Campaign Champions Woman-Owned Businesses
October 20, 2022 at 11:21 p.m.
Campaign Champions Woman-Owned Businesses
By David [email protected]
A campaign spearheaded by Clevenger Insurance co-owner Gina Clevenger called Babes Supporting Babes focuses on all the women-ran and woman-owned businesses in Kosciusko County.
“Really, our mission is to collaborate with one another, to be stronger together because I feel like if we can come together as colleagues, even though we own our own businesses, and not be viewed as competitors, we can be stronger together and make a bigger impact. Not just in our business, but for ourself for self-growth and then also for the community as well because businesses help stimulate the local economy. So I feel like it’s a win-win for everybody when we help one another and be stronger together,” she said.
The kickoff event for the campaign was held in 2021 at Tippy Creek Winery in Leesburg. There was a female speaker who talked about identity verses role in the workplace and at home.
“We really just connected with one another and I got a feel for what the women wanted. Because we’re businesswomen and our time is so limited and precious, for now what the campaign is looking like is, every Thursday or Friday we’re featuring a local woman business owner on social media, but all the work comes before that,” Clevenger said.
There’s an interview with them and a professional biography is prepared for the female business owner with their photo. Those are posted online at clevengerins.com and on social media.
“Our vision is that we can have a map of the county and ping or tag where every woman-ran business is in the community so we can showcase where we all work and what we do to educate the community on where the woman-ran businesses are,” Clevenger explained.
Gina is 50% owner of Clevenger Insurance, with her husband Joe owning the other 50%.
“So I would consider Clevenger Insurance woman-owned and women-ran. My husband owns the other half, it’s 50-50, but on our website we have a section for Babes of K-County and when you click on it, there’s a video explaining what it is and then the map that Bill Holder created for us and we’re going to start marking where the businesses are,” she said.
If you click on the photos on the website of the women that have been featured so far, it displays their professional biography. Part of their biography includes where they work; why they work, live and play in Kosciusko County; what keeps them here and any words of wisdom that they can offer to other women who want to start their own business, women going through a slump or who just need encouragement.
“The whole point of it is just to be one together and viewed as a community of women versus competitors,” she said.
As part of the campaign, the featured women get a Babes Supporting Babes sweater. The campaign is sponsored by Clevenger Insurance.
For every 10 women that are featured, one of the women is randomly chosen and a donation is made in their name to a local nonprofit organization. Thirteen women have been featured as of the end of this week.
The first woman featured for Babes Supporting Babes was Elise Wright, owner of Elysian downtown Warsaw. She chose Katie Hochstetler of Foreground Design Studios for a $250 donation as Hochstetler is battling Stage 4 ovarian cancer.
“I really don’t have an end date to this,” Gina said of the campaign. “I have a list of 50-plus women I’m trying to reach out to individually just to talk about the program to see if they’d be interested in participating.
“The beautiful thing about this is, it’s not just feminine businesses. ... We have businesses that are more masculine, maybe a plumbing and heating company or they work in the manufacturing industry or they own a coffee store. An auto dealer. All sizes from one to however many team members they have on staff. No discrimination. We’re just trying to feature as many as possible that are interested because I think every local business makes a difference in our economy.”
The campaign was Gina’s original idea.
“What spurred it is, during Covid my husband Joe, who is the other owner of Clevenger Insurance, he had the idea to do Talk of the Town where we feature a local business every Tuesday to encourage the community to shop local and support the businesses that were struggling with Covid,” she said.
Gina said that spread “like rapid fire” and they’ve been doing Talk of the Town ever since with over 100 businesses featured.
“So what happened is, early on in my career, when I started 15 years ago, I was very transactional, very robotic. I didn’t show my feelings or emotions, but Talk of the Town allowed me the opportunity to talk with other business owners in a non-pressure environment. They weren’t a client or we weren’t talking insurance, and so there was a little bit more vulnerability there with feelings. Once I reflected on the self-growth that it brought me and how talking with other women business owners was a positive thing, I decided that we should duplicate it. And if I can benefit from it, maybe we could spread it out to everybody where we can learn from one another, we can grow together, celebrate successes together and just be a community of women,” she said.
While she has big dreams for Babes Supporting Babes, she’s keeping it in Kosciusko County for right now. Eventually, she would love to expand it but she wants to make sure that she hits on all the women who live, work and play in Kosciusko County first. Phase II of the campaign could be an expansion of it beyond the county lines.
“It creates an awareness for businesses in the community that you may not have known about,” Gina said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ran into somebody or somebody sent me a message and said, ‘Hey, I didn’t know this existed in your community,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m going to try this out.’ And I think that is a blessing in itself that we have a big enough region, a big enough platform to help encourage our community to shop local and keep it in the community.”
A campaign spearheaded by Clevenger Insurance co-owner Gina Clevenger called Babes Supporting Babes focuses on all the women-ran and woman-owned businesses in Kosciusko County.
“Really, our mission is to collaborate with one another, to be stronger together because I feel like if we can come together as colleagues, even though we own our own businesses, and not be viewed as competitors, we can be stronger together and make a bigger impact. Not just in our business, but for ourself for self-growth and then also for the community as well because businesses help stimulate the local economy. So I feel like it’s a win-win for everybody when we help one another and be stronger together,” she said.
The kickoff event for the campaign was held in 2021 at Tippy Creek Winery in Leesburg. There was a female speaker who talked about identity verses role in the workplace and at home.
“We really just connected with one another and I got a feel for what the women wanted. Because we’re businesswomen and our time is so limited and precious, for now what the campaign is looking like is, every Thursday or Friday we’re featuring a local woman business owner on social media, but all the work comes before that,” Clevenger said.
There’s an interview with them and a professional biography is prepared for the female business owner with their photo. Those are posted online at clevengerins.com and on social media.
“Our vision is that we can have a map of the county and ping or tag where every woman-ran business is in the community so we can showcase where we all work and what we do to educate the community on where the woman-ran businesses are,” Clevenger explained.
Gina is 50% owner of Clevenger Insurance, with her husband Joe owning the other 50%.
“So I would consider Clevenger Insurance woman-owned and women-ran. My husband owns the other half, it’s 50-50, but on our website we have a section for Babes of K-County and when you click on it, there’s a video explaining what it is and then the map that Bill Holder created for us and we’re going to start marking where the businesses are,” she said.
If you click on the photos on the website of the women that have been featured so far, it displays their professional biography. Part of their biography includes where they work; why they work, live and play in Kosciusko County; what keeps them here and any words of wisdom that they can offer to other women who want to start their own business, women going through a slump or who just need encouragement.
“The whole point of it is just to be one together and viewed as a community of women versus competitors,” she said.
As part of the campaign, the featured women get a Babes Supporting Babes sweater. The campaign is sponsored by Clevenger Insurance.
For every 10 women that are featured, one of the women is randomly chosen and a donation is made in their name to a local nonprofit organization. Thirteen women have been featured as of the end of this week.
The first woman featured for Babes Supporting Babes was Elise Wright, owner of Elysian downtown Warsaw. She chose Katie Hochstetler of Foreground Design Studios for a $250 donation as Hochstetler is battling Stage 4 ovarian cancer.
“I really don’t have an end date to this,” Gina said of the campaign. “I have a list of 50-plus women I’m trying to reach out to individually just to talk about the program to see if they’d be interested in participating.
“The beautiful thing about this is, it’s not just feminine businesses. ... We have businesses that are more masculine, maybe a plumbing and heating company or they work in the manufacturing industry or they own a coffee store. An auto dealer. All sizes from one to however many team members they have on staff. No discrimination. We’re just trying to feature as many as possible that are interested because I think every local business makes a difference in our economy.”
The campaign was Gina’s original idea.
“What spurred it is, during Covid my husband Joe, who is the other owner of Clevenger Insurance, he had the idea to do Talk of the Town where we feature a local business every Tuesday to encourage the community to shop local and support the businesses that were struggling with Covid,” she said.
Gina said that spread “like rapid fire” and they’ve been doing Talk of the Town ever since with over 100 businesses featured.
“So what happened is, early on in my career, when I started 15 years ago, I was very transactional, very robotic. I didn’t show my feelings or emotions, but Talk of the Town allowed me the opportunity to talk with other business owners in a non-pressure environment. They weren’t a client or we weren’t talking insurance, and so there was a little bit more vulnerability there with feelings. Once I reflected on the self-growth that it brought me and how talking with other women business owners was a positive thing, I decided that we should duplicate it. And if I can benefit from it, maybe we could spread it out to everybody where we can learn from one another, we can grow together, celebrate successes together and just be a community of women,” she said.
While she has big dreams for Babes Supporting Babes, she’s keeping it in Kosciusko County for right now. Eventually, she would love to expand it but she wants to make sure that she hits on all the women who live, work and play in Kosciusko County first. Phase II of the campaign could be an expansion of it beyond the county lines.
“It creates an awareness for businesses in the community that you may not have known about,” Gina said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ran into somebody or somebody sent me a message and said, ‘Hey, I didn’t know this existed in your community,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m going to try this out.’ And I think that is a blessing in itself that we have a big enough region, a big enough platform to help encourage our community to shop local and keep it in the community.”
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