BACK TO "WE'RE FAMOUS" ARTICLES

"Dux D'Lux keeps 'em coming back from around the world"
by WALLY NORTHWAY
Mississippi Business Journal, June 12-18, 2000.

It doesn't take long into a conversation to get a feel for the character of Debra Shafer, founder of Dux D'Lux in Starkville. She's amiable, gracious and loves a good laugh. But she's also dedicated, professional and is deadly serious about running a quality business. It is a formula that has allowed the advertising agency to thrive after two decades in business and count customers all over the globe.

"We take our work and our clients very seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously," she said with a hearty chuckle. "We have a lot of fun, but we also are committed to providing the best quality product and service possible."

a native of Williamsport, PA, Shafer left home and earned an undergraduate degree from Kent State University and a master's degree from Louisiana State University, both in fine arts.

While at a party in Atlanta her husband, who taught architecture at LSU, was approached with a job offer from Mississippi State University. Suddenly Shafer found herself in a relatively sparsely populated area with degrees in fine arts and not many opportunities to work in that field.

"I had to find something to do," she said. "I had some friends who wanted some T-shirts designed, and from there I kind of backed into the business. I was lucky in that I had a husband that worked, so I didn't have to worry about making a living at advertising from the first day. It took the pressure off."

However, Dux D'Lux found customers quickly. Shafer went into business in Starkville in 1980. That same year she won a contract from Ithaca College in New York to product its orientation T-shirts. The school must have liked what it saw.

"The 20th shipment of T-shirts for Ithaca College just left here, all off that original 1980 contract," she said.

It's those kind of coups that has led Dux D'Lux form Shafer's house and a singe employee (Shafer) to its current facility on C. C. Clark road that houses the production, sales, art and administrative teams. It currently employs 12 workers.

Dux D'Lux offers graphic design, advertising and website design, in-house screen printing and promotional products, which it added about a decade ago. Shafer said an important segment of its customer base is the Starkville area, with Mississippi State University being one large client. But the company ha also executed many national and international projects. It does a lot of work with the oil industry, thus boasts clients in Louisiana, Texas and California. It has done work in Canada. And Dux D'Lux recently received an internet order for T-shirts for a party in Pakistan.

The internet has meant more than just overseas orders for the company. Web design has become an important offering on its menu of offerings.

"Now, we go into a project for a client to do a certain job such as designing an ad, and they find out we can do web design and other things, and we get crossover business," Shafer said. "That allows us to offer a package to the client, which benefits the client by offering consistency and continuity to their marketing efforts.

"We do more than just design websites. We also consult with the company, gather statistics to make sure the web site is being seen -- and I don't mean just putting a counter on it, help ensure the site is being maintained and updated and staying fresh. We do everything we can to make sure the site isn't just sitting there collecting dust."

Not surprisingly, Shafer said by far the biggest big thing in the industry has bee the computer.

"When I first started, everything was done by hand," she said. "Next think you know our hands and eyes are following that crazy mouse. That was a real learning curve. Now, we don't know how we ever lived without them."

Through all the learning and growing experiences. Shafer said she constantly falls back on her favorite motivational tool -- fun.

"I believe you should like to come to work in the morning," she said. "I don't want my employees waking up and saying, 'Oh no. I have to go to work.' We have fun."

"We also use a team approach. My title is 'queen', which everybody knows is a joke. My philosophy is I work for my employees during the weekdays. It's on the weekends I do things for me."

That strategy has resulted in retaining the nucleus of her design team over the company's history, which in turn has allowed Dux D'Lux to spend less on marketing and enjoy the luxury of referrals and repeat business.

"A large part of our business comes from referrals," Shafer said. "Just recently a man who was a customer back in 1987 or 1988 called us up. He's with a landscaping firm in New Jersey now, and he wants us to do corporate shirts for his company. That's very rewarding. That and employee happiness is my measure of success.

"We want to continue to grow, but we're not greedy. We want steady, healthy growth so we can stay consistent and keep the customers happy."