Steamboat in Business Week for Telecommuting

Steamboat's population of virtual workers is increasing. I suspect the 10% of workers number Business Week mentions below is a few percent low given the accelerating influx of families moving here for great schools and all that has to offer while maintaining their careers in the city. This doesn't even include a much larger number that spend extended periods of time here during the years because they can telecommute from Steamboat.

I personally telecommuted from Steamboat by modem for years to HP before deciding it was a whole lot better to live here and raise kids here than wait to retire here. It feels almost sinful to work from such a great place but my results improved and I have talked to quite a few people that said it helped them achieve better results while getting much more time with their family and out playing. Ever since we made the move full time we keep kicking ourselves for not doing it earlier and time has proven it to be a wise decision for us. My switch to working in Steamboat Real Estate didn't involve as much of a switch as you might think. It is still about communicating effectively to people all over the world, analyzing a market, helping people make great decisions, and being professional but I get to add a lot of nice side benefits like helping people realize their dreams of spending more time with their family here in Steamboat.

It is a whole lot easier to telecommute to Steamboat now since broadband is now widely available around town and even in more remote areas like Steamboat Lake where you can work from a cabin in a woods as well as you can in the suburbs of Chicago.

Let me know if you have any questions about what is it like to telecommute from Steamboat. It's not right for everyone but you might be surprised that it could work for you. In the age of knowledge workers that are valued for their intellect and results more than face time it could be worth thinking about how telecommuting can allow you to either spend more time here or make a permanent move to Steamboat.

From Business Week today: "It's an idea whose time has come, experts say. "A community that has talented people will draw work to itself," says Jim Ware, executive producer of Work Design Collaborative.

Clearly, a boom in virtual workers can add significantly to a local economy. Consider Steamboat Springs, located in Routt County, Colo. The county has a population of about 22,000 people. About 10% of Routt County, and about 86% of those virtual-worker households bring in more than $100,000 a year. Location-neutral businesses—whose owners live in Routt but whose customers live elsewhere—contribute $35 million to the local economy, creating $600,000 in sales tax revenue, according to a March, 2006, survey by the Routt County Economic Development Cooperative. Here is a link to the full article here , there are also a few links to other articles about working virtually as part of a special report in the top right of the article. Here is a link to the study if you would like to read more about this trend.