Super Duper Success Story
by Jo Hunter

It’s not your typical corporate headquarters. For starters, it’s shaped like a castle. The reception area features a knight in shining armor — plus giant hanging ornaments and a plush zebra with hot pink, orange, blue, green and yellow stripes. The fun continues through themed conference rooms — like the artifact-filled King Tut Room and whimsical Martini Room — plus 22 themed bathrooms including The Moose Lodge, The Shoe Box, Route 66, Hippie Heaven, and Movies & A Mummy.

This dare-to-be-different décor has absolutely nothing to do with the $28 million enterprise Sharon Webber and her husband Thomas have built. On the other hand, it speaks volumes about the creative energy and can-do commitment that led them, as a young couple, to sacrifice financial security in an attempt to transform an entire industry.

As a speech-language pathologist working with elementary children in Greenville, S.C., in the mid–1980s, Sharon Webber was dedicated, hardworking — and immensely frustrated. “The materials were boring, and the exercises were tedious,” she points out. “I knew there had to be a better way to engage children. I wound up using every spare minute to re-create the exercises in colorful, fun ways. The results were amazing.” Knowing that other professionals would welcome this fresh approach, Sharon appealed to her husband — then a young attorney just beginning to establish his practice — to give mail-order sales a try.

She began small — in fact, her initial product offering consisted of two reproducible workbooks for speech therapists and two packs of reward stickers for speech students. She and Thomas emptied their meager savings account, purchased a mail list, printed a one-page advertising flyer, and headed for the post office. “I came home and broke down,” Sharon recalls. “I was asking Thomas to believe in this conviction of mine and to basically risk our financial future at a time when we were hoping to start our family.”

Super Response
Her despair was short-lived. Response to that first mailing was, according to Thomas, “overwhelming.” With no business background, the Webbers had to adjust quickly and learn how to fill orders efficiently. They hired employees and moved from their home office to Thomas’ law office. All profits went into the development of more materials.

In choosing a name, they turned to the words on one of those original reward stickers: Super Duper^®. They have stuck with the name — and with a logo featuring cartoon-like images of two smiling children — despite criticism from more academically inclined members of the industry who say it fails to convey the serious nature of the communication disorders the company addresses. Sharon and Thomas simply point to the company’s outstanding growth as evidence of their products’ effectiveness and the company’s credibility.

Meeting a Need
In 1997, the company moved from its cramped quarters in Thomas’ law office to a large office-warehouse. That same year, Thomas joined the company full time to manage the business operations, allowing Sharon more time for product creation. Finding it necessary to move to larger quarters again in 2001, and yet again in 2005, the Webbers carefully planned and built their current 144,000-square-foot “castle” with extra land for future additions.

Today, 120 employees enjoy an exceptional work environment as they develop and package products, fulfill telephone and online orders, and extend the company’s reputation for fast turnaround and personal service. Products bearing the Super Duper label now fill a 300–page catalog and encompass a broad range of learning disabilities and communication disorders for adults as well as children. They are used by colleges and universities as well as practitioners and parents.

Keenly aware of budget limitations faced by many of their school clients, Sharon and Thomas made the decision early on to offer free shipping, forcing yet another industry modification. The company provides free instructional materials to institutions that offer accredited master’s level programs in speech-language disorders and has funded multiple student scholarships.

Looking ahead, the Webbers see another expansion in the not-too-distant future, and the creative juices are flowing. “Very few clients come to our headquarters, but those who do are fascinated and want a tour,” says Sharon. “We’re limited in the number of those we can accommodate, so one idea is to develop a conference center for use by professionals in this field. I’m excited about that possibility — and of course by the prospect of having more themed conference rooms and themed bathrooms to decorate!”

Incidentally, about that savings account that had been carefully accumulated in the mid-1980s in hopes of starting a family… “We’re now teaching our six children the importance of saving and following their dreams,” says Sharon. “Both of our college-age children chose to attend South Carolina schools. One is doing a semester abroad; the other is interested in computers. Neither seems inclined to join the business at this time — in fact, only our eleven-year-old has expressed any interest so far. “But,” she adds with a smile, “this is a family that embraces individuality. Who knows what exciting things lie ahead?”

The Webbers' BB&T Wealth advocate is Anthony Mahfood.

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