Are you tired of the 9 to 5? Do you want your time back? Do your dream about traveling the world?
Do you seek creative and financial freedom and wish you could make
Are you wondering what the point of the money you’re receiving is when you don’t have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything you want?
If that’s you, you’re in a desperate need of building a lifestyle business.
There are a few types of people when it comes down to work, money and time.
First, there are the employees, who work in the system and blame anyone who’s outside of it.
They have fixed working hours, not much time for themselves, a job they don’t like, not many opportunities to take in order to exceed, and no motivation to be more productive.
Then, we have those who manage to get out of the system.
It can be in 2 ways. You can become self-employed and basically become the system. Or take it to the next level and go for the big money by building a serious company and living the entrepreneurial life, in which case you’re working on the system.
But getting there doesn’t mean you’re free to do whatever you want with your time and money. Most often, freelancers and business owners end up creating yet another demanding job for themselves, with stress, boredom, lack of location independence, or else.
Why? Because you’re in it for the money, or never put in enough thought to create a system that will be working for itself without your role in it, so that you can do whatever you want with your time.
And that, my friends, is the opposite of what a lifestyle business is.
What is a Lifestyle Business?
“Money isn’t the point. A business should be about lifestyle, impact and meaning. And you can still earn a ridiculous amount of money without sacrificing any of that, but you have to set your priorities, and that, to me, is what a lifestyle business is all about.”
Corbett Barr
A
Some want to travel the world.
So they think of a way to offer their service in a package, find clients, outsource most of the aspects of this, and do their work while traveling. Or be able to take mini-vacations whenever they want to and just go to a tropical island and stay there for 1-3 months.
Yes, that’s absolutely possible. And you need much less money to sustain this nomadic lifestyle than you imagine.
Others are more family-oriented and make changes to their lifestyle when they have kids.
They want to spend most of their time with the family and do things together. So they get out of the system, start working remotely and for themselves, and are thus able to never miss out on anything important from the kids’ childhood.
Some individuals write and self-publish their books with a lot of hard work in the beginning, but keep receiving revenue from them for a lifetime. Then, they have the creative freedom to work on any other project, learn new skills, visit new places and live an adventurous life.
Some may be in it for the hustle.
They start something on the side while on their regular job, build the connections, put in the hours, time and focus.
They may set up a small outsourcing company, build a SaaS business, create a premium brand, or come up with an idea for an innovative product, find the right people to partner with and hit a trending market.
Then, they quit their jobs, move to Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines or a hot place for entrepreneurs in Europe like Berlin or Madrid.
What do they do there? Start living like a local, connect with other business owners in the area, start working on new projects, and think of ways to grow their existing business. They are players and they love the hustle.
There are many kinds of people and so there are many types of lifestyle businesses.
But there’s no other way for you to live the ideal lifestyle than to create a lifestyle business that will let you earn just enough money to sustain it, will help you reclaim your time and take full control of it and have all the freedom and independence a man could wish for.
The Characteristics of a Lifestyle Business
1. It provides satisfaction to the owner.
Running a startup is often too stressful and definitely not for everyone.
It sucks your energy and time and you have to deal with partners and investors. It can take a decade of your life without letting you start something completely different on your own.
But a lifestyle business is something that will make you love your life and truly enjoy each and every day of it.
It’s for the creatives, for the independent individuals who want to be their own bosses and live a life on their own terms. For those living an unconventional lifestyle and hating everything ordinary. For the couples that want to start a small and friendly family business. For the digital nomads looking for ways to sustain their traveling.
You can always tell who’s a lifestyle entrepreneur, and who’s just a business owner with no free time, other interests other than work or peace of mind.
A lifestyle business owner is calmer. The work isn’t stressful because he’s created all he’s doing and enjoys getting things done.
Also, he has enough time for himself, for the important things in life and for the things he enjoys.
That makes him peaceful, and not a part of the corporate world or the working systems that sucks the life out of you.
Read also: How Abby Lawson Turned Her Hobby into a 6-Figure Family Business
2. Business growth goes together with personal growth.
A lifestyle business is one of the best examples for the connection between doing business and improving yourself.
First of all, such people do it all on their own and start from nothing.
They find a way to say no to conventional wisdom, to get clear about what they don’t want in their life (like a regular job and lack of time), and to make a plan on how to get what they truly desire.
Then, they do their research, dedicate all their free time and focus to this one project until they are able to start making money online from it and leave the system.
During that process they fight their inner demons – the fear of failure, the doubts, the desire to move onto another project that seems more tempting right now, listening to others, going back to old habits, losing focus from their vision, etc.
They stick to their values, are determined and consistent. Eventually, they get results. And because they’ve put in so much into achieving that, the reward feels even more satisfying.
Such individuals build discipline, are courageous, initiative, risky and extraordinary.
They build the successful habits that make them productive, positive and healthy so that they can run their lifestyle business and live a good life too.
Read also: How This Lifestyle Blogger Grew Her Blog to $3,878/Month in 3 Months
3. You can start with no experience, capital, knowledge or connections.
You can found a service business with zero cash investment.
What’s more, you don’t need to know the right people from the beginning, to have expertise in the niche, or to even know anything about the field.
All that can be learnt in the process of researching, finding online business ideas and making them a reality.
Trading cryptocurrencies like bitcoin online has become one of the lifestyle businesses of young and ambitious entrepreneurs.
Housewives know nothing about business before they start a home based business on Etsy and begin making a living from it. But they are determined to learn anything they need to know – just enough so that they can start, and then more so that they can stand out from the crowd.
Freelance writers with no expertise can be amateurs for months or even years before they build their portfolio, find what they’re really good at and master it, get their first clients, improve their personal brand and start doing it full-time.
Over time, when they know the ins and outs of the field, they can start an article writing service, hire remote staff and remove themselves from the job while still making money.
App developers can take a course, build stuff for clients on sites for freelancers to sustain a living, until they come up with a unique idea and create their own product, which they can either grow or sell.
The possibilities are countless.
Your lifestyle business will depend on:
- what you’re passionate about
- what you enjoy doing and are good at
- what you’re interested in learning more about
- how you imagine your ideal life
- and how much hard work you’re willing to put in now to enjoy the fruits of your labor later on.
What’s The Goal of a Lifestyle Business?
What makes a lifestyle business different from a startup, is that its main purpose is to make just enough revenue so that the owner can sustain the lifestyle of his choice, do what he loves and have enough time on his hands.
A startup, on the other hand, is all about maximizing profit.
Almost never can a work/life balance be reached, as there’s always more customers to find, more marketing channels to try, research to do, features to add to the product, or else.
Creating a lifestyle business is like retiring earlier than you have to. You find a way to keep receiving money while having all the time and freedom you desire.
Read also: How Cath Turned Her New Blog into a Full-Time Business in 1 Year
Why It’s Better to Start a Lifestyle Business Than to Pursue a Startup?
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the statistics, but 90% of startups fail.
The chance of being the next big social media platform, or company offering a particular service, is really low.
You need resources that the average person can’t get, such as cash and a fantastic team.
You also need the right market, business model, product, timing, marketing strategy, influencers, advisors and investors.
There are legal challenges, misunderstandings with the team, partners or investors, and the high chance of realizing there’s no market need for the product. There are cost/pricing costs you haven’t thought of that let you end up broke even after a successful product launch.
During all that time, you’re burned out, scared, stressed out, taking decisions each of which can cost you everything and never knowing what better thing the competition is working on right now.
Are you ready for this? How will this affect your lifestyle? Your health, happiness, relationships?
Is it worth it?
Most people regret trying to be in the big game and investing so much. Even if they succeed, they are still busy and under stress 24/7.
Before they get to the real money, though, they usually need to wait years until they do things right, go through many major failures and mistakes, and at any moment someone can come up with the next best product in the market and you’ll be left behind.
Building a startup is like creating another 9 to 5 job for yourself, but with even more stress and insecurity.
Yes, you’ll still need to work harder than anyone else, to be innovative, creative, productive and consistent, to deal with fears and doubts. But you’ll be doing it on your own, won’t answer anyone else’s expectations, won’t wait years to turn your work into profits.
What’s more, you won’t wait too long until you can start making positive changes in your lifestyle like quitting your current job, moving to another place, traveling, living and working from the beach or else.
You’ll have so much flexibility in terms of working hours, clients, projects and location.
Set your own schedule. Work anytime and anywhere you want. Take vacations when you want to. Start new projects when you feel inspired. Say no to clients if they aren’t the right fit for you.
Work for 16 hours 3 days in a week and do whatever else you want during the rest of the time. Learn new skills and offer them too to make more money on the side or add a new income stream for more security and peace of mind.
You’re the boss. A lifestyle business lets you do all that.
Lifestyle Entrepreneurs that can teach you how do crush it:
Tim Ferriss @ FourHourWorkWeek
Dan and Ian @ TropicalMBA
Pat Flynn @ SmartPassiveIncome
If you’re interested in becoming a lifestyle business entrepreneur, get started with these resources:
The Passive Income Blog Boss– If you just want to take the first few steps in your blogging journey, I have the right resource for you. This is a free course and will help you set up a site in less than an hour so you can move onto creating content, building your brand and monetizing your site.
How to Make Money Blogging– This is my free guide on how to launch your blog today and start making money with it (with 1 of the 4 most popular blog monetization methods).
10 Things I Did in The Last 6 Months to Double My Income and Make $5,000 a Month – It takes some courage and strategic actions to double your income online. Here’s exactly how I did it.
How I Make a Living with Sponsored Posts – My monthly income reports won’t be complete without sharing the how-to of sponsored posts. That’s how I earn half of my income. In this post, I share more about how I started with it and what I charge.
How I Became a Location Independent Freelance Writer – In this post, I outline the exact steps from shifting my mindset back when I didn’t believe I could be making any money online to finding my first client, making my first $1,000/month, moving to another country and becoming location independent.
My Monthly Income Reports – If you’re curious how bloggers make a living online, check out my income reports. I publish these monthly and share all the numbers together with the lessons I learned and the new things I’m working on.
Stock Photo from Natalie magic @ Shutterstock