Karen Cripe, the President and CEO of Label Logic, is a powerful woman with strong business acumen. Skilled in Print Management, Bindery, Sales, Pre-press, and Digital Printing, Karen has a demon-strated history of working in the printing industry over the past several decades. She is a business development professional with a Bachelors of Science and Business focused in Engineering and Psychology from Aquinas College. By combining her knowledge and years of expertise, Karen ventured into business in 1997 with Label Logic, inc. Over the years, Label Logic has continued to grow and evolve as a leading national provider and one-stop-shop for all labeling needs.
The CEOViews is pleased to recognize Karen Cripe, the woman behind Label Logic as one of the top Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2023. Karen interacted with our team to give a detailed account into her entrepreneurial journey.
CEOViews: Kindly take us through your entrepreneurial journey! What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Karen Cripe: My father had always told me that if you want to be successful, try to shoot the moon and always give 150 percent of your energy & eort into whatever you do. What a better way to begin than by starting your own business!
CEOViews: What are the challenges that you have faced initially when you started out?
Skilled in Print Management, Bindery, Sales, Pre-press, and Digital Printing, Karen has a demonstrated history of working in the printing industry over the past several decades.
Karen Cripe: After being in the Label industry for 13 years, I had already established a customer base when I first started out. I then reached out to distributers with my yearly sales, and boldly asked if they would sell to me. To my surprise, they all set me up immediately! From there, I came up with our company name and we soon became incorporated shortly afterwards. Getting out in the field to know the customer needs and being able to concentrate on their demands was key to growing the business. Challenges still present themselves every day, but you must always have thick skin and believe in yourself no matter what. Throughout it all, I remained a sales dedicated representative at heart who kept a focus on staying ahead of technology.
CEOViews: What are the qualities according to you are imperative to be a successful leader/business leader? What are all the things that a woman entrepreneur needs to keep in mind?
Karen Cripe: Integrity and enthusiasm are the imperatives to be a successful business leader today. A leader is not magically born with all of these qualities, rather they acquire the skills through continuous learning and development process to stay relevant in the industry. Women have the power to change the world by sheer determination and strength. They just need to believe in themselves and their ability to make anything happen!
CEOViews: What has been your most outstanding achievement in your entrepreneurial career so far?
Karen Cripe: Label Logic, which started out in a small garage at my home, has today become a 26-million-dollar company with 72 employees and continues to grow. We have fostered a culture where we are all like family and treat customers the way we want to be treated. It has been an incredible journey and quite an outstanding achievement.
CEOViews: How does it feel to lead a successful venture like Label Logic? What has been the learning like?
Karen Cripe: It feels amazing! The accomplishments have been many. Entrepreneurship is a process of constant learning and I am still into it. As an entrepreneur, you need to stay curious to the core, react to what is needed, and focus on your hard work.
CEOViews: How according to you Label Logic manages to serve all the labelling needs of clients? What are the future prospects we can expect or envision in the field?
Karen Cripe: We have a team of talented and dedicated employees at the company. My team makes it happen. From my all-star sales sta to creative vision from our Art director to talented press operators, innovative managers, and a customer service department that understands the needs of each customer! We are strong into the RFID sector and will continue to be the top performers!
A leader is not magically born with all of these qualities, rather they acquire the skills through continuous learning and development process to stay relevant in the industry.
CEOViews: Being a woman entrepreneur, what is your approach towards maintaining a balance between work and family life?
Karen Cripe: It’s critical to have work-life balance in order to reach the pinnacle of success. You have to be focused and organized. Creating a work schedule can help allow clearly define the boundaries of work and life. After all, it’s a balancing act and well worth it!
CEOViews: Currently, innovation has become more of a need. What according to your understanding is innovation? Being an innovator yourself, how do you drive innovation?
Karen Cripe: Innovation is all about developing new ideas and processes to achieve great heights in the industry. We drive innovation by investing in state-of-the-art software and equipment to always better our ability to service our customers! We foster creative and useful ideas from our management team and look into all the possible ways to implement them in the business process.
CEOViews: In your opinion, what are the biggest technological impacts on your sector? How do make use of these technologies to deliver the best from your position?
Karen Cripe: Process automation has emerged as a powerful tool to improve work productivity and capacity. 5 years ago, we made an big investment in automation software that would allow us to open up our capacities while still bringing superior quality to our end product. In that time, we have found that being able to automate certain tasks has the profound eect of freeing up our team to concentrate on the issues that matter most to the customer!
CEOViews: In a few years from now, what would be the best manifestation of your- self from your current position and responsibilities?
Karen Cripe: I will be right here. Leading my team and watching us grow!
