Specializing in self-expression of care givers
March 26, 2013
Deciphering the esoteric, then presenting it to mariners
March 26, 2013
Wendel Boudreaux can print your corporate logos and mottos on toilet paper, though he refuses to emblazon on the bathroom wipes your competitor’s insignia.
That is the strangest bid he’s received while operating the advertising business his father founded in 1967. He’s granted dozens of other mediums, from obvious choices like hats, calendars and pens to unique requests like flashlights, emery boards and footballs. If your motives are pure, Boudreaux insists, he will do toilet paper.
“We are distributors for manufacturers who print on the actual product,” said Wendel Boudreaux, a South Terrebonne High School graduate. “We do decals for the parish, you see it on side of the trucks. … It’s like being a franchise to an advertising association company, where they give you access to all these manufacturers who make and imprint these items.”
Boudreaux acts as the middleman, handling the logistics and ordering of logo-inscribed goods. The most popular item, he supposes, is the tally book, a plastic-covered, ruled notebook that can fit in someone’s pocket. “It’s popular in the oilfield,” he said.
“Even ink pens, scratch pads, sticky notes, calendars, little things like that,” he said. But there’s also utility knives, highlighters, floating key chains, just about anything imaginable. The variety is “amazing,” he said.
Whitney Boudreaux Jr., Wendel’s father, initially used the advertising business he named eponymously to supplement the income he earned as a teacher at South Terrebonne High School, Wendel said. Once Whitney learned he could make more money with his side-job, he started running the business full time.
Whitney fell ill in 2011, and Wendel – nursing chronic back and neck pain stemming from a car accident in 2000 coupled with an an arthritic family history– was struggling to get work building homes. Whitney couldn’t run the business any longer, so he brought in his son, who had helped for years and was familiar with its demands.
“He said, ‘I cant do it anymore. You want to take it over?’ I said, ‘I’ll do the best I can,’” Wendel recalled.
Mom helped for a while, but she’s now spending her time assisting Whitney. Wendel’s ailments affect the business, now a one-man operation.
“It’s rough,” Wendel said. “That’s why we moved everything over here (to 370 Cleveland St.). This was a game room for my son. … My time going around making sales calls is less and less. When I need to lay down, I lay down or stretch on my machine. (The business is) still hanging in there but not as good as it used to be.”
Don’t take that as a concession. Wendel, who can’t take pain medication and said the greatest business challenge he faces is getting out of bed, continues to visit doctors on the long quest to alleviate his pain – 10 of 10 on a bad day, 8 of 10 on a good day.
“I just kind of limit what I can and can’t do,” he said.
Sales have dipped, but he still has a solid list of clients including Coastal Commerce Bank, South Louisiana Bank, Environmental Safety and Health, Fabregas Music and Bluewater Rubber and Gasket, he said.
“If it wouldn’t be for the good customers who understand (the limitations), I’d have shut it down,” he said.
Similar services available online has challenged Whitney Boudreaux Advertising Services at times, but Wendel said the inconsistency in finished products through that avenue, albeit for cheaper prices, has brought customers back.
One of the more-popular aspects of the business is marketing, for example, product and safety awards and accolades the companies earn. A lot of these companies, Wendel said, are in the oilfield business, so business took a definite dip following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, subsequent moratorium and the industry’s slower-than-ideal recovery.
“Most people are telling me they are trying to get re-geared from last year,” he said. “They re-shifted a lot of their focus in certain areas. Right now, advertising is kind of at the bottom of it.”
Despite the pain, the earlier-than-expected succession, and the spill-induced local economic strain’s lingering effects, Wendel remains positive about his business’s future.
“I’m optimistic about it still being around in 10 years,” he said. One reason for his confidence is his avoidance of fostering foes by, say, printing someone’s logo on toilet paper. “My only enemy is the devil.”
Before a shelf brimming with examples of items on which he can emblazon companies’ messages sits Wendel Boudreaux, who took over the business his father started 45 years ago in 2011.
