by Bailey White
Staff Writer
An emerging company that has promised to become a force in the world of advertising and business consulting is expanding to Jacksonville.
The Alachua County-based Adbiz, a six-and-a-half-year-old advertising, marketing, design and consulting firm, has opened an office in Enterprise North Florida Corporation’s Technology Enterprise Center. The location will make it easy for Adbiz to concentrate on science and technology firms — the lionshare of its business. They consider Jacksonville the first step towards further expansion.
“We’ve set up to be an international company since day one,” said Terry Chester, vice president of Adbiz. “We knew we’d have to have a presence in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. There are a lot of great ad agencies in Jacksonville, but I think with our speciality we can carve out a niche for ourselves.”
Chester believes his company’s reach beyond advertising also sets it apart.
“I had a vision of an ad agency that was more than an ad agency,” he said. “There are a lot of firms who specialize, doing only advertising or only p.r.”
Instead of sticking to one aspect of the industry, Adbiz offers everything from print ads and logo design, to website building, commercial advertising, event planning, consulting work and training. The combination of skills makes sense to Chester.
“When you think about designing a brochure you’re also thinking about who it will go to, what will go in it — the who, what, where, when and why,” he said.
It’s a formula that is working well for Chester and his partner and wife, Nita. The company was named 14th Fastest Growing Company in Florida and Fastest Growing Female-Owned Company in Florida by Florida 100.
Chester believes the secret to his success is simple.
“I’m totally focused on the client,” he said. “And I have a great team of artistic and creative people.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Chester loves what he does. The job is the perfect combination of his experiences and passions.
“It’s something that combines all three of the main worlds I’ve been in,” he said. “This is the ultimate thing that I could do.”
The Jersey City, N.J. native studied environmental science at Rutgers University, and earned a master’s degree at Yale, before landing a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Nigeria.
“I studied insects and worked at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture,” said Chester, who traveled Europe before returning to the U.S.
While working on a Ph.D in entomology, Chester decided that being a research scientist wasn’t where his heart was.
“I realized that I wanted to teach,” he said. “I really like working with people.”
Chester taught at the college level and tried his hand at running a small business — an auto repair shop he and a partner would operate for 13 years.
“I learned all about business from being there. I made every mistake there was,” he said, adding that doing marketing for the shop gave him his first taste of what would become a passion.
“I got fascinated by advertising,” he said.
He and Nita, whose background is in graphic design and serves as the company’s president, run the company as partners, each focusing on a different aspect of the business.
“Her main focus, besides the community, is in the world of production and creative design,” said Chester. “I act as more of a general manager, but we’re very much involved in everything that happens here,” he said.
This means Chester will be making frequent trips to Jacksonville as will other members of his team. Currently, one person is based in the Jacksonville office, but Chester anticipates an internship program with the University of North Florida and more staff on the horizon.
“It’s going to be awesome,” said Chester. “Growing a business is very exciting.”