"When you ask independent professionals how they came upon their current project du jour, most will say "circuitously." The zig-zagging road to self-employment isn't always seamless. Sean Damron, for instance, got a degree in government and politics at George Mason University, with aspirations of going to law school or working on Capitol Hill or pursuing a military career like his father, a retired naval officer. Today, Damron is on his own as a computer tech — nowhere close to his early training.
After college, he did have a brief stint in Washington, D.C., in fundraising for one of the national committees (and a gig for a public radio station), but his life in politics was short-lived. When the Gulf War broke out in 1991, he wound up in Saudi Arabia, where he spent three years in cargo sales at a Saudi airline. "I moved everything from Thoroughbreds to anti-tank missiles," he said.
In 1994, Damron visited relatives in Kentucky and liked the area so much he stayed. He worked for a transportation contractor for several years and found himself "between positions" when the floods of 1997 hit Falmouth and Cynthiana. His grandmother, who had retired from the Red Cross, knew several people from the Red Cross and FEMA on the disaster teams who were coming in to assist with the flood damage. "She described me to her lifelong friends as a computer whiz," he said.
Computers had been a component, but never the focus, of his various jobs. Damron didn't consider himself a whiz by any stretch. "Probably among the lay population, but not among computer professionals," he said.
The FEMA computer people were eager to talk with him and, after a very short interview, they asked if he could design a disaster housing database using Microsoft Access. Damron had taken one database class but had no experience with Access.
"I confidently said yes," he said. "They hired me, and I went to Joseph-Beth and cleaned out their shelf of database programming books."
In less than two weeks, he designed a database for Kentucky, which was subsequently used elsewhere in the country. "That was my first real computer job," he said. After working with FEMA for about a year, he went back to school and came within six hours of completing a degree in computer science at UK. "The cry of business opportunities lured me away from my studies, and I launched my company," he said.
By 2000, DamronTech focused on private computer instruction on a contract basis. He helped Chrysalis House launch their computer skills training program and was affiliated with them for the next six years. He also designed the computer skills training curricula for OWL (Opportunity for Work & Learning) and supplemented his work with non-profit organizations with traditional contract services in computer repair, networking, Web design and programming. He identified a niche in residential computer work, which continues to be a third of his business today. "As more and more people work from home, their home computing needs have become quite sophisticated," he said. "It's not unusual now for a family to have a handful of computers linked together with a wireless network and shared printers."
One guerilla marketing strategy he has used is to treat his vehicle as a moving billboard. "I've seen people in other fields use it effectively — and poorly," he said. "I had a talented graphic artist and sign designer design the treatment for my SUV."
Damron gets at least one job a week just from somebody seeing his company name and URL on his vehicle.
A lifelong love of horse racing led him to the opportunity to produce a weekly radio show for racing expert Ercel Ellis. Now Damron is getting clients left and right from the horse industry, doing PC support and repairs for them. He's also a horse owner himself and has been involved in supporting horse rescue charities. His associations in the equine world have led him to be involved with Dr. Greg Fox, stakes-winning trainer and horse veterinarian, in the marketing of an Australian product called E-Trakka, a GPS-enabled heart rate monitor that helps trainers evaluate the fitness of horses in training.
"Considering that five years ago, I couldn't have imagined what I'd be doing now, I understand that making a five-year plan now might be futile," said Damron. "You can set goals, but there are so many factors that can affect the course of your business that sticking to a plan rarely makes sense these days for a small business."
Learn more about Sean Damron's computer work at www.damrontech.com
Kathie Stamps is the co-founder of www.ISBO.biz, an online directory of independent/small business owners.