What I didn’t Know When I Moved my Business (from Northern Ireland to the US)
I'm sharing my experience of moving my business from Northern Ireland back to Oregon, US after seven years. The transition over the last few months has been more complicated than I anticipated, especially with banking and tax regulations. I'm sharing the challenges I've faced, including setting up my software and managing my business license here in the US. I also touch on how this move has impacted my work-life balance and my efforts to rebuild my professional network. Let me know if you have any questions or if you've gone through a similar process!
Transcript below!
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00:07 a talk about all things techie and business. Today is a little bit of a different video. A lot of times I'm talking about tools or systems or, um, the way that I view business simplicity.
00:19 Today, I'm talking to you about what it was like to move my business from Northern Ireland, which is both a part of the UK and Ireland, all the way over back to Oregon, where Oregon in the Pacific Northwest.
00:32 So I'm originally from here in Oregon. Um, and I spent the last seven years in Ireland and set up my business when I was there.
00:45 And so I knew that the process of moving countries, the process, um, we'd done that, I'd done that, right. I'd moved to Northern Ireland.
00:55 And I'd gone through the logistics of some of the stuff through visas and immigration and banking and all these kind of tricksy things when you move.
01:05 Um, however, there was coming back, my husband was mostly the one going through a lot of that stuff. But I had to move not just our lives over here, but my business over here, and it was even trickier than I expected.
01:23 I kind of had done a lot of research in advance around banking apps and, um, business registries and just so many little things.
01:32 And still it feels like I've been here six months and it feels like at least once a week I find something that I'm like, that hasn't been fixed or updated.
01:40 And I think part of it is that I was running my business for a business for like six and a half years before we moved, gosh, almost seven.
01:48 Um, and part of it is that part of it's just that, like, the countries are very, very different. So without further ado, let's talk a little bit about the things I didn't know when I moved my business halfway around the world.
02:07 The first is currency issues. Um, I had been working predominantly out of British Pounds, uh, for the entirety of my business.
02:19 I did accept U.S. dollar, well, I accepted any, any payment, but obviously paid a currency conversion fee. Um, I, on my online business, on my shop in Squarespace, uh, for my digital products and my PowerPoint.
02:31 For hours, I was selling things in dollars and then just kind of eating the fact that that was being converted, um, to pounds in my Stripe system.
02:40 I just was like, like, that's okay. Um, now we're here and almost all of my software is set up, uh, through European entities.
02:49 So even things like my Google workspace are set up in, technically in Ireland, uh, and I can't move it if I wanted to set up a US based Google workspace, I would have to close mine down completely and start over.
03:05 And I would lose, like I would, it would be a pain, like as far as continuity, as far as my emails, my Google drive, everything.
03:13 So I've just now every month I have to pay a currency conversion fee, uh, for a lot of my software.
03:19 It's pretty sad. It's small, but it's constant. Uhm, I also use Dubsado for my business and when I needed to switch from all of my business being done in British pounds to my business being done in US dollars, I contacted them because it turns out, so you can toggle your currency in, uh, Dubsado.
03:39 You can switch what kind, what currency you're using, but what it does is change everything retroactively, and it doesn't change the numbers.
03:48 So, if you charge 16 pounds, it will just say 16 dollars suddenly and all of your accounting is off. So, contacted them and they were really lovely and set me up with another account.
03:59 Uhm, they were able to transfer over a lot of my forms, however, everything else, my workflows, my canned emails, everything we had to go in and do again, my team and I did.
04:09 So, that was so much fun. Uh, and now I have two because I'm still phasing out, uh, the use of my UK stuff, and, and hopefully, that cut off will be the end of the UK tax year.
04:23 I will not be able to use those accounts anymore to keep things as simple as possible. Okay. The other thing, that I didn't expect along these financial lines is I was out of the U.S.
04:36 for over seven years, and I've just forgotten how archaic the U.S. banking system is here. It's so slow. It's so behind, uhm, you know, the need for Venmo and things per, interpersonally, uhm, the, how slow transactions are to complete.
04:53 How little features and how clunky a lot of things feel. Banking here is just such a fricking pain. The fact that I had to order checkbooks, I haven't owned checkbooks in years, and now I have one for my business and one for our life.
05:09 We don't have to use them a whole lot, but the fact that they like are a necessity at all is mind blowing to me.
05:17 And the last financial one I want to talk about is taxes. I've been working on my taxes for over a month, uh, with an accountant and I'm still not done.
05:28 Because the self-employment for both my husband and I, the fact that he wasn't a taxable US person until we moved and his green card was approved and he had a social security number.
05:39 Um, the fact that I was, was a taxable US person, even when I was away and had to file taxes, uh, the fact that I have UK accounts and US accounts and pay US taxes and UK taxes.
05:51 Um, this year particularly is very complicated. While I was abroad, I usually could file for a foreign exclusion waiver, which meant that I didn't really make my money in the US, didn't live in the US and didn't meet certain criteria that I didn't really have to pay him.
06:06 This year is a nightmare. Um, we are working, we, I'm waiting on one more firm from HMRC, the British government.
06:15 Um, it's like the IRS and they, once I get that, hopefully we can get it all wrapped up. We do luckily have another month or so to actually finish it.
06:26 So I'm hoping that we luckily decided to tackle it within plenty of time. I am really so looking forward to next year where hopefully our taxes are still pretty simple, um, but nowhere near as simple as they are in the U S here, or sorry, in the UK, being able to file a self-assessment online, do pretty
06:45 much everything myself. And it'd be so, so simple, um, in the UK, whereas just tax law and tax accounting here is just in the U S it's a mess.
06:55 And it obviously there's a lot of reasons around that, uh, big lobby groups and things like that, but it is, it is not, it is not straightforward.
07:06 So we will be getting an accountant and hopefully it'll be a little bit better. We have the account we have right now as a temporary for this tax year.
07:16 All right. The next one switches a little bit into like the legal side of things. Um, when I was in the UK, yes, I registered as a self-employed person.
07:25 Again, um, I had the choice about whether I wanted to register for lots of various bodies, but as a self-employed person being a sole proprietorship, I didn't have a lot of legal responsibilities.
07:39 Um, as long as I paid my taxes and proved that I existed. Right? Um, and then here, there's a lot more to that.
07:49 I've had to register for a business license in my own city here. Um, I've had to, and I had to pay extra because I don't have a physical premises that's being taxed.
07:57 Um, I had to pay for, and get registered with the state of Oregon. I also have had to, and have had to fight.
08:08 Um, lots and lots of paperwork for even opening my bank account here. Uh, my business bank account, which was a nightmare in itself.
08:17 the difference between, say, um, a credit union or a traditional brick and mortar bank versus what we use in the UK, which is primarily these new tech digital banks.
08:29 Um, digital banks here in the US, over here, they are just not at a point where they're actually effective and ready and useful and, uhm, even little things.
08:42 We do have a digital bank for our personal bank, but not for my, I've used a credit union for my business, and we went to buy a car recently, and for our deposit for the car, we hadn't gotten the checkbooks yet, and we, they couldn't raise our, uh, daily spend allowance, uhm, with the internet bank.
09:01 And so therefore we had to make multiple transactions to be able to put our deposit on the car, and it was really embarrassing and really annoying.
09:08 Uhm, now we have a checkbook, and that wouldn't have been a problem. But it's just absurd to me that that, that, that's a necessity.
09:16 All right. So other things, uh, outside of the finance and legal system that I didn't know are about how building my US network.
09:29 I had to leave such a well-formed, um, network behind, and it's not that it doesn't still, like I still get clients in the UK and Ireland and Europe.
09:38 Um, but it's just, I spent years nurturing that, those relationships. Um, and on top of that, there is just quite a dense entrepreneurial community in Northern Ireland.
09:52 And so it feels very, very different here. I'm one of the few people in my family that's self-employed. I'm, well, I'm thankful I'm the only one.
09:59 Um, there's very few people I know that are doing what, my kind of work, especially online entrepreneurship, um, in my community.
10:10 So it's very different. It feels very, very, um, lonely, which means I did, I have done some things to help with that because I'm me and I am proactive.
10:19 So I joined the Chamber of Commerce. I also started a what I'm calling the PDT, Millennial Entrepreneur Circle. And so that's a bunch of people around my age who are running their own businesses.
10:30 Um, and I'm working to reach my network beyond Pendleton as well into Portland, um, the Tri-Cities and places that are going to hopefully also benefit me.
10:42 I also want to go on some. Other business retreats and things like that, and just connect more deeply and build better relationships with people.
10:49 Not only in this beautiful small town that I live in. so, how the move has impacted my personal and work-life balance, uhm, I knew, like, I didn't, last year I had no idea.
11:01 I had idea when we decided we were moving countries how much that decision would impact my work. How much energy, mentally, emotionally, physically, it would take to downsize our lives, move across the world, plan all the steps, get all the paperwork done, it was very much on my shoulders in a lot of
11:20 ways in our relationship and in our household, uhm, and it really did impact my business, uhm, as far as how much capacity I had to market, how much time I had to show up, how much energy I had to really innovate, uhm, and it was really, really difficult and then on top of that when we moved here I kind
11:43 of was like really impatient for it to click, for us to have our root sorted. All the plans done so that we could, so I felt like I could restart my work, uhm, and it's not that I didn't, that I ever truly stopped, but it did have to take sort of back seat for a long time, so, uhm, moving here, it took
12:07 months, it still it's still just now maybe getting back to our regular routine again, uh, my husband started working full time in November, but there was still a lot in our lives that needed to be done, and so it's really only been in the new year, uhm, that I have been able to work at my desk, you know
12:27 , three, four, five days a week, depending on my capacity and what I want to do. And that I have the same set schedules, so it's been really good, because I'm getting close back to my own routines, and I've been able to also tweak those a little bit to fit our lives better here, uhm, I take really early
12:48 calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that we can go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and things like that, so, uhm, it's not the same balance anymore, but it is close.
12:58 And the last one that I should have expected, but didn't totally expect, is around identity. When I moved countries from the US to Northern Ireland, I split my heart, I split my, and I've learned so much from both places.
13:16 I knew that coming home wouldn't be the home that I had left it. Um, it's something I've talked about a lot, but I just, I knew it wouldn't be the same place.
13:25 And that I wouldn't be the same person that left seven years ago. However, what I don't think I expected is how many, um, values from Europe, from the UK, from Ireland that I would bring back with me.
13:40 How much of that culture, that identity, those expectations of how safe it city's work, of how the world works, of how, um, what culture is, or it's really hard to explain, but living back in America feels both liberating in the sense that I feel like I get to be the sort of brash, individualistic, um
14:04 , louder version of me that I, that I am. and And at the same time, I feel like I'm not that entirely that person anymore.
14:17 And I also feel like I've brought this big bag full of stuff back with me that is now a part of me too.
14:25 Um, I will never Be totally American the cliche stereotypical or otherwise way again, I've lived abroad for too long and I will never really be Irish or British.
14:38 Even though I have passports in both countries. Um, all right. So that's all the stuff I didn't know. I've got a couple of quick ones of stuff I did know.
14:48 Um, that is. It's still just quite a whirlwind. One is time zone fun. Um, I am eight hours away from Western Europe, from the UK, from Ireland.
15:01 I'm nine hours away from sort of Italy, France, those kinds of countries, Spain. Um, and so I. I have to take really early calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is fine.
15:14 I am a morning person, um, but rolling out of bed to be at my desk for 7.30 in the morning is still something that I'm like, oh, cause I like to take slow, leisurely mornings as we all know.
15:25 Now, I only usually have calls that are really one day a week, um, even though I have opened them up for both days.
15:31 So at least there's that, um, I do have to be really clear with my UK clients that I am not in their time zone and that, um, my working hours will not always overlap with theirs.
15:44 They're usually fine with it, but it is something I have to be very consistent and clear and open about. The other fun thing is health insurance.
15:53 We did know moving here that my husband would probably not get to be self-employed and would need to be employed for a few reasons.
16:00 One of them being, being self-employed, self-employed and having health insurance is a freaking nightmare. Um, it's very expensive, it's just, like, the open enrollment period is not super clear.
16:13 Going from having centralized health care, which has its flaws, but to public health, or to private health care, which also has its flaws, has been a trip.
16:25 we Officially, Paul got, started his job in November, but he was a contractor at first, and now he is, was employed from January, we started our insurance at the start of February, it is now March, and we still are waiting for our intro appointments for dental, health, uh, medical, and vision, so, it
16:46 is definitely a longer journey to being able to take care of those sides of things, uh, than we thought it would be.
16:52 And, yeah, it's, even though he has a really good job, and our insurance is through him, it's still more expensive to us than I think we expected it to be, so we knew it wouldn't be easy, uhm, but it's just another piece that is just very, very different, uhm, from moving countries.
17:13 Have you moved your business? Have you moved your life around the other side of the world? Are you thinking about it?
17:17 Do you have questions? Please drop any comments, questions, concerns, ideas, in the chat, in the comments below. I cannot wait to hear from you.
17:26 And if you'd be so kind to like, share, subscribe, it makes a big difference to small channels. Channels like mine, have a good day.
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