When Dave Liegakos reached out to his friend, real estate agent Katie Jo Elliott, for help finding an office space on Main Street in Ronan for his growing business, she suggested they look at some “off-market” opportunities.

The two already own another building together, and Elliott, who works for Lambros Real Estate in Polson, keeps a close eye on Ronan’s market. When she found out that the owner of a former daycare at 404 Main Street was ready to sell, “I made a call and we started working on this deal.”

Now, Elliott and Liegakos are partners in the building, which is home to a trifecta of business-oriented services under the banner of Intrepid Solutions. It also provides a Ronan office space for Elliott, who appreciates having a desk in the town where she regularly sees clients and contributes considerable time to community events.

 “I'm working in coffee shops all the time, and it's hard to get work done,” she said.

Liegakos is no stranger to launching a business. He began more than a decade ago providing water-damage restoration services in Missoula, and sold that enterprise in 2024 to pursue a new career as a financial advisor. After getting that business “really steady and up and running, I figured bringing the tax side into it was going to be very beneficial for my clients also.”

In January, he purchased DJ’s Accounting and Tax Services in Charlo from Missoula-based CPA Bill Warren. The business has around 600 clients, says Liegakos, who adds that Warren will continue to provide tax and accounting services under the Intrepid umbrella. “He just doesn't want to run the day-to-day business side of stuff.”

Liegakos, on the other hand, relishes the day-to-day challenges, and helping others learn that skill set as well. Now, he has a team that can offer a wide range of services to individuals and new and established businesses, from investment and financial strategies, to tax and accounting.

This spring, he also recruited marketing strategist and web developer Marina Woodson to help clients grow their business. In addition, the staff at Intrepid includes Jamie Bauer, who worked for DJ’s Accounting in Charlo for 20 years.

His expanded business portfolio has also given Liegakos an opportunity to hire his wife, Whitney Liegakos, as office manager. Whitney, the former head of the Ronan Chamber and Ronan Revitalization Committee, teamed up with Elliott (outgoing Chamber president and another mover and shaker in the community) to help shepherd Ronan’s participation in the Montana Main Street program and its subsequent involvement in the Pilot Community Tourism Grant program.

Whitney, who served as St. Luke Community Healthcare’s community education and public relations director, says she’s been her husband’s sounding board as he grew his vision and business.

“So one day we were talking strategy, because he's always talked strategy with me, and it just kind of clicked for both of us,” she says.

Joining her husband’s business “seemed like a win-win. For me it brought about some flexibility and a chance to be on a similar schedule, building something together and prioritizing family and freedom with our time and our choices.”

For Elliott, having an office on Main Street in the town she’s passionate about is a plus personally and professionally. “I serve clients all over western Montana and a lot of them are here in Ronan or in the valley,” she says. “Having a desk in a town that I spend a lot of time in and a community that I'm really involved in, I think is beneficial.”

She also feels good about bringing another business to Main Street. After all, that’s a major goal of the Montana Main Street program and the Pilot Tourism Grant.

“It's fun to see the revitalization efforts that Whitney and I kind of started come full circle and it's fun to be on the other end of some of these things that we've been working on,” she said. “Instead of just being in the administrative or board side of things, being an actual business and in a building on Main Street is definitely a flip of the coin.”

Whitney shares her enthusiasm. “I was really excited to be in a business downtown after the decade of revitalization,” she said. “It felt like a full-circle moment.”

“I mean, how much more invested in downtown can you get than being in a business downtown? It’s fun for us.”

Their new office is on a fairly bustling block, located across from Mission West Community Development Partners, a nonprofit that also aims to help businesses thrive, a few doors down from the Pearl Theater and around the corner from the Ronan Cooperative Brewery. 

“I'm excited to come downtown every day and walk around at lunchtime and see the community starting to improve,” Dave said. “It’s great to be in downtown Ronan.”