Every couple of months, we celebrate the providers who make this Community a great place to learn and grow. This month, we are so excited to feature @Sean Kelly in our Community Spotlight! 🔦
Last month, Sean started an impromptu "Ask Me Anything" thread, sharing his expertise with other techs and sparking some great conversation. We wanted to recognize that and learn more about his journey, so he can keep inspiring others to build successful businesses.
We recently caught up with Sean to dive deeper into his background, his interests, and his advice for fellow providers. Read more below!
Q. How long have you been working in the IT field service industry?
A. I’ve worked in the IT field since 1996. For nearly 20 years, I managed and supported the IT needs of approximately 100 small businesses, giving me exposure to an incredibly wide range of technologies, challenges, and business environments. In 2016, I transitioned to contract IT work full-time.
That experience taught me much more than technology. It gave me a strong understanding of customer service, problem-solving, and the importance of listening to what clients actually need. Most importantly, it helped me develop a client-first mentality that continues to guide how I approach every project today.
Q. What types of work do you do on Field Nation, and what kinds of projects do you enjoy the most?
A. When I first started using Field Nation, I tried to focus on jobs that closely matched my original IT background. However, there weren’t many that directly overlapped with the work I had done previously, so I gradually began branching out into other areas—printers, cabling, hardware installations, and even movie posters.
During my nearly 20 years managing IT for small businesses, I had always outsourced cabling work. Once I began contract work, I started taking on smaller cabling projects myself and gradually built my skills and experience. Over time, cabling has become one of my strongest areas and, surprisingly, probably the type of work I enjoy the most.
That progression is one of the things I value about contract work. It has pushed me outside my original area of expertise, allowed me to continually learn new skills, and made me a much more versatile IT professional.
Q. What's one piece of advice you'd give to other providers on how to be successful?
A. I try to approach every job with a client-first mentality. I look at the job from the client’s perspective because, ultimately, when I’m on-site, I’m representing them. I often ask myself, “If I were hiring someone to do this job, how would I want them to behave? What would I expect from them?” A lot of my approach flows naturally from that question.
That doesn’t mean allowing yourself to be taken advantage of. You still need to set boundaries, know the value of your time, and establish a minimum rate that makes sense. Field Nation provides tools and guidelines that can help with that. But within those boundaries, I believe IT is fundamentally a relationship business. If you build good relationships with your clients and treat the customers you interact with professionally and respectfully, more work generally follows.
I also try not to chase a nickel and lose a dollar. If there’s a disagreement over a relatively small amount of money or some minor issue that isn’t particularly important in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather preserve a good working relationship than fight simply for the sake of being right.
In my experience, clients may not remember every technical detail of a job, but they remember how you handled yourself, how you treated people, and whether they could trust you. Those are the things that lead to long-term relationships and repeat work.
