Jarrang

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Email marketing agency Jarrang was formed in March 2003 by Stafford Sumner to deliver every aspect of an email marketing campaign including design, broadcast and consultancy to help drive sales and build customer relationships.

Jarrang are the ultimate example of a business maximising the opportunities created through broadband and flexible working. They connected to broadband in 2005 and received a rebate from actnow towards their connection costs.

All of their staff work flexibly, to the gain of the company and their individual lives. They used to have an office in Falmouth, but took a bold step in deciding to give this up in favour of using new technology to operate from ‘virtual’ premises, hence reducing overheads.

Stafford used to work in London, but as he says “I hated commuting because it is just ‘dead-time’. With time now at a premium and by cutting out the daily commute, I gain an additional 3 hours working time every day”.

Mark, Jarrang’s developer has worked remotely for various companies for five years now including a spell working from New Zealand “Initially clients were very sceptical about me working remotely, but I proved it could work and it gave me the opportunity to live overseas for six months whilst maintaining existing relationships in the UK.”

Mark and his wife have recently started a family and he is keen to be involved with caring for his children. He says “I share the childcare duties with my wife who also works flexibly from home as a freelance journalist”.

Stuart, Jarrang’s designer and marketing specialist lives in Hertfordshire and used to commute into London every day but now he has the luxury of travelling at off peak times on cheaper tickets and only when needed. Jarrang can rent office meeting space by the hour in London or other provincial cities around the UK as and when they need it or otherwise meet clients at their offices.

Jarrang are able to attract a high caliber of staff who want to join the dynamic team of professionals but who also want to maximise the opportunities available to them away from the office. Stafford says “People increasingly want more from their lives than the traditional nine to five career ladder and savvy businesses want happy staff who think smart and enjoy life!”.

Stafford says “Whilst as a company we have embraced flexible working, I still believe sometimes nothing beats a face to face meeting and do travel to see clients when necessary. The thing is I make the most of the travel time to work on the move, using my blackberry, laptop and wireless broadband hotspots”.

Clearly, all of Jarrang’s staff are benefiting personally from flexible working arrangements, but what about the company? Despite being primarily located in Cornwall, two thirds of their business still comes from outside of Cornwall and overseas, and the company are looking to grow significantly in the near future:

Stafford says: “We have ambitious goals for Jarrang and have plans for global expansion to both widen our market place and increase our operational capacity. This will also allow us to turn-around client projects faster than before by taking advantage of time zone differences. Everything is linked to our UK operation through the use of cutting edge technology and services like VoIP to present a top class service interface to the world”.

And the bottom line? Jarrang’s turnover and profitability has increased year on year and their projections for the next year shows further significant growth.

Stafford summarises: “Having flexible work policies and motivated employees has given Jarrang a competitive edge and allowed us to succeed in a very competitive marketplace. Flexible working has created a win-win situation for us all”.

www.jarrang.com