West Enterprise Case Studies

Adam says, "We now employ five people and we service clients in Ireland and abroad, across the SME, Public and Corporate Multinational sectors. We have also recently launched www.execpass.com which is an exclusive service reserved for decision makers in business, this enables companies to hire senior talent without paying recruitment fees and to reduce the cost & time associated with business development activity by connecting directly with the decision makers in each organisation.  The service offers functionalities similar to those available with LinkedIn, blogs, video, job boards but our uniquely all users executives & companies are validated before they are given access.  No access is given to third parties such as multi level marketers or recruiters, so the relationships that are developed are exclusively between the Executives who wish to develop their careers or their business development pipelines and the Companies.

Commenting on the changes the current economic climate has brought, Adam says “Our business is now investor ready so we are looking to raise venture capital in 2011 to bring www.execpass.com and the Interventions Group to the next level in terms of international traded services”

However, Adam does not believe his location in the West has had any negative impact on the development of the business, “if anything it has been positive, as rent and the cost of living is less in the west of Ireland so as things have got tighter it has been easier to manage our costs” he explains.

The Coleman's decision to relocate to North Clare was fuelled by a desire to live near the ocean and raise their children in a hassle free environment. Here, Adam finds property significantly less expensive than on the east coast. The Colemans also find that people have a refreshing attitude to life and are more inclined to help one another. Of course, living in Lahinch, one of Ireland's outdoor sports capitals also has several advantages and the Colemans have been encouraged by local enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Moving west inevitably means less traffic. Even when slowed by winding country roads, he happily notes that the traffic keeps moving! Unfortunately having a wide spread of national clients can mean a lot of driving, but on the other hand, having Shannon airport within an easy 40 Kilometers and Galway Airport 60 Kilometers reach makes servicing international clients very convenient. "Shannon & Galway Airports are fantastic — I use these very frequently, but over the last few years to be honest these Airports have become less reliable” he adds.

With less time spent commuting, Adam and his wife have more time to spend with their family, and they enjoy the local beaches and other leisure facilities. They're comfortable in the knowledge that their children have more freedom than they did before as well as better access to education with local class sizes smaller than they were on the east coast.

The Coleman's decision to move wasn't made overnight but they're certainly glad they made it. "When we decided to move back from the UK, it would have been very easy to move back to Dublin where we still had our house, but we made the deliberate decision to move west for quality of life. A move like this takes a leap of personal faith depending on your occupation but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by miles."