Scott, Tessa Fitzgerald Hard Work, Friendly Service Key To Their Successful Business

Scott Fitzgerald had it all figured out. He had a full ride football scholarship to play for the Huskies, and by his junior year a pro career destination.

The path was clear: join an NFL team and after a decade or more of playing, a comfortable retirement.

But in 1986, 10 seconds on a motorbike in a college parking lot and a car turning without signaling shattered his plans.

The accident also shattered his leg in more than 40 places and destroyed his dreams of football fame.

Fitzgerald was lucky to survive. Doctors told him he might have to have his leg amputated and that he would never walk.

But after intense physical rehab and a change of perspective, today Fitzgerald more than walks. And with his business partner and wife, Tessa, he runs a fast-growing promotional advertising franchise in Spokane.

Adventures in Advertising provides pens with company logos, mugs and polo shirts with insignias. To the young couple in their 30s, it provides a way of life, and they live and breathe their work.

Their base of operations consists of three desks, a number of filing cabinets and shelf after shelf of sample products, all in the snug basement of their small brick house on Spokane’s South Hill. On the other side of the room their son Colton’s toys are neatly arranged in his play area.

Only 2-1/2 years old, the company that started as a gamble has far outreached the couples’ expectations. “Our goal was that in five years we wanted to reach $250,000 (in sales),” Scott Fitzgerald said. “We beat that our first year.”

Last year, the company did $500,000 in business and this year the sales have been even better.

There are several secrets to the Fitzgeralds’ success. Besides enjoying the work, knowing the market and practically living the business, the couple has a talent for teamwork.

“Scott’s the big friendly face,” Tessa said.

“And she’s the glue that holds this thing together,” her husband replied.

Tessa toils in the basement: calling factories to push orders through, solving problems, doing the accounting and organizing. Sometimes her job takes some fancy footwork.

“We have to stay on good terms with our factories and we have to make our customers happy, so sometimes we have to do some fine finessing,” she said.

Her husband is the hand-shaker and order-taker, a job he took to quickly.

When they joined the franchise and moved to Spokane from Seattle more than two years ago, they were the seventh franchisee in the nation. Now Adventures in Advertising, headquartered in Quincy, Mass., has more than 60 franchisees nationwide. The company’s accounts include Starbucks, IBM, Microsoft and Fox Programming.

The Fitzgeralds follow the company’s philosophy of providing the best service and attention to their existing customers instead of just trying to recruit new ones.

“I don’t have many clients,” Scott Fitzgerald said. “I’m going to spend all my time on my existing accounts.”

His efforts appear to work. In fact, he is so busy, he doesn’t have time to cold call new customers.

Scott Fitzgerald considers himself more of a consultant than salesperson. His job is to match the right promotion with a company’s needs. He said he won’t sell a product he knows the recipients will throw away. “I want to be able to go in and ask tough questions and make sure they get what they need.”

The business is not “trinkets and trash” anymore, Tessa Fitzgerald said. Now it’s high-quality popular items like designer watches and Leatherman tools. The couple tries to keep that standard of quality in every part of the business.

“We have a serious vested interest in what we do. It’s our business,” Tessa Fitzgerald said. “When you’re talking to us you’re talking to the owners.”

Though he’s given up his dream of being a professional athlete, Scott Fitzgerald has found another way to win.

“I never felt I had a very good work ethic before,” he said. “Athletics came so easy, I didn’t have to work as hard as somebody else.

“Tessa’s got an incredible drive, an incredible work ethic,” he said. “Working side-by-side 12, 14, 16 hours a day with her, I had no choice but to get a good work ethic.”

Though they have competition, they see the market in the Inland Northwest as virtually untapped and they plan to continue to grow.

“There’s so much business in Spokane,” Scott Fitzgerald said. “I don’t think there’s a day we can ever get bored.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo