Ingenuity and Entrepreneurship

Sarah Stopek-Hirsch ’97 starts promotions company on Chicago's Michigan Ave.

 

There’s nothing Sarah Stopek-Hirsch ’97 can’t sell.

Hirsch is the owner and president of Sublime Promotions, a promotional merchandise company located on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Hirsch started the company in 2004 and has seen her business venture grow to include big-name clients such as XM Radio, Orbitz.com, Corona, Walt Disney Co., Morningstar Financial, Equal sweetner, Chicago Bears, and Shire pharmaceuticals.

Hirsch got her start in business and sales when she became a pharmaceutical sales representative after receiving her Millikin degree in chemistry with a business emphasis. A few years later she moved on to work as an independent salesperson for a promotional merchandise company selling logo merchandise to national companies.

The idea to start her own company came when she attended the Women’s Business Development Center’s Entrepreneurial Conference in Chicago. Inspired by what she learned, Hirsch took steps to start her own business, and Sublime Promotions was born.

Since 2004, Sublime has grown—and so has Stopek-Hirsch’s notoriety in Chicago’s business circles. Sublime Promotions was named the 2007 ATHENA PowerLink Business of the Year by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. Stopek-Hirsch was featured in the September 2007 issue of Today’s Chicago Woman magazine as one of six dynamic female entrepreneurs, as well as in Crain’s Chicago Business and the Chicago Sun Times as a female entrepreneurial success story. Stopek-Hirsch also was honored in 2007 with the Rising Star Business award at the 21^st Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference, the oldest national business conference for women in the country.

“My vision for the company has always been to become a big name in promotional merchandise for companies who have a unique brand,” Stopek-Hirsch says. “We want to develop a reputation for being the best in the industry.”