deputy!

In addition, she survived the week before they left, where with every email they sent her she had to see the weather report of Cabo!  This was their email signature for a solid week – Ugh!  WHATEVER!

Taylor interns at ZippyDogs!

Elise’s fabulous nephew Taylor Lindborg is our September Employee of the Month. Taylor spent an entire week in the ZippyDogs – Dog House and filed, dusted, learned how to staple, created product displays, played with pencils and put together 150 super cool promo boxes for us. Taylors time at ZippyDogs was not all work and no play. He also enjoyed time at the Seattle Art Museum, the Pacific Science Center, the Butterfly House, the Seattle Art Institute and he spent half a day at Top Line – Seattle’s hot bed of fashion professionals. In addition, we made him try new food like Vietnamese Pho, fancy cheeses and pork tenderloin with chimichurri sauce. Thank you for all your work Taylor!

Kasey Fynn Aesery – Dog Walker – June 2011

Kasey is our beloved Dog Walker. He goes to our house twice a week and takes our fur children for walks. They love and adore him, although Ginger says on rainy days “not so much”. Jagger says, “what rain”?

If we are lucky, Kasey walks one of the dogs to our office so we are forced to stop working, give pets and treats, and get licks and tail wags in return.

Kasey started a little journal for us in the “dog room”… it is called the Poop Diaries. He leaves little notes for us each day of the little adventures on walks and the poop tally. Ginger – 2, Jagger 1.

Kasey cares for dogs and cats. If you need a reliable and caring dog walker… check out Salty Dog Pet Services. #woof

Kasey is the Salty Dog Pet Services humble proprietor.

Please join the ZippyDogs FACEBOOK Page!

Bang a Gong! – April 2011

Top Dog is rocking the gong this year. For any order over $2000 we get to bang the gong. So far Elise leads the pack with 3 gong smacks this year!