Savannah Halboth, '10
Entrepreneur and businesswoman Savannah Halboth (formerly Marshall) remembers making herself business cards when she was just five years old. Instead of playing house, she was playing office, learning the ins and outs of a world that would someday be hers.
“I knew my whole life I wanted to own a business, I just didn’t know what kind or how to do it,” said Halboth.
After graduating from Colorado Mesa University with a business marketing degree in 2010, the former Future Business Leaders of America member moved to Denver and entered the workforce.
She was working in sales for an arts and entertainment guide when one day, in the middle of doing her job, opportunity knocked.
“One of my clients at the time— this little dive bar in Denver— asked if I would do their Facebook. I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ and they said they wanted me to manage their Facebook and post on it,” said Halboth.
At the time, the company she was working for didn’t offer a social media marketing option for companies, but local businesses were learning that platforms like Facebook and Instagram could be used as marketing tools.
“I was coming up with catchy little captions, fun pictures and promoted the posts using small budgets,” she said. “The first football season after I was brought on, they broke their record three different times and they had been open for 17 years.”
Halboth’s social media success spread through word of mouth and her client list grew, from four then to six, and in March 2015, she quit her job and started her company, Social Savvy. She’s now an out-of-house marketing director for 18 Denver-based businesses.
Her secret to success— always say yes.
“If people ask if you can do something, even if you’ve never done it before or if you don’t know how to do it, say yes and figure it out.”
Halboth’s entrepreneurial spirit didn’t stop with Social Savvy. In 2014, she created Urban Party Adventures, a place where private groups and corporate retreats go to get customized bar crawls and scavenger hunts.
She first got the idea for Urban Party Adventures in a convenience store in Texas after seeing someone compete in an Amazing Race type of event.
“We were telling a bartender about it later and he got a piece of receipt paper and started writing down all these tasks for us to do around Austin,” said Halboth. “My days of playing office and always wanting to be an entrepreneur, I just had all these lightbulbs going off saying this is so fun, people would pay for this.”
She first tried it out on her friends, most of which are fellow Mavericks, and it was a hit.
“I’m a firm believer that everybody has something they’re good at that someone else will pay them to do,” said Halboth.
This summer, Halboth is making room for another adventure: motherhood. She and her husband, Colorado Mesa University alumnus Will Halboth, will welcome their first child to the world in August.