A Carlisle man has started his own business just weeks after being made redundant.

Sean Bannon started Cowran Media with his business partner, Simon Diss, with the business looking to expand across Cumbria.

The business will focus on the telecoms industry and is looking for potential clients across the region.

This is the first time Shaun has worked for himself in his career and is looking forward to the challenge.

“It is something that I've always wanted to do,” said Sean.

“I’ve got my partner and three young kids at home who I need to provide for so the opportunity has never been there but lots of changes happened at my work, and I was made redundant so I just had to take it.”

Sean has worked in telecoms previously and said he will be able to bring his expertise with him in an ‘exciting’ time for the industry.

“We want to be the prominent business for telecoms in Cumbria,” said Sean.

“Whilst Cumbria a big place in terms of area, it's a small place in terms of people knowing each other and everyone speaking to each other, so we're just hoping that we can grow it organically, and hopefully five to ten years down the line, we've got a very good business with local clients.

“Its an exciting time for the industry with all the lines going into building changing so we’re hoping to tap into that.

“At some point we'd like to get into IT and do cyber security and looking after people's PCs, but we’ll start with what we know, and keep it local.”

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Starting his own business represents a huge lifestyle change for Sean but one that he is relishing.

“It is a massive change for me, and it's only been two weeks but it’s working out great so far,” said Sean.

“I'm enjoying it better already because, I can take my kids to school, pick them up and I can work around my missus’ hours to a certain extent because she's now doing two jobs to cover the shortfall whilst I'm setting things up, so it is a bit of a change, but I am enjoying it and I'm a glass half full kind of guy so I think that we'll do all right.”