Why Vermont? Lifestyle.

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    May 19, 2009

Posted in   Vermont Living   |   Comments (3)

It's been far too long since my last blog post - just over six weeks. This blogging thing takes time, and that's something I've been short on lately.

Last week Carrie and I completed our move to Vermont, shedding our city apartment in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington DC. My company (Business Financial Publishing) will maintain an office in DC and I'll travel there once a month for business. However, after two years of duel residency, we decided enough was enough, and that it was time to make the move full-time to Vermont.

When I tell people I'm moving to Vermont, the most frequent question I get is, "Why move to Vermont?" And the answer is a simple one.

Lifestyle.

Carrie and I simply found the quality of life to be significantly better in Vermont than DC.

In Vermont, home prices are reasonable compared with a big city or even the suburbs. Working 40 hours a week is considered the norm, not a part-time job. And it's perfectly acceptable to take off a day in the middle of the week to go skiing after a big snow storm.

The climate is amazing. We experience four real seasons. The winter is long, but if you can survive the cold and snow (2008 / 2009 was our first full winter), then the rest of the year makes up for it. Plus if you embrace the winter outdoors, it can be a lot of fun. It gets warm in the summer, but we rarely use the air conditioning. Humidity is almost non-existent. And the state is well-known for its fall foliage and beautiful weather.

There's an abundance of locally grown produce and a big Buy Local movement delivers fresh food to amazing local restaurants (my favorite Vermont restaurants are The Kitchen Table Bistro and Sonoma Station in Richmond, Hen of the Wood in Waterbury, and The Common Man in Warren). We have space for a large garden in our yard, participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with Maple Wind Farm and enjoy their great produce, and enjoy the local farmers market in Burlington and Richmond. This fall we'll take delivery of a whole pig that we bought from a friend who is starting up a pig raising operation in our town (we appropriately named our pig Pork Chop). It's like wine futures, but with animals. Cool idea - I hope we have room in the freezer.

In the DC neighborhood where we rented an apartment, $600,000 buys a nice two bedroom condo. Private schools can run +$20,000 per year. Politics dominates the town. And for those who can't afford a $3 million home in the city with a yard and a little privacy, the daily commute is exhausting. No thank!

So how did we choose Vermont? My roots to the Green Mountain state run deep. I was born in southern Vermont (making me a true Vermonter), where I lived until I was two years old. While my memories of those first two years are limited, my childhood included frequent trips to Middlebury, Lake Dunmore, and Lake Carmi to visit my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. I've always loved this state, but chose Washington DC as a "temporary" home for eight years.

Carrie and I are loving our life in Vermont with the pets (Pinot the puppy and the two cats, Almost and Pants). We're looking forward to visits from family and friends this summer, spending a couple weeks at a cottage in Charlotte, and boating on Lake Champlain. Friends - we love having visitors, and if you're summer travel plans take you to New England, stop by for a visit. The wine cellar and beer fridge are always well stocked.

Look for more frequent (and shorter) blog posts in the future.

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Pinot the Chocolate Lab Puppy

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    January 20, 2009

Posted in   Vermont Living   |   Comments

I'm pleased to announce the latest addition to the Wyatt family - Pinot the puppy.

Pinot is 4-month old pure bred Chocolate Lab puppy who we adopted in mid-December, just before an influx of family and friends for the holidays. They say it is good for your puppy to be exposed to lots of people - something she experienced quickly. Pinot comes from a breeder in North Troy Vermont, which is basically a stones throw from the Canadian border (its actually very close to Jay Peak, for the skiers who read this blog).

Carrie and I had wanted a dog, and began contacting breeders in early December. Like most decisions we make, this one was a quick one as well - and two weeks later, we were driving home with a 3-month old puppy. Of course it wasn't planned out, so a trip to PetSmart was required to buy all the doggie gear - leash, collar, food, bowls, crate, treats, toys and gates.

We named her Pinot after our favorite wine, Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is a difficult wine to grow, but can be outstanding if grown properly and carefully tended to. Sort of like a puppy... There has been some confusion about the name. Some people think we named her "Pee No", but the grape / wine reference usually clears things up.

We start obedience class later this month, and I think Pinot is looking forward to Carrie and me getting some training. And since everyone loves photos of puppies, click here to view the gallery photos of Pinot.

 

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Happy Holidays

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    December 29, 2008

Posted in   Vermont Living   |   Comments

Happy holidays to all friends, family, colleagues, and partners who read my blog.

2008 has been a challenging year as an individual investor and an entrepreneur leading a company that is in the financial media sector.

The extent of the housing market collapse and subprime mess caught almost everyone off guard, myself included. Like many investors, I knew that housing was overpriced (one of the reasons I held back on buying a condo in DC in recent years), and thought that prices would decline after five years of +20% annual appreciation in hot markets like Washington DC where my company is based. What I didn't realize was the widespread effect that this would ultimately have on the overall economy and the stock market. Predicting crisis like this isn't easy to do, and very few people correctly called this recession. If you're looking for some good reading on the housing crisis and the collapse of investment banks, check out "The End" by Michael Lewis in the recent issue of Conde Naste's Portfolio Magazine.

Everyone knows that media companies have been having a difficult year with pullbacks in advertising spending (even in the online channel, which represents the bulk of our business). And the fact that we're a media company in the financial / investment category makes things even more difficult, as individual investors are becoming less responsive to advertisements selling them investment services. All in all, it has been a challenging year as an entrepreneur and investor. Too bad we can't simply turn back the clock and have another 2007 all over again.

This year has been incredibly rewarding personally. Carrie and I were married in October, and have enjoyed the first few months of married life. We spent three weeks in October on honeymoon in Italy, followed by two weeks at Thanksgiving in Washington and Oregon visiting family.

Carrie and I have been having a wonderful Christmas at our home in the Green Mountains in Vermont, enjoying the holiday with my parents and sister (my brother couldn't make it home from China for the holidays). The weather has been typical of Vermont at this time of the year - cold and lots of snow, followed by warm days and rain when the temp rose to 55 degrees yesterday, melting the 18" of snow we had on the ground earlier this month. I'm a bit bummed that we didn't get out skiing when the snow was good, but hoping to hit Sugarbush later this week. We're expecting eight friends from Washington DC and Chicago for New Years at our home in Vermont.

I look forward to connecting in 2009. Happy New Year!

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Carrie + Ian: Married October 4, 2008

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    October 7, 2008

Posted in   Vermont Living   |   Comments (2)

I'm pleased to announce that on Saturday, October 4 Carrie and I were married at our home in Vermont with 130 guests from around the country and traveling from as far away as China and France. We had a wonderful weekend of events and enjoyed sharing this special place that we call home with our family, friends, and loved ones. Thank you to everyone who made the trip to Vermont to share this special weekend with us.

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Why Blog? And Why Now?

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    September 10, 2008

Posted in   Vermont Living   |   Comments (1)

I’ve been thinking about this question the past couple weeks, as I have worked with our designer and web developer in preperation of the launch of this blog. But even as I worked on getting this setup, I continued to ask myself, why do I want to start blogging?  Why now?  And what will I actually write about?

I know I’m a little late to the game of blogging.  So much so that Jason Calcanis, renowned blogger and founder of Weblogs (acquired by Google) not only created a company which was largely responsible for the creation and popularity of blogs, but that in July of this year he "retired" from blogging.

I joined Facebook just a couple months ago, and for the last few weeks have become active on Twitter.  As the CEO of a new media company, it may be surprising that I’m so late to the blog game.  My excuse?  I’ve been busy building a high growth company, and this has been my focus in recent years, not building my social network.  However, more recently I’ve began realizing that my blog could prove to be a useful business and personal communication tool.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I am constantly working to improve and grow my company, and build a world class organization.  My company has been my passion over the years, and I love learning from other entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneur’s Organization and other groups and events.  I equally enjoy sharing the ideas I hear and those I’m implementing in my company, and believe the blog format will be an ideal forum. 

At the same time, I’m trying to improve my work-life balance and avoid the workaholic tendencies that I’ve been prone to in the past.  With my wedding less than three weeks away (October 4, 2008), I recognize the importance of life outside of the office and the need for balance, and am making this a priority.

I plan to blog on a number of topics, including entrepreneurship and building a high growth company, creating and maintaining good work-life balance, the financial markets and investment ideas, and personal travel.  I hope this blog proves to be an interesting read for family, friends, colleagues, clients, business partners, and readers of my publications.

Hence the name of this blog, Entrepreneur + Life.  Simply put, I’ll be blogging about life as an entrepreneur and my personal life.

Friends know that since buying a house in the Green Mountains of Vermont last year, I've been spending a significant amount of time in the state where going green has been the hip thing to do for decades.  The photo at the top of this site is from our home.  Throughout the seasons, I plan to update this with new photos from my surroundings.  I've found that I do some of my best thinking, problem solving, and dreaming about the future from this picturesque surrounding where I have created my home with my fiancée, Carrie.

Enjoy the blog, and please check back frequently.  

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