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About Us, Webacom Web Design
Group/Local Business Mall
Overview
Webacom Design Group and Local Business Mall Advertising are
two unique entities providing web related services within
one organization. We provide services for businesses from
small, medium to large.
Webacom Design Group focuses on all design aspects
of websites with a team of graphic artists.
Local Business Mall Advertising focuses on search engine
optimization and marketing of your website.
Company History
The company was originally called Advanced Advertising
that began in 1996 developing websites and selling directory
advertisements for BC Tel. in the Yellow Pages website. Advanced
Advertising built up a client base of almost 450 customers
mostly located on Vancouver Island. Two offices were setup,
one in Nanaimo and the other in Victoria. Advanced Advertising
was one of the first web development companies ever created
in Nanaimo.
In the year 2000 the company was purchased by Jay Somerville
of Local Business Mall Advertising, a website Directory focused
on promoting local business on a global basis.
The company continues to grow and now has clients in both
the USA and Canada. Webacom Design Group was created in 2001
to compensate for the need to develop high quality websites.
Autobiography
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Jay Somerville
President
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Hello, and thank you for spending
some time to learn about our company. We relocated to
Nanaimo from Kamloops in 1999 after living there for well
over 20 years. My wife Kathy was born and raised in Chemainus
and after many visits to the Island and her gentle persistence
we finally decided to move. Our children Joshua and Chelsie
were really concerned with losing friends, however after
only a few years none of us have any desire to be anywhere
else. We have one more child, my son Jason that still
lives in Kamloops. Rumours are Jason and his girlfriend
of two years are coming next year to complete their education
in Victoria at UVIC. We look forward to having our family
living closer.
Work Experience:
Aristocrat Protection: A company, started by my
father Dr. George Somerville in 1972, supplied electronic
security systems and 24 hour monitoring. I began as an
operator leading to installation technician. During this
time I earned my Diploma in Electronics that influenced
my fascination with electronics. I eventually became Operations
Manager and really enjoyed the growth and opportunities
of the industry. After eighteen years, and ten years of
incredible learning experience for myself, my father sold
his operational assets to Chubb Security. His aspiration
was to complete his education by earning a Doctor of Philosophy
degree in the Systems Sciences. He did this through Oxford
Graduate School, an independent affiliate of Oxford University.
I am personally very proud of him. He tutors individuals
with learning disorders while serving on the boards of
the Alberta Regional Mental Health Advisory Committee
and Project Read Soon Mountain View Society for Literacy
in Alberta. He lives in Didsbury, Alberta.
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Chubb Security: After Aristocrat
was sold I had a choice to remain as a sales person and
decided I would rise to the challenge. Believe or not
five years working with Chubb earned me one of the top
10 sales awards in five years straight in Canada competing
with well over 300 sales reps across the country. I earned
a free trip for two every year that brought on 2 cruise's,
trips to Bermuda, Jamaica, Florida and many other interesting
trips. During my stay with Chubb we had developed one
of the first completely automated computerized alarm control
centres in BC and that is when my interest in computers
really increased. During this time I also learned to to
public speak, served as President of Crime Stoppers for
four years and provided the RCM Police with many services.
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Protec Security: My next step was
my need to be self employed so I left Chubb and formed
a partnership with my competitor Protec. This lead to
a huge contract with the school board in the City of Kamloops
and BCBC to name a few. We created our own ULC alarm control
centre and worked very hard to build our customer base.
We developed over 800 new customers in only two years.
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BC Computers: My yearning for more
computer related work finally lead me to sell my shares
in Protec and open a retail computer store in Kamloops.
For five years I built the business up and enjoyed the
staff and the environment. When running the store I found
I was constantly providing answers to very common computer
questions and that is when we created our first website.
I saved about 30-40 hours a month in wasted technicians
time by having the secretary field the phone calls and
get them to start using the website. This would have been
around 1995/96. Over the years my interest grew in website
design and services and before you know it I was in it
full time. Based on my wife's upbringing on Vancouver
Island and her many years of wanting to move we finally
made the move in 1999 to Nanaimo, BC. Being it was only
an hour and a half from Vancouver and an hour from Victoria
it was the best location for expansion. My staff gladly
took over my computer store in Kamloops.
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Current & Future: We continue
to grow developing a variety of websites from tourism
to manufacturing. We will be developing branches in several
cities over the next few years. After living in such a
beautiful city for three years now we feel Nanaimo is
an excellent location for our head office and look forward
to growing with the city. It's not just the beauty of
this area that keeps us here, it's the people and the
location relevant to major centres like Victoria and Vancouver.
With the new foot passenger ferry opening in late winter
we feel very strong that business will improve in British
Columbia, in particular the tourism, technology and manufacturing
sectors. The Internet is an absolute passion and what
we like the best is being able to serve clients from all
over the world.
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