not OP, but we are land surveyors and have a small office in a small town about 15 miles (15 minutes - only 1 stop light) from our house.  The small town has a population of about 10k and is about 15 miles from a city with a 250k population (which is where most of our work is)  It takes about 35-45 minutes to get to the bigger city from our house (more with traffic and depending on where you go in the city).  There is another city of about 40k 25 miles in the other direction... so that area is pretty much where 95% of our projects are... and we occasionally get projects in major cities about 2 hours away. I do the autocad work and my husband does field work (although we both help each other when needed), so I can work from home or the office.  It has worked out well for us and we make a comfortable living.  We don't need fancy stuff, we live fairly frugally and were able to buy the 80 acres next to us that got foreclosed on, so we have over 100 acres now.  That seemed like a better investment to us than the stock market right now!    Once you get away from the lifestyle of living in a city gives you, you really start to realize what is important... it isn't the newest fashions or fancy cars.. it is getting to know your neighbors and enjoying nature, working the land to feed yourself is so much more fulfilling (to me anyway) than going to bars or sipping starbucks.