Kristen Haverluck is a community member working hard to not only give back, but also to support small businesses and women-owned businesses through two different endevours: her business, Engaged Marketing, and WOWOB.

Haverluck has lived in the Minot community for almost 10 years. She quickly considered the town to be her home and knew it was where she wanted to be. The mother of a 3-year-old daughter, all the work she does, she says, is for her.

“I want to show her that it is possible for a woman to be successful in her own right. That she doesn’t need any sort of outsource support, that she can do it all on her own,” Haverluck explained.

Her first step toward this goal was starting her own business. She began running Engage Marketing in February of 2018. She offers social media marketing, review management, brand identity, marketing strategy, graphic design, creative content creation, and event planning.

“I know nothing about business, I wasn’t ever expecting to be in business, but marketing has always been a passion of mine. Figuring out how to alter or change a conversation so that it is more appealing, figuring out how to reach different publics, I love everything about it,” she explained.

Her motto is “Marketing done differently” and she works hard to offer a different marketing experience than many other in the industry do.

Haverluck said, “I feel that if there’s anything my industry lacks, it’s people that operate with more heart. I’ll always operate with heart to a fault. I feel that when you put people at the center of everything you do, you are more successful.”

Her focus with her marketing is small businesses. Since opening, she has obtained 20 clients that keep her busy, but she is always looking to grow and expand.

Haverluck explained that the reason she focuses on small businesses is because, “Those are the people that don’t necessarily have $10,000 a month budgets, but they need to succeed because small business is the livelihood of our community, so they need my support. They need everyone’s support.”

Engage isn’t Haverluck’s only endeavor to help the community and small businesses. She will be launching WOWOB, an acronym that stands from Women Owned Women Operated Businesses, on Sept. 26 with a launch party.

WOWOB is a movement with a simple commitment: helping women-run businesses grow, be promoted, and succeed.

“The group’s main objectives are to create a community in which we are supporting women doing business,” explained Haverluck. “Realizing that 30 percent of all businesses out there are owned by women, but they only take 5 percent of the national equity. That’s insane to me.”

WOWOB caught Haverluck’s attention and she reached out, speaking to one of the founders of the group to learn more. At the end of the call, they asked her if she would be interested in helping them expand their reach by bringing WOWOB to Minot.

Travelling to Arizona for training, Haverluck learned a lot of information on what the group does and why they do it. She learned that women-run businesses tend to give away more than they are to charge, will often under charge, and often don’t like to promote themselves.

WOWOB works to support those businesses while also going the extra step to helping them and new women businesses find their way to success through promotion and awareness.

“The vision is ultimately to create more awareness in considering WOWOBs, 99.9 percent of small business is women run business, and realizing that small business is the vitality of the community,” Haverluck explained.

One thing that Haverluck promotes through her work with Engage and something WOWOB pushes for greatly as well is inclusion. Though the group focuses on women run, women operated businesses, anyone can be involved.

Involvement with the group comes with different levels depending on where you fall, whether you are a women run, women operated business, whether you are a business that doesn’t quite fit, or if you are just a fan and want to help out.

“Just because you don’t own a business doesn’t mean you can’t be involved,” Haverluck said.

According to Haverluck, WOWOB has an app that anyone can use. It focuses on the businesses in the movement and allows those interested to find them with ease as they are split into different categories. Each category contains the relevant business with details and contact information.

“It puts all your women run businesses in one place. As I’m getting more members, there is going to be more and more in this app,” Haverluck said.

WOWOB works to do as much good as it can while helping women run, women operated businesses. Haverluck hopes that the movement will be a hit in Minot and help businesses succeed.

“I’m here to help the women owned businesses in Minot succeed. Whether that’s by creating a community for them that feel embraced and they feel empowered and promoted or else it’s giving them different opportunities to progress professionally or personally,” she said.

WOWOB’s Minot chapter’s launch party will take place on Sept. 26 at the Makery in the The Foundry. It will begin at 6 p.m., running until 8 p.m., and include a social hour, wine and hors d’oeuvres, a violinist, and guest speaker WOWOB founder Jackie Wszalek. The event is an opportunity for the community to learn more and to get involved.

Haverluck very much wants to invest back into the community with WOWOB and is excited for all it could do. She is still looking for sponsors to help get the movement off of its feet. Those interested or looking for more information can contact her at (605)290-2399 or via the WOWOB Minot.