Why I Bought My First House 8 Hours From My Office
I was just getting back to my car after a cold night of fly fishing on the Missouri river near Craig, Montana, when I got a new voicemail. It was from my realtor, telling me that the offer I had put on a house up Rock Creek near Missoula, Montana had been accepted. My first reaction was pure joy. Then reality set in and I thought to myself, “What the heck did I just do? I just bought my first house 8 hours away from my business and my office. Now what?” That was over 7 years ago and today our outsourced bookkeeping service in Salt Lake City Utah is thriving and adding several new jobs per year to our local economy by helping small businesses grow through their bookkeeping systems.
So there are two logical questions you probably have with regard to my first home purchase being 8 hours away from my office. How and why?
Why I Did It
Passion For The Outdoors
I moved to Alta, Utah from Boston almost 15 years ago for one reason… skiing. I gave up my corporate accounting job after my first year in the professional working world. Sitting in an office in downtown Boston just wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was the fall of 2001, which was a historic year for Alta. I was constantly checking the snow report and it was coming up on Thanksgiving. Alta had not received any snow, which was abnormal. Then the skies opened up and dumped over 100 inches of snow in 100 hours. I made the decision that day that I would be in Alta the next winter and I never looked back.
After my first winter in Alta, I decided to stick around and needed something to do in the summer, so I took up fly fishing. That was about the time that I started doing bookkeeping for small businesses on the side. It was also when I started traveling to Montana once a year to fish and I fell in love with the state and the sport of fly fishing.
I was really happy, but I wanted more. I dreamed about spending my winters in Utah skiing and my summers in Montana fishing, but I wanted a professional job using the education I had received.
No Employer Would Ever Allow It
I started brainstorming about how to make my dream a reality of Montana summers and Utah winters. I quickly came to the realization that no accounting firm was going to give me a job that paid me enough and allowed me this lifestyle that I dreamed of. So I knew it was up to me to make it happen.
When I started looking at houses in Montana, I wasn’t really thinking everything through. When I got the call that my offer had been accepted on the house in Montana, I knew I was all in. It was up to me to make my dream a reality.
For My Happiness
Ever since the first time I stepped foot in the state of Montana, I desperately wanted to live there. I loved the open space, the lack of people, the feeling of being remote, and of course the fishing. I have to admit that buying a house there felt like a selfish move, putting my wants before the needs of my business.
How I Did It
The Technology Was There
From a technology standpoint, there was nothing standing in the way of making my dream happen. I had to be fairly conscious of the technology that was available when I was looking at property. Basically, if I had fast enough Wi-Fi and a cell signal, I could pull off my dream of living in Montana for the summer and continue working for the business that I had worked so hard to get off the ground.
I Chose The Right Industry
The accounting industry was ripe for the setup I was after. The industry had all the traits I felt it needed, where it didn’t really matter where you were physically, as long as the work was getting done and the clients were happy. I never understood why you had to be in an office at predetermined hours and days. The accounting industry at the time still had a fairly old school mentality and, for the most part, still does. I didn’t see any reason why I had to play by the old school rules.
Build An Awesome Team
Despite my opinion that I could do my work from anywhere, I knew I still needed a physical presence in Salt Lake City. I didn’t set my business up with a fully virtual model from the very beginning, so I was experiencing some challenges with the transition. Additionally, in the accounting industry, you are dealing with a lot of trust issues. When you are bringing on a new client and you are handling their bookkeeping, they often want to meet you in person and shake your hand. Who can blame them, given the nature of the sensitive information you handle?
I knew I was going to need to build a strong team in Salt Lake. I started with an awesome sales person and operations manager. With those two key people in place, it gave me the framework to pull off the model I had in my head. However, I still needed to clearly define my role and the employee roles that would support the complete model.
With a physical presence at the office less than six months out of the year, I knew I had to be careful and clear with regard to what my role needed to be. I understood early on that sales and marketing were going to be critical to growing the business. I focused quite a bit on marketing, but was still involved in the operations. As we grew, it became difficult to stay involved with everything and I had to clearly define roles throughout the business. Today, I focus on big picture visionary planning, marketing, and supporting sales. I am definitely still involved in the operations, but more on a decision-making level than anything.
What’s The Takeaway?
It seemed insane to buy a house 8 hours from where my business was located; in a way, it still does. However, it was a dream of mine to live in Montana for a portion of the year and I would never have done it without taking a chance. Sometimes, the hardest part of being an entrepreneur is taking that first step, exposing yourself to some risk, and believing in yourself, that you can execute on your vision.
