The Last Few Years —
We moved to Europe in 2013. Wow, that was an adjustment – but a good one!
Then Covid happened.
So after eight years of living abroad, we moved back to the States.
We weren’t sure what we wanted to do when we arrived back in the good ‘ole USA, so we took some short-term W2 gigs in different parts of the country. This allowed us to travel and see the country! Since we were – and still are – pretty mobile (living in our 40 foot motorcoach), this was fun, but being employees was very strange for us since we’ve always had our own businesses.
Now, we’ve realized that South Dakota has the kind of life we know and love, so we’re planning on spending most of our time here.
Going way back —
I grew up in Illinois on a registered Brown Swiss dairy. My first business endeavor was growing and selling a crop of popcorn. Another gig was building specialized dog houses. At 12 years old, these were fun adventures! They taught me how to deal personally with customers, and also how to take a long term perspective on a small business.
After that a neighbor taught me how to install composition shingles. I got some jobs and made some cash during the summer, and learned that I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life!
At 19, I hit the road and moved to the Tahoe area of Northern California. I apprenticed in the floor covering trade and for the next 25 years or so, off and on, used that trade as my bank to finance other enterprises. I also had a janitorial business that did well there.
But as I learned the floor covering trade, I realized that installing was only a small part of the business. The real area for scale was selling the flooring, mostly carpet at this time.
This was really the start of my exposure to the power of direct mail. I couldn’t get to the people who were building their vacation homes in that area. They would only come up to Tahoe periodically, and they would always stop at the carpet store right off the freeway. By the time I talked to the new homeowners, they would always say, “Oh, thanks anyway, but Jim at Countryside has us covered.”
Frustration leads to innovation–
I needed to figure out how to start a relationship with these people who were currently living a 4 hour drive away. I realized that there were building permits issued to build these homes, and that those permits were public information. So, I started going to the county office and writing down the names and addresses of the owners of these home that were being built. Then, with a borrowed typewriter, would hand-type letters to them.
It worked!! One thing led to another, and by the time this was all over, I was using a computer and mass-mailing letters, mail-merged with information the homeowner would like, for example, at what stage their home was in the building process. My letters suggested that it was getting close to time to start picking out floors. Now I was reaching them before they exited the freeway!
This was really the start of my fascination with using mail to generate business.
Gaining a real partner–
In 1987, I found my life partner, Laura.
Since our marriage, we’ve pooled our expertise in several diverse businesses. These include Bio-hazard remediation, natural beef and chicken (from farm to consumers), mortgage loss-mitigation, oil field security, land subdivision and more.
Leaving the U.S. in 2013 —
We were getting restless.
Both of us were looking for new adventures! Laura asked me where I wanted to go. At the time we were living in Wyoming, and I told Laura that there really wasn’t anywhere else in the U.S. I wanted to live.
We’d already visited Poland a few times and developed some friendships there, so, long story short, we had an auction and sold everything. We arrived in Poland with three suitcases!
It was a terrific experience.
We learned the truth of Mark Twain’s quote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”