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Me and my wife are considering moving to Boise, among a few other places.
We have never been, but I have a client that grew up there and loved it and plans to move back eventually as he only left due to a job.
We are interested in it primarily because its a smaller city than Dallas, there are WAY more things to do outdoors that are within driving distance, and the weather seems pretty reasonable overall. It would also put us withing driving distance of family in both Washinton and Colorado, so that is very appealing as well.
We are not planning to move for at least 12 more months as we are busy eliminating debt and building up our savings. We are really not sure what employment is available in the area, and also, how well fitness businesses tend to do in the area. Our long term goal (3-5 years) is to open up a personal training facility and a yoga/pilates studio. Until then, I can do sales jobs, personal training, etc, but may not need employment by the time we move as I am building an online fitness consulting business right now and am hoping it will be providing steady income within 12-18 months. My wife would be looking for a job as a proposal analyst/writer. She would likely be able to land some freelance work that she could do from home on a contract basis to hold us over until we find steady work, with most contract type jobs she has seen being 6-12 months, so reliable income for a while that would allow us to settle in. Are there a lot of mid-sized to large businesses in the area for that type of work?
On politics, we are pretty diverse. Fiscally, we lean pretty hard conservative. Socially, we are much more liberal. Some would say libertarian I guess. Religion, we are Christians, but do not attend church very much. We have moved away from the organized mega church mindset that seems to be taking over, but would not rule out attending a church. We are very live and let live though when it comes to the topic, so hopefully we would fit in well.
The one other thing I have to ask about is the canadian geese poop issue that I read about in another thread. Is it really that bad? Or is it more of a problem in specific areas yet easy to avoid once you learn where it is a problem?
I just flew over Boise in my commercial hot air balloon last Thursday, it was BEAUTIFUL! One of my favorite parts were the kids at the bus stop just gawking in awe, looked like it made their day
My family moved from Fort Worth to Boise 20 years ago and we've never looked back. It definitely has an appeal to Texans. In answer to some of your questions...
On the employment front, I don't know about the analyst jobs but the fitness studio could go either way. More Boiseans are taking an interest in health and there's definitely a lack of specialized studios. It's mostly larger gyms. That being said, exercise is easily done outdoors so I don't know how successful you could be. I would call some studios in town & ask about class sizes and demand to get a better idea.
Boise (and Idaho) is both conservative and religious. There's a good mix of those who aren't but the majority are definitely the church going side. The live and let live attitude though will definitely help you fit in. Just know that depending on the area you move to will determine how much you'll stick out.
I don't mean to sound discouraging by any means. I love Boise. But the employment issue can be a big one and that might be more of a struggle in Boise.
On the goose poop, its seriously a non issue. The geese congregate in a couple of the larger parks in Boise and at times it can seem like the ground is covered. Plenty of the parks stay poop free and the geese don't hang out on random lawns.
Moved here from Phoenix and thought I could pick up a sales job pretty easily. What I found is that the national and/or regional companies have pretty much gotten rid of their Idaho sales reps. Instead they just assign Idaho to a rep based in Salt Lake, Portland or Seattle and pay them to swing through the state once a month or once a quarter. There are local companies that have sales reps but those jobs are either tough to get or do not pay well at all.
If you have questions about work for writers you may want to check out the website for Capital City Communicators. It's a group that meets once a month and it is filled with all of the marketing, PR, advertising and copywriters in town. CCC members will be able to tell you if there is any work out there.
On the gym front, from my perspective there might be a niche for someone to do a Gym Jones or Mountain Athlete type gym that caters to cyclists, runners, skiers, climbers and other outdoor athletes. There are a couple of Crossfit places but nothing that specializes in cross training outdoor athletes.
I'm not too sure about the gym thing, even if catered to outdoor training. Most people I know and hang out with just do their training outdoors by jogging, hiking, mountain biking, or road biking. No need for the gym.
As everyone else said, the job thing is the biggest issue and not one I'd try to gloss over. I had a job with Hp for a number of years and watched more than half of the people I worked with get laid off. Not to mention all of the casualties from MPC and Micron.
Coming here with no real leads be prepared to work for a call center or retail. Boise doesn't really have to outsource too much for talent because there are so many people wanting to work here. You really have to know someone.
Since moving here, a large chunk of the successful people that I have met in Boise all have jobs that they brought here. Most of these jobs are in some kind of consulting or IT and because of technology and easy flights to Salt Lake and the west coast these guys have relocated to Boise.
I moved here just before the job market took a nosedive and a lot of my competition for jobs was from people that had taken the golden parachute and were willing to work for half of what they had earned elsewhere. Now the fight for jobs is even fiercer. Interviewed for one job with a national company earlier this year and they tended to hire fresh college grads in places like the east coast and Chicago. But here in Boise I was going against people that were bank VP's and senior management types.
Lots of the golden parachute willing to work for less here.
Recently an unpaid internship position opened at a local nonprofit; something typically a college student would take. The applications had a number of graduate and PhD level resumes with decades of experience. FOR A NON-PROFIT INTERNSHIP!
I'd really hate to be a kid graduating from Boise State or Idaho looking for work here in Boise.
Well the gym thing would require some solid research on my part. I would not be targeting athletes and avid outdoors people. I'd be looking to target those who struggle with fitness and need to for health reasons. Its small, trainer led group training concept that I have been working on that would involve me networking with health professionals. A friend of mine was able to create a VERY successful training business in a small studio getting all leads from about a dozen health professionals he built a network with. Once the network was built, he spent zero time marketing as they would simply call him with leads for him to contact.
I realize that living in one of the fattest parts of American (Dallas/Ft Worth) that it might be an easier thing to do here than in a more fitness minded area like Boise. So it would take some research on my part to see if it is something I feel would work.
Writing is something I think my wife could do on a contract basis from home, at least she has before. But it looks like just grabbing a sales job that pays equal to the amount of effort put in is not easy there.
What was the Boise economy like before the markets crashed? Most parts of the country are tough right now, but were much better before the crash. Was Boise thriving prior to the crash?
Think of Boise as Boulder Colorado without all of the granola. Overall we are a pretty fit city. There is a company called Rehab Authority based in Boise that does network with doctors for rehab work. Most of their work is orthopedic stuff like helping older patients rehab after a knee or hip replacement. Rehab Authority was an old client of mine and they were growing pretty fast, so there might be some opportunity out here.
I moved to Boise just before everything crashed, so don't know what the job market was like before 2006. When I moved here I did interview with about 10 or so national companies that figured they had sales reps everywhere else in the country and they were going to test out the Idaho market. Did land a job with a Fortune 500 company and when the market crashed last year they eliminated all sales positions in places like Boise, Albuquerque, Des Moines and other mid-sized metro areas.
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