Why?

Lots of factors, many intangible, went into this decision.  On the surface, it probably seems silly, if not irresponsible, to think about walking away from a successful business that we built from the ground up with our own effort and ideas.  In 2007, we bought 50 acres of jungle, off the grid, with a few falling-down buildings, and turned it into the TripAdvisor #1 rated B&B in the area.  We enjoy the work, we do it well, and we find it rewarding.  We like meeting lots of new people, we like almost all the people we meet, and we like the other tourism providers we work with as part of the job.  We are making enough money to meet our goal, which is to live comfortably in a lifestyle we like until we are old enough to start collecting from our retirement accounts.  So what is there to even think about?

For both of us, I think the primary incentive was that this was a career opportunity, as trite as that sounds.  We have both worked in business for our entire careers.  Tom, with his accounting degree, worked for a large accounting firm right out of college, then in the accounting department for a large manufacturing business, then had his own accounting computer consulting business for over 20 years before our move to Belize.  I, with my English degrees, worked for a couple of IT consulting companies with a teaching stint in the middle.  When we moved to Belize and started the B&B, we were doing things we like to do outside of the skill sets we’d established in our careers – Tom was building and I was cooking, for starters – but really we were both surprised at how much running a B&B is just like any other business with meeting reporting requirements, managing clients, managing employees, project management, doing requirements analysis, and even understanding technology to help the business run efficiently.  We were delighted that we were as well prepared as we were, but underneath it was more of the same.

For our whole adult lives, we’ve both been avid outdoorsmen (ourdoorspeople?), environmentalists, and conservationists, but it’s always been a hobby.  We’ve both been slightly envious of people who have managed to make a living working in conservation, but with no education or work experience, it never occurred to either of us to actively pursue a job in the field.  Suddenly, at age 50, when most people see their career options narrowing, we were offered what is essentially the dream job, working on a couple of very worthwhile conservation projects.  Not only do the projects have tangible goals, but they offer the hope of leaving something for future generations. If we had children, we might feel that the things that are important to us would be carried forward in future generations, but, not having children to carry things forward, this is very meaningful to both of us.  Of course we were worried that we lack the knowledge and experience to do well in a conservation job, but M&G convinced us that we can play catch-up on the conservation issues when and if we find that we are lacking, and our business backgrounds and ability to successfully operate a business in Belize will serve us well in successfully managing the farm and its projects.

Even with this very strong incentive to take the job, we still had serious reservations that went beyond giving up our business baby for a career change.  A major concern for both us and for M&G is that besides the first year or two out of college, Tom has always worked for himself.  Nobody, including Tom, was 100% certain that Tom could work for somebody else.  However, the fact that we and M&G had been friends for a few years before the offer was made, and, with all of us just being whom we are, individually and as a group, Tom and I felt that this was a risk worth taking.  We all recognize that M&G are the owners of the property and the business, and that G in particular is quite emotionally invested in it since he spent a good bit of his childhood here as his father was creating the farm.  We also recognize that they have enough respect for us and trust in us to let us do the job without micromanaging us, and they recognize that we see this as an exceptional opportunity and want to do well.  We all see that it’s possible to take ownership of a situation without actually being the paper-holding owner of the property.

However, while we reasoned that we could both work for somebody else, one thought that still gives us pause is that we are living on the farm to do the job, and we don’t need to own our own property, home, and business.  We purchased our first house on our first anniversary in 1985 when we were 23, and with the exception of the three months after we sold our New York house and were traveling to Belize and looking for property here, we have always owned and lived in our own house.  Neither of us is too sure how we feel about not owning our home, and we have the added complication that we plan to apply for Belize citizenship this year, and owning property and a business in the country, while not required for citizenship, definitely helps.  However, being adventurers at heart, we decided to go ahead with the change.  As far as our feelings about not owning our home and property go, we decided that a large chunk of cash in the bank would probably compensate for any emotional bobbles caused by lack of home ownership.  And, on a more practical level, we realized that real estate doesn’t move quickly in Belize, and there’s a pretty good chance that we will continue to own our property and business, at least for the time it takes to apply for and go through the citizenship process.  This has caused a bit of angst on a number of levels to be explained later, but at the moment it is something of a non-issue since Julio, our manager for the past three years, and his wife, Janeth, are running the business on-site, and M&G are okay with us spending the necessary time to answer email, keep the books, and run down there when necessary.  Despite the fact that this is still causing us stress, it has turned into a win-win-win situation where M&G are happy that we are here and working, Julio and Janeth are happy to be doing something they enjoy and making better money than they were making when Julio was the only one working, and we are happy to be starting the new job, giving Julio and Janeth a good opportunity, still making money with the B&B, and still owning property and a business here in Belize.

Speaking of Julio, he was one of our major concerns with making this change.  Besides being our employee, Julio is a very good friend, and his family has become our Belize family.  We were very worried that if we decided to make the change and our B&B sold quickly, the buyers might not want to continue Julio’s employment, and he would then be in a very difficult position trying to support his family.  This was one of the first concerns we expressed to M&G, and they reassured us that if Julio ended up not working at the B&B, he could have a job on the farm.  This is still an option, and although it’s not ideal since this job would require that he be here four nights and five days a week, and the pay wouldn’t be quite as good as what he was making, his family would not be left with no income.  As things have played out, with Julio and Janeth running the B&B, this is working out even better for him than when Tom and I were there and working full time on that business, but we are still anxious about what might happen when the business and property sell.  More on that later as well…

A number of other more minor considerations went into the decision, and although we didn’t really factor them in as we were making the decision, and they were more things that we realized when we decided to go forward with the change, I think they at least subconsciously played a part.  The major one is based on something Tom, always having been self-employed, already knew:  when you own your own business, you are on the job 24/7/365.  The B&B business isn’t any different.  Lots of people seemed to think we were semi-retired because we could take long vacations, but what they didn’t realize was that when we weren’t at the business working, we weren’t making any money.  To some extent we could schedule breaks, but in this business, it’s wise to take business when you can get it, so a number of times we would plan a weekend away and end up canceling because we got a last minute reservation.  If we made plans that couldn’t be changed and had a last minute inquiry, we always had to decide if we were going to take the reservation and cancel our plans, turn away the reservation, or have one of us take care of the personal commitment and have the other stay home to take care of guests.  Even when we were “away,” we were still working, although that hasn’t really changed with the new job.  Inquiries have to be answered quickly and pending guests want their questions answered promptly, so even on vacations we check email two or three times a day to make sure we don’t have any emails requiring an immediate response.  We still need to go through the process to make reservations, and Tom needs to keep the books up to date. 

Also, when we were at the B&B and had guests, it was REALLY a 24/7 job.  One of us always had to be on the premises, and we needed to be on the guests’ schedules for meals, transfers, arrivals and departures, and sometimes just hanging out.  This doesn’t sound like hard work – and in and of itself it isn’t – but when we’d have guests for two months straight without a night off, we would get very, very tired.  We would be physically tired from too many late nights and early mornings, and emotionally drained from never having any time to ourselves and, in my case, from sometimes going weeks without ever leaving the property.  The new farm job is a five-day-a-week job, so suddenly we have weekends.  Part of this job is property coverage, and we are the coverage of last resort which means that if nobody else is here, at least one of us has to be on the property…but there are usually others around so we can leave the property together, and on the rare occasions when we need to be here, at least we don’t have to take care of anybody else and can do things on our schedule.

Another minor consideration was, for lack of better words, the bullshit factor.  In the B&B business in Belize, and probably anywhere, you have to deal with a lot of, well, bullshit.  Some of it is from the government, which has the main goal of collecting as much money as possible.  So, they impose all sorts of taxes and regulations and money-collecting schemes, and then proceed to try to bully the business owners into complying.  Unfortunately for everybody they don’t really have any mechanisms in place to do what they want to do, and they don’t even always agree among themselves about the rules, so it’s very easy to unknowingly violate one of their arbitrary rules, and then they try to fine you.  They also try to fine you for things you don’t do, and while they want full disclosure of your records, they refuse to open any of their records to you, so you can understand why they’re trying to fine you.  And they send you threatening letters, telling you that if you don’t comply, they can put you in jail.  They don’t put murderers in jail, but they tell innkeepers that they will go to jail if they don’t have enough lumens of light in the guest rooms.  The letters are usually responses confirming that you have done something you were supposed to do, which means they are threatening you despite the fact you did what they wanted you to do, but it’s a bother.  We have a lot of examples which aren’t worth going into here, and it’s basically a minor inconvenience which takes a lot of time but doesn’t end up costing a lot of money, but it’s annoying.  And it’s bullshit.  And when and if the business sells, we won’t miss it.

The other bullshit factor is (surprise, surprise) dealing with the public and our customers, aka guests.  While we really enjoy and like almost all of our guests, we occasionally get a real wingding, and some of our inquiries can be difficult.  And even people who we like and enjoy can be high maintenance, and it’s our job to make their vacations special and enjoyable, so we need to cater to their needs and whims and moods, even when we don’t feel like it.  This is just part of the job.  We obviously didn’t mind enough to try to actively get out of it, and overall we enjoyed the people and that part of the job, but when the opportunity to not have to deal with the public on a daily basis presented itself, we both realized that we wouldn’t miss the constant need to be pleasant and accommodating and friendly.

Besides the career opportunity, the big positive factor in the decision for us was M&G.  Besides being friends, and nice and reasonable people whom we are happy to work for and with, they cared enough about having us take the job that they were exceedingly generous and sweetened the pot with so many benefits that, quite honestly, we would have been idiots to not find some way to make it work.  While we had (and have) some trepidation about selling our property, it is a huge benefit that a house – and a nice house, at that – is part of the package.  The house is in the middle of what would be a national park in most places, and it’s our private playground.  Our horses and dogs are welcome here, and even appreciated.  We get a lot of vacation time, a number of other perqs, and allowances have been made for our personal scheduling needs, such as time we need to spend on the B&B business and time Tom needs to spend on clients remaining from his New York business.  Perhaps the biggest thing, although it’s hard to pinpoint what really matters the most, is that M&G, being at basically the same stage of life as we are, understand what matters to us and are willing to accommodate us on those things.  With the B&B business, prior to having Julio and Janeth run it, we would have been in a tight spot if we had to leave in a hurry and we had guests. Now, if we need to take off at the drop of a hat because, for example, Tom’s parents need us, not only would they tell us to go, but they’d probably book the tickets and drive us to the airport.  And, unless the four of us decide this really isn’t working for some reason, we have a place to live for the rest of our lives which, being childless, is somewhat reassuring since we can’t inflict ourselves on our children, or even count on them for yard work and property maintenance, which is taken care of here.  This became a decision not just for what we want to do now, or for the next few years, but for what we want to do for the rest of our lives, and the situation was custom-made for us by M&G.