Business & Tech

Entrepreneur Turns Unemployment into Booming Dexter-Based Website Development Business

Three years after opening Right Brain Networks, the website design company boasts a strong clientele.

When Dexter resident Jamie Begin lost his job in 2008 due to the poor economy, he was beaten, discouraged and depressed. Three years later, Begin is fighting back and business is booming.

Begin owns and operates Right Brain Networks in Dexter, a website design and computer network management company that boasts a healthy clientele ranging from small businesses to the U.S. Army.

“Things are going really well,” Begin said. “We stay busy all week long, and we’re in the position now where we can hire more people.”

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But business wasn’t always so good, he said. Like most Michigan residents two years ago, Begin, an information technology manager at a microchip engineering firm in Ann Arbor, suddenly found himself unemployed and without any prospects.

“Within a week of getting married, I was laid off, so I was having the stress of living in a house I could no longer afford while trying to find work,” he said. “I sent out hundreds of resumes and even managed to land a few interviews, but it’s a really competitive market, and I just had no luck getting hired.”

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The result was a downward cycle of depression that left Begin virtually immobile and a prisoner in his own house.

“It was extremely frustrating. I just sat there and watched the seasons change for a year, barely leaving the house,” he said.

So in 2009, Begin decided to look inward, evaluate his skills and do the next best thing by starting his own website company.

“I was getting frustrated with the lack of response from my resumes, so I decided if I was going to make something of this business, now was the time to do it,” he said. “That’s when I switched gears and looked for clients for myself rather than spending my energy looking for a job. After a while, you have to accept that you’re the only one who can change things.

"Luckily, my wife was working full time in order to get the bills paid, which allowed me to devote my time to hitting the pavement.”

'Not something to just fill space'

Perseverance paid off. In the first year of operations, Begin said he managed to pick up a handful of clients and was able to offer support services out of his home in Pinckney.

“I found a little freelance work, which kept me busy and helped me save up some money, but I decided this was something I wanted to do full time and not something to just fill space until I got a job,” he said.

With the little money he had, Begin said he decided to rent a commercial office in Dexter and try to tap into the Ann Arbor market.

“I signed a lease on an office that didn’t even have a window in it. Basically, it was a closet, just me and desk. I would show up every day, and it would feel like it was a job, which led me to focus better at what I was trying to accomplish,” he said.

The hard work paid off, and through client referrals and networking for two years, Begin outgrew the office six months ago and began hiring Web developers to help him meet clients’ needs for data processing websites.

“There’s a lot of companies that do ‘about us’-type websites for small businesses, but we’re focused on long-term ongoing projects that are more expensive and require more technical knowledge of the back end — whether that be programming or database processing,” he said.

The company’s rapid growth has even attracted the interests of organizations of all sizes, from small nonprofit groups such as Michigan Doula Connection to larger groups such as the U.S. military and commercial aircraft operators.

Life on the other side of the desk

Reflecting on his success, which now includes a healthy company with two full-time and two part-time employees and room for growth, Begin said being the boss of a company presents challenges he never understood before.

“It’s really interesting to be on the other side of the table during the interviews, having been an unsuccessful candidate before,” he said. “It’s nice being your own boss, but there’s a lot of heartache that goes with it.”

One of the challenges is finding competent employees; he said he hopes to draw from the pool of recent college graduates in the area.

“I’m looking at Washtenaw Community College to find entry-level talent who I can work with and train and, hopefully, who plan on being with the company in the long run, because I plan to be here for a while,” he said.

The other big challenge is meeting payroll, Begin said.

“My guys get paid before I get paid," he said. "I’m the lowest-paid employee, making about minimum wage still after a couple of years doing this, but that is to make sure we have enough cash to pay employees, workers' compensation and, as of Nov. 1, we’ll be able to offer full employer-paid health benefits,” he said.

However, considering the alternative of working a 9-to-5 job for someone else, Begin said he welcomes the challenges.

"Some days, I wake up and I think, ‘Wow, this is kind of cool.’ There’s a lot of pride in what we do. I want to make my business a great place to work. My goal is just to build a great team and find great projects to work on," he said.

"There’s a lot of technical talent in this area, especially this close to the universities, and the vast majority of candidates graduate and leave this area, which is just ridiculous, in my opinion. There’s no reason why we can’t be the next big competitive company.”

For more information, visit rightbrainnetworks.com, call 734-388-8211 or email jjbegin@rightbrainnetworks.com.


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