Jay Lipe

JAY LIPE, CEO of Emerge Marketing, likes to think small...small business that is. With a marketing career spanning two decades, a thriving small business consulting practice and a newly published book, "The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses", Lipe has his sights squarely set on the small business renaissance taking place in today’s economy.

Lipe’s small business experience began at the age of 18. He, along with a college buddy, started a lawn care and handyman business as a summer job, calling it Quicksilver Enterprises. “We didn’t really know anything about running, much less marketing, a small business” says Lipe. “But the whole adventure was intoxicating.”

They developed flyers sporting the comic book hero Quicksilver, and placed classified ads in the local paper to launch their business. By summer’s close, both boys made twice as much money as in any previous summer, and Lipe was hooked.

Upon graduating from the University of Colorado and working in sales for several years, he felt drawn to the marketing field. So, Lipe pursued his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management—the country’s #1 ranked marketing school. “I liked their emphasis on small groups, and really sparked to that experience. Since then, I’ve learned how important a small group is in successfully marketing a business.”

Upon receiving his MBA, Lipe worked at 3 marketing powerhouses—General Mills, Novartis and Select Comfort. Ironically, it was his assignments on the smaller, less prestigious brands that he enjoyed the most.

At General Mills he worked on both Honey Nut Cheerios—the 5th largest cereal brand—and a group of 5 very minor brands lumped together and called “All Other Brands”. He had the most fun on All Other Brands, where the annual budget was equal to the weekly budget for Honey Nut Cheerios.

Then in 1994, feeling a real tug to start his own small business, Lipe launched Emerge Marketing LLC (www.emergemarketing.com). For the first year and a half, he covered maternity leaves of women marketers at Fortune 500 companies. Then, he started getting calls from smaller businesses needing marketing plans and project work.

Lipe took the proven, marketing strategies he learned in the Fortune 500 world and applied them to smaller businesses. The match couldn’t have been better.

He has since worked with over 100 small and mid-sized businesses including consumer goods manufacturers, services companies, industrial manufacturers, distributors, non-profit organizations, universities, municipalities and even political candidates. He has also complewted marketing projects for The Toro Company, Land O' Lakes and Jostens.

His speeches and seminars have put him in touch with thousands more small business owners.

In the fall of 2002, he wrote and self-published the book The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson Press, 2002) and has received overwhelmingly positive praise for it. “My goal was to produce a book that became a business owner’s ‘dog-eared resource’—a book that leaders refer back to again and again.”

The book is available through major booksellers, online bookstores (www.amazon.com) or directly through Lipe at his website (www.emergemarketing.com) .

When he isn’t preparing marketing plans or launching marketing campaigns for small businesses, Lipe can be found playing drums, coaching baseball or testing his patience by playing golf.

He has been married for over 20 years to his wife Page, an internationally known figure skating coach. Their 2 children have no interest in skating or marketing.