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There is plenty of life after redundancy for Jason
Jason McGee, Managing Director of Blackrock based Web Design company Jascom Ltd., recently recalled that fateful day, the 14th June 2000, when he received the news that he was about to lose his job - McArdles Brewery was closing down.
Jason had joined the company straight from college and had progressed so well that he ended up staying for eight years. He had just purchased a new house when he heard the news, 'to be honest I went into shock.
It's just a massive disappointment to hear that kind of news especially when you are dedicated to a company.' Now, eight years on Jason views his redundancy not as the disaster it once seemed but as the accidental catalyst for his subsequent success. Now the self employed, Managing Director of Jascom Ltd, a well established I.T. consultancy & web design company based in Blackrock, Jason has lived to tell the tale and he wants to spread the word - 'there is life after redundancy' - and in his case a better life.
Jason was literally the last man to leave McArdles brewery, staying behind to shut down all of the computer systems he had helped design for the very last time. He says that on that day he knew one thing for sure,
'I wanted to look back in five years and say that I had accomplished something'. However, he admits, 'it wasn't immediately apparent what I should do next and I took a year off to ponder my next move.'
Hindsight showed Jason that this was exactly what he needed, 'I had an absolute ball, I travelled, went to loads of concerts and totally de-stressed - it was just what I needed at the time because I can see now that I had been heading for burnout.'
It was during this sabbatical that Jason, with a lot of leisure time on his hands, conceived 'for a laugh' the concept for www.bringbackdunphy.com - a website calling for the reinstatement of Eamonn Dunphy's chat show that had recently been axed by RTE. Jason says that although he had always been interested in web design, it was not until his website caught the attention of DJ Ray Darcy and was mentioned on Today FM that he fully realised the potential of the Internet to reach just about anyone, anywhere.
He recalls, 'the penny really dropped for me when within two minutes of it being mentioned on the radio, the website received four thousand hits and at that moment I thought … there is definitely something here!'
Armed with this new perspective, it was not long before Jascom Ltd. was born but for Jason success was not automatic, 'in the first few weeks I sent out 200 letters to 200 businesses and I got no replies'.
Undeterred, Jason soon realised that he would need to secure one strategic customer in order to showcase his abilities and build his reputation. This customer came in the form of Dundalk firm, European Mortgages and from there Jason says, 'the whole thing just snowballed'.
Soon he counted many of Dundalk's leading businesses amongst his clients, The Lisdoo, Mr. Ridleys Nightclub, Gunne Property, Mr. James Menswear and Twibill Designs to name but a few and ironically one of his first customers was Diageo Ireland who commissioned him to design a website on the history of McArdles Brewery.
For Jason one of the main benefits of being his own boss has been his decision to work from home.
Yet another benefit was recently realised with the arrival of the newest member of the McGee family, little Oisin, who is only six weeks old and both Jason and his wife, Kim, who is currently on maternity leave, are thoroughly enjoying the joys of first time parenthood.
Although Jason can usually be found working on up to ten websites at a time he has still managed to find the time to donate his creative skills to some of his favourite charities. In fact one of his most recent and high profile designs is a website focused on saving the Louth Hospital from closure, a project Jason undertook in association with the 'Save Our Hospital Campaign'.
For Jason, whose mother is in charge of services in the Louth Hospital, the idea of losing the hospital is unthinkable, 'I decided to offer my help when I missed a public meeting about the hospital simply because I hadn't heard about it, so I immediately thought if this campaign had a website they could reach everyone'. An extremely interactive website, www.thelouthhospital.com will be launched on the web by the 16th June, the site will allow users to read all of the most up to date news about the campaign, participate in a poll about the closure, download the campaign poster and engage in a discussion forum.
Having experienced redundancy first hand Jason truly empathises with those who find themselves in the same position, most particularly the employees of Harp Lager, another of Dundalk's most famous breweries, who recently received news of an imminent closure, 'when I hear that a factory is closing down I really feel for the employees, whereas before I experienced it myself it was simply just another news item.' However, having gone through the tough times and come out the other end, Jason wants people to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
In fact given his subsequent success with Jascom Ltd., Jason is more than happy with the way things have turned out, 'if I knew then what I know now I definitely would have made the move sooner'.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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