As someone who enjoys the cyclical nature of the market and its trends, Dominique is not easily startled by losing an account or unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it has impacted her business financially due to global lockdown and limited travel, she was able to pull up backed by their distinction as an essential business and pro-active approach. Nika Corporate Housing provisioned several immediate move-outs and vacancies as the pandemic broke out and is currently working with doctors and nurses that are moving to different locations to provide medical support along with regular people who need housing for various reasons. As a precaution, they have employed additional cleaning protocols such as covering common touchpoint items in a furnished apartment, enabling contact-less move-ins, and taking more time in between reservations to ensure proper sanitization of the living space and safety of their guests. Also, to keep all of its staff intact despite the rapid loss of business at the onset of the pandemic, Nika Corporate Housing has made all the necessary decisions and sacrifices as an employer without any second thoughts. To ensure their wellbeing, it has some of the staff working from home and those who are working in the office are socially distanced maintaining a six feet parameter. As for their upcoming ventures, Dominique asserts, “Our 12-month goals are to add more global clients and serve clients and guests that have been impacted by our competitors that have gone out of business during the COVID-19 that may find themselves without a lease unexpected.”
Striking that difficult balance
As a mother of three very young children and President of a globally prevalent business, Dominique openly talks about the challenge that comes with it especially in these unprecedented times and paints an honest picture of how she tackles it. She asserts, “It is difficult to be working from home on my zoom meetings, and monitoring my 3 children school online from home simultaneously on their zoom meetings. Also, helping them follow up and submit their assignments properly. My oldest son Daxton is a bit of a computer whiz, so I think he was able to adapt more quickly to the at-home environment, but Levi age 8 and Mia age 6, needed much more help to download print and complete their required schoolwork. Work-related calendared issues were the toughest for me as I was maintaining multiple calendars, with multiple events that inevitably overlapped. It resulted in me spacing out my meetings farther apart and becoming an expert multi-tasker and meal planner.”
To conclude, for the women who are striving to reach their career goals, Dominique has a beautiful piece of advice to share: Set the bar high. “Set that bar higher than you feel comfortable setting the bar. Educate yourself, read free material to better your skills and business acumen. Go for the position that makes you a little nervous in a good way. If you don’t try, you will never achieve that goal that you have set for yourself,” says Dominique. “Wake up each day and workout, this is good for your body, yes, but it is also good to prioritize your day and set your mind goals for your busy calendar each day. Visualize attaining that new account, visualize being accepted into that program, visualize your ideal self, and show up each day as her.”