Don’t you want to work at something you enjoy, where you get excited about a Monday, and you can align your personal life perfectly with it? Well, a lifestyle entrepreneur does that precisely.
Conventionally an entrepreneur builds a business and then balances their life around it while a lifestyle entrepreneur first determines the kind of lifestyle they want and then creates an enterprise to integrate with it. They prioritize their hobbies, passions, and personal life over profit. Sounds interesting, right?
Lifestyle entrepreneurs focus more on autonomy, flexibility, and freedom rather than scaling their businesses. Some lifestyle entrepreneurs only want to earn as much as they need to support their lifestyle comfortably. Their preference can be to travel the world, devote more time to raising their kids a certain way, or focus on some non-profitable social causes. Well, the choice depends on an individual and their circumstances. With digitalization and remote work flexibility, there are endless possibilities.
In this article, we will understand more about lifestyle entrepreneurship and share a few tips on becoming a successful lifestyle entrepreneur.
6 Tips to become a successful lifestyle entrepreneur
Lifestyle entrepreneurs build a business in alignment with their interests and hobbies. Let’s say that you love to travel, you can start a company where you travel with groups or coach them with responsible tourism or anything related to travel. If you love to write, you can start writing books or create courses about writing and publishing. You just need a laptop to work, a stable internet connection, and some relevant apps and software to work with in most lifestyle businesses.
Creating a lifestyle business is easier than ever before. But to become a successful lifestyle entrepreneur, there should be self-awareness and clarity on the kind of lifestyle you want in the long run. Let’s take a look at the aspects you need to consider to become a successful lifestyle entrepreneur.
Define the lifestyle you want
To decide the lifestyle you want, you must be able to answer the following questions.
-
What are you passionate about?
-
What are your income and career goals?
-
Do you want to be a ‘digital nomad,’ or do you want to be able to stay at home and devote time to your family while working?
-
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
-
Can you define your core values and skills?
-
What is it that makes you truly happy?
-
What is it you would never want to do in life?
-
How much flexibility, freedom, and success do you need to be happy?
These questions will help you determine the kind of life you desire.
Research business ideas related to your passion
Now that you have clarity on your desired lifestyle, brainstorm business ideas that align with your goals. There’s a business idea associated with every hobby, every passion, and every field. You just have to explore, research, and do your homework. You can find any answer on the internet. You should also connect with mentors or successful lifestyle entrepreneurs who can help you with your business.
Typically, you can make money by selling your skills, creating a digital product, or providing valuable information. E.g. If you love to dance, you can open a dance studio and create online dancing courses or guide and coach people on how to learn dance and do a business out of it. Use your research, creativity, and imagination to identify your personal brand.
Make a business plan
First, assess all the resources you have and the resources you need to get your business started. Here, you need to create a business plan just like any other business.
Plan out the timeline for your short and long-term business goals. Determine the manufacturing, delivery, distribution, and marketing channels and work on your pricing strategy. Research your target audience and analyze how your competitors are sustaining in the marketplace.
A business plan provides an overview of the time, effort, and budget you need. A timeline also gives a sense of urgency and the motivation to work step-wise. Also, plan out the financial and legal aspects in consultation with a lawyer and a banker.
Create a marketing strategy
After choosing the product or service and your niche market. It's time to determine how to reach and attract your potential clients. You can start posting unique content on Instagram and Facebook or create video blogs for youtube. You can also start a podcast or create a website and write blogs. To attract new customers, you can give discounts and offers. Offer them some free information like a guide or a newsletter to have them subscribe to your mailing list or your channel.
Use appropriate tools
Nowadays, we have software and startup tools that can help you automate and synchronize most of your repetitive tasks. Explore the best systems and software suitable for operations, marketing, and management. You can hire assistants for customer support and digital marketing.
Hiring the right people and automating tedious tasks will help you focus on more significant value-based decisions.
Be persistent
Entrepreneurship requires hard work, patience, and perseverance. It takes time to generate profit and grow your business.
Tim Ferris, Natalie Sisson, Amy Potterfiled, Pat Flynn, and Derek Halpern are some successful lifestyle entrepreneurs.
Benefits of becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur
-
Better work-life balance- Since you will be designing your career around your lifestyle, there’s more scope for integrating your personal and professional life. This ensures better mental health and higher productivity.
-
More work satisfaction- When you align your work with what you love, you will experience higher work satisfaction. You can pursue your interests and hobbies professionally and become better at them every day.
-
It also offers more freedom, autonomy, and flexibility.
Drawbacks of being a lifestyle entrepreneur
-
No fixed work hours- The downside of setting up your own business is not having a fixed work schedule. It can blur the lines between professional and personal life and cause burnout.
-
Own Investment- You might invest a lot of money, time, and resources into your business. This can become a cause of additional stress and responsibility.
-
Not enough income- Most lifestyle entrepreneurs want to earn as much as required to support their lifestyle. It might lead to fewer savings for retirement and emergencies.
Conclusion
“When you feel passionate about your work, there is no great difference between the way you feel on Monday morning and the way you feel on Saturday morning.”- Larry Smith
-
Lifestyle entrepreneur builds their business to support their lifestyle rather than creating a life around a career.
-
They value freedom and flexibility over monetary profit.
-
Just like any other business, a lifestyle business needs a business plan, research, pricing strategy, and effective marketing.
-
Being a lifestyle entrepreneur has many benefits, like more work satisfaction and autonomy but the downside can be lower profits and extra responsibilities.
Entrepreneur has to weigh all the pros and cons of their business, research, and make appropriate short-term and long terms before taking their first step.
We at OpenGrowth, are committed to keeping you updated with the best content on the latest trendy topics from any major field. Also, both your feedback and suggestions are valuable to us. So, do share them in the comment section below.
