"BE prepared to dive into the deep end, but have an idea how deep it is before you do."
That was the advice Mitchell Hutton gave to anyone wanting to take a risk and try something new.
As the owner and operator of the Nutrien Ag Solutions branch at Carnamah, Mr Hutton is the type of guy you would expect to find on one of those 30 under 30 lists.
He is confident on his path now and knows he is where he is supposed to be, but that wasn't always the case.
Mr Hutton grew up in Morawa where his dad Mike was involved in a machinery dealership, and while he may have been raised in the country, it wasn't until he completed high school at Guildford Grammar School and moved back home to work as a farm hand for a couple of years that he realised agriculture was a job he actually enjoyed.
Mr Hutton admitted that while he may have grown up in Morawa, he didn't actually know anything about farming as a kid.
"It was something I never really considered at a young age as there was almost a constant drought and a really tough run up here from 2000 to 2010, so I think in the back of my head I thought there wasn't much of a future in agriculture," Mr Hutton said.
OTHER GREAT READS
"However, going back to Morawa as an adult, I really enjoyed the job of farming, the challenge of it was something actually really interesting and I saw it as a problem to solve.
"The industry is also in a far better state now than it was when I finished school, there's a lot more happening and it's a really exciting industry to be in."
Knowing he wanted to be involved in agriculture and preferring the idea of living in the regions, Mr Hutton enrolled in an agribusiness degree at the Muresk Institute, Northam, through Charles Sturt University, in 2014.
He sounds like a walking sales pitch for both the degree itself and the institution and said studying there was the best decision he ever made.
"I lived on campus and had mates there who were also from farming regions, so we were all in the same boat," he said.
"We had such great lecturers and the course itself was so educational, so it felt like I was really learning a lot.
"There are so many job prospects that come from it because it's so well connected and such a recognised institution in the industry."
Upon graduating in 2016, Mr Hutton grabbed those job opportunities with both hands and took up a posistion with CSBP which saw him move around the State, first to Dalwallinu and then to Esperance as an area manager.
Within that job, he started doing a bit of agronomy work and learned a lot in the nutritional space on the fertiliser side, but knew he wanted to spread his wings and go into full agronomy in terms of understanding herbicides and fungicides, etc.
Ultimately, Nutrien Ag Solutions was in a better place to be able to offer him that, so in 2019 Mr Hutton moved up to Geraldton to start a new journey as a trainee agronomist.
During that time, he was doing fertiliser work through the Carnamah area, which was how he met the previous owner of the local Nutrien branch, Graham Doust, who was looking to sell and offered Mr Hutton the opportunity to buy the business.
"All of these businesses tend to get offered internally and we had a really good working relationship with each other," he said.
"Being somewhat from the area and having the training required, I guess he decided I was a good fit."
Mr Hutton moved to Carnamah in January last year and went through an eight-month transition period before officially taking over the business in November.
He saw it as the next step in his career development to take on the commercial aspect and face the challenge of running a business.
With two young kids, it was also the best choice for personal reasons.
"My partner and I had been looking for a place to settle down and raise a family," Mr Hutton said.
"For us, Carnamah was the perfect location as we're close to home in Morawa for me and closer to Perth for her than we were in Geraldton.
"So combining the business with the location, it ticked all of the boxes."
Buying the branch was a way for Mr Hutton to put his own stamp on the business and still be involved in agronomy, as much as he can, at the same time.
It's the best of both worlds scenario - he gets his farming fix, but has so much more going on.
More importantly, he still gets to help farmers through the season and see them do well, which ultimately is what is most important to him.
"I learn more from them than they do from me and I learned pretty quickly that everyone does things a little differently and there is no right or wrong answer, which keeps my job exciting," Mr Hutton said.
"Ag is a great industry because everyone can win - if it's a good season, there doesn't have to be any losers and we're all better off when everyone is doing well."
It may sound like the opportunity landed in his lap, but taking on the business wasn't without its difficulties.
Those challenges started with the banks who weren't particularly keen on loaning money to someone so young, which created a lot of stress.
Luckily for Mr Hutton, he had some experience of setting up a business as in 2017 he purchased a small farm at Canna with his brother and two friends, which they still run together today.
It was from that experience that he learned to ask for advice, lean on others and get help when you need it.
At his Nutrien store, that help comes in the form of his three staff members and having never managed employees before, that was also a big learning curve.
"I actually really enjoy that aspect and I'm committed to helping them do well," Mr Hutton said.
"That's been quite a pleasant surprise as I didn't know how I would deal with it, but I like seeing them achieve and it brings me a lot of pride."
Ultimately, Mr Hutton realised there were a lot of unknowns involved in taking on the venture, but he understood the risks involved and did his best to learn how to mitigate them.
He's always been happy to take a risk and in this instance, it's paid off.
"It can be pretty scary to take on something like this, but I never really worried about it because I knew I would enjoy it and be happy to grind it out," he said.
"I jumped straight in, took the risk and figured the rest out as I went along."
