Delivering Positive Messages

 

Susan Hager of Hagar Sharp Inc. helps nonprofits and government agencies shape their marketing strategies.

 

 

Susan Hager has made a name for herself not only as head of her successful public relations firm, Hager Sharp Inc., but also as a pioneer in social marketing and an advocate for women business owners.

 

Hager and former partner Marcia Sharp started Washington, DC-based Hager Sharp in 1973 with $2,200 and two goals: introducing a new form of marketing for nonprofits and government agencies and improving a business environment that made it difficult for women entrepreneurs to get bank loans or credit cards. In fact, Hager's husband had to co-sign her first business loan.

 

Hager Sharp takes corporate approaches and commercial marketing techniques and applies them to the nonprofit world. Hager calls this practice, which was once considered revolutionary, social marketing.

 

Over the years, Hager Sharp has built a portfolio of clients that are in-line with the company's commitment to health, safety, and education. Clients include the U.S. Fire Administration, the National Cancer Institute, and the U.S. Department of Education. The firm grossed $5 million in 2006.

 

The project-related nature of social marketing, Hager explains, means that the firm's work is not always steady. In 1992, one of Hager Sharp's largest contracts ended, and the firm lost the rebid to a lower-priced competitor. Hager Sharp took a big hit-financially and emotionally. But instead of conducting a round of layoffs, Hager gave her employees a raise by dipping into the company's capital assets. It was a year and a half before the firm experienced growth again, but Hager believes that dedication to her employees paid off. "Keeping together an extremely talented team that outperformed themselves for the company led to our turnaround," she says.

 

Hager has made a difference for more than just Hager Sharp clients. Frustrated by her early business financing experience, Hager co-founded and served as the first president of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). NAWBO began with small, informal meetings of area women business owners who traded information about federal contracts, bank credit, and other business issues. The group now has 8,000 members in 80 chapters.

 

"When we started Hager Sharp, we felt like we were the only women out there," Hager says. "Through NAWBO, women business owners were able to meet and turn to one another for support and information. The organization just grew and grew."

 

To share a Success InSight of your own, e-mail Greg Galdabini at ggaldabi@uschamber.com, phone 202-463-5563, or fax to 202-463-5707.