Haas Media LLC

Winner of the Outstanding Minority-owned Business Award, SCORE Awards 2009

“I wish everyone had a Howard!”

That’s how Kim Haas, president of Jersey City, N.J.-based Haas Media LLC feels about her SCORE mentor, Howard Geltzer.  For the past three years, the communications and community outreach entrepreneur has relied on Geltzer’s business expertise to market her skills in the busy and competitive New York City market.

Originally from Philadelphia, Kim combined her love of languages and cultures with communications to start her own business while living in Milwaukee in 2003.  Clients relied on Haas’ multi-lingual capabilities to reach an increasingly diverse population. 

Her work included the Wisconsin Department of Tourism’s first Hispanic marketing campaign; public relations, community outreach, translation and educational initiatives for several multi-billion-dollar Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) highway reconstruction projects; and an award-winning WisDOT educational initiative called  “Careers in Motion,” which introduces elementary and middle school students to the wonders of science, engineering and transportation.

Eager to return to her East Coast roots and experience big-city living, Kim and her husband relocated to metropolitan New York City in 2006.  One of the first things Kim did was contact SCORE’s Manhattan office.  “I’d learned about SCORE while living in Milwaukee,” Kim says.  “I was so fortunate to get to work with Howard, who once owned his own public relations agency.”

Over the past two years, Kim and Geltzer have met each month to discuss potential business development opportunities, strategize and plan for the future, and discuss trends and issues affecting the communication business.   “Howard holds me accountable on what I need to work on between meetings,” Kim says.  “He’ll then evaluate what I’ve found, and help me analyze what did and didn’t work.”

Kim’s efforts are paying off.  Along with maintaining her presence in Wisconsin, she currently provides Spanish media training for the Toy Industry Association. She will soon begin production on a Latin American travel series.  Kim is also pursuing projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Regardless of where her business travels take her, Kim will continue to look to Howard Geltzer and SCORE for advice.

“I’ll keep working with Howard as long as he’ll have me,” she says.  “I’ve been richly rewarded by his experience and guidance.  And he’s so accessible; I can call or email him, and he’ll get right back to me.  He’s one of the best things to happen to me in New York City!”

Brought to you by SCORE, America's small business mentors, at www.score.org.