Becks Wipers is founder and managing director at Hop&Co, a PR and marketing agency based in Cheshire.
She launched the agency in 2015 and recently secured ‘strategic’ client wins with the likes of SCI-MX, British Sandwich Week and Hispec Fire Detection and Lighting pl.
Following a number of new hires, she decided it was time to rebrand as a full-service agency in 2023.
Here, she shares a recent week in her life…
Monday
Monday starts early with being a mummy and dropping my two rascals off at school before heading to Hop&Co HQ, which luckily is only five minutes down the road. Mondays are always a busy day for the whole team as we have our big get-together for the week and a recurring meeting with our client SCI-MX. This quick-fire session enables us all to shout through ongoing tactics and what the wider team is focusing on for the ever-growing nutrition brand. We are an integral part of their team, and our involvement in this usually internal session cements our knowledge and understanding of its many moving parts.
Today is also busy across other incumbent client accounts with catch-up meetings, planning sessions, and calls with agents and influencers. We like to kick-start the week with a busy day to make sure the outcomes of these meetings occur in a timely manner across the remaining four days.
It’s also an important day for Libby, our PRCA apprentice, as she is handing some work in to continue her progression through the course. Libby joined Hop with no prior PR knowledge but is now adding to her intel each week and flourishing in her role as a junior account executive.
Tuesday
Tuesdays always seem to whizz by in a blink of an eye. It’s my only short day in the office, and I leave just before 4 pm to pick up the kids. I usually ask the team to keep my diary clear of meetings if possible so I can make sure my time is used wisely.
This week, we have a new business call with an old client, which is exciting. Since the re-birth of Hop as an agency, we have welcomed many old clients back through the door – which is a proud feeling. I can’t wait to jump on this call and have a good chat about the new product they are bringing to the market. It sounds right up our street, so I can’t wait to hear all.
Our senior management team always try to stick to having one-to-one sessions with our executives each week. I find this creates really open working relationships and helps guide ever-learning junior staff through their weekly workload and any other tasks that might fly in from the left. There are a few in the diary for today!
Wednesday
Is there anything more exciting than having all your kit PAT tested? Well, that’s on the agenda for today, so all tech is being laid out and awaiting its sign of approval. A very exciting start to a Wednesday!
Actually, the calendar looks pretty busy today. We have a bi-weekly call with our tasty food client, who we work with on British Sandwich Week and National Pizza Week. Discussing the national competitions they run and talking about the nation’s best sarnies and slices on these calls always makes us hungry!
It’s also monthly meeting time of the month, so we have digital and face-to-face sessions scheduled with two clients today to run through our March results. Both clients are long-standing partners of Hop, and we always enjoy these meetings where we get to showcase our ongoing ROI. We also chat about the month ahead and all our plans to keep that curve growing in the right direction.
We’ve recently introduced an influencer strategy to one of our clients, so we have another session in the diary to chat through progress so far, the results to date, and how we can work smarter together.
To end the day, I’m off to a skin appointment at our client’s clinic. I like the team to use our clients’ services or products as it’s a great way to better understand the businesses and learn their offerings first-hand.
Thursday
And… how is it Thursday already? The weeks seem to be just flying by at the moment. We currently have such a great mix of client work, and the team is in great spirits. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun!
For the first time this week, we don’t have any client meetings today; we just have internal catch-ups. We have our weekly managers’ meeting on Thursday, where the senior team get together to chat about day-to-day business, the team, finances, forecasting, and our new business drive. In eight years, Hop has never done a new business drive or its own marketing until now, so it all feels new and exciting, if a little daunting at the same time.
I am not one for putting myself into the spotlight, and writing about myself always proves to be the hardest task for me. I am trained to write about other people, not little old me and my achievements or what makes me tick. However, since our operations manager, Cat, started, I’ve had nowhere to hide. She’s insisting I get my stuff together and plough on through, hence this piece!
In all honesty, though, Hop has a new momentum, and it’s down to Cat; she is getting us out there in all matters of ways, so watch this space!
Some team members are working from home today and joining internal meetings digitally. I like to allow flexibility, so Libby’s at home to ensure her dog is attended to and not left alone.
To end the day, we have a quick catch-up on client WIP sheets, where we are up to with this week’s workload, and what needs a Friday focus.
Friday
It’s Friday again – wow, that week went fast! The diary is clear for once and sometimes that brings joy. We love meeting up with clients and getting together internally, but a clear day often means that lots of work gets progressed, and we finish the working week with a sense of real achievement.
Today, Claire, one of the senior team is finishing early for a massage with our clinic client – as said; we like to make sure all the team has the right amount of balance in their life. To perform at your best, you must have downtime, self-care, and holidays. The team loves to travel, so we have heard and learnt a lot about Tenerife, Thailand, Singapore, Italy, the Philippines, Bali, and Croatia in a matter of weeks.
Before the close of play, we send out all our client WIPs detailing this week’s work as well as ongoing plans and projects. It might sound old school, but I feel this keeps everything in order and helps us remain organised and at the top of our game.
We discuss our weekend plans before we power down our laptops and head off. The team has eclectic ways of spending their downtime, from hiking peaks, practising Pilates, and working on a family coffee van to drinking with friends and trying trending restaurants.
Before we know it, it will be Monday morning again….
