What is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur?
It used to be that people would find a profession or career and then build their life around it. The Lifestyle Entrepreneur does the opposite – their business is built around their life. They are as passionate about living their life as they are about having a successful business.
In addition to making a living and loving your life a priority, another key difference between traditional business owners and Lifestyle Entrepreneurs is focusing on passion rather than profit. In other words, their priority is to have a life rich with experiences rather than a huge bank account. That’s not to say that the business of a Lifestyle Entrepreneur isn’t profitable. Their businesses make money with the intended purpose of supporting their passion.
When I made the shift from the traditional home-based business mindset to that of a Lifestyle Entrepreneur, not only did my business become more profitable, I started loving my life and my business – and you can too! To get you started, here’s a few of the steps I used to become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur and use with my clients today in my Uniquely You Business Success Formula. It’s what turned my business and my life around so that I could have a business and a life I love. Yes, you can have both!
How to become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur
A big difference between the traditional business owner and a Lifestyle Entrepreneur is the process or steps to building a business. Granted, there are several similarities however, the initial steps are different.
The Lifestyle Entrepreneur starts their business adventure with this question: “What life do I want to live?” And then build their business around their answer to the question. The result is you have a business that works for you rather than you working for your business.
Here are some questions to help you build your business so that it fuels your zest for life and generates the income so that you can have a business and a life you love!
1. What do you want in life?
What are your aspirations and goals? Do you want to travel the world? Homeschool your children? Volunteer for your favorite non-profit? Knowing what you want, deciding how you want to spend your time, is the key to building your business so that it works for you.
2. What are your passions?
Often, my clients build their business around their passion. One of my clients loves food, gardening and travel and her business is a food blog. Another client has a passion for Eastern bloc history and travels for several months each year giving guided tours. Another client is passionate about volunteer work and has a copywriting business that supports her lifestyle without limiting her “daytime” hours for volunteering.
Write down all of your interests, hobbies, passions, talents and skills… all of them!
3. Monetize your passion.
There are essentially three ways to make money: 1. sell your skills and/or talents, 2. sell your products or 3. sell your knowledge (information). Refer to your list of passions, talents and skills and brainstorm ideas for making money. If you love gardening, some ideas for monetizing your passion could be selling your skill of landscape design or selling products such as unique tools or yard art, or selling your knowledge of plant suitability based on geography or pet and children friendliness, or selling gardening courses.
Not all of your passions can be monetized in all three ways. However, most should have several options. Get creative, set judgement aside and go for it. To have some fun with this, invite your family and friends to participate – have a brainstorming party!
4. Time to do some research.
Choose one idea and determine whether or not it can accommodate the lifestyle you want. While each idea may have great potential, if it doesn’t provide you with the freedom and income you need to fuel the lifestyle you defined in #1, then it’s not a viable option to pursue. If your research indicates that it is, then the next step is to research the market to validate that there are people who are ready, willing, and able to buy what you’re offering.
These four steps are part of what we cover in my Uniquely You Business Success Formula. The next steps are to design your business model (very different from a business plan!) that includes the details of exactly how your business is going to generate the income that supports the lifestyle you want.
From there we develop a marketing plan that includes defining your ideal client/customer, how best place to reach them, and create materials and systems to get your business in front of them.
The final step is creating the systems and processes that run your business seamlessly so that you have the time, freedom and energy to enjoy your life!
You don’t have to struggle for years like I did. You can quickly bypass the stumbling blocks, detours, challenges and bottlenecks by learning from my mistakes! I can’t shave 10 years off my learning curve – however I CAN save you 10 years of strife and disappointment!
Once you’ve embraced being a Lifestyle Entrepreneur and have your business running smoothly and efficiently, you’ll have the time, freedom and income to live the life you’ve dream of living!
Schedule a complimentary consolation with me where we create a crystal-clear vision for your Uniquely You business success and uncover hidden challenges that maybe standing in your way. You’ll leave the session feeling renewed, re-energized and inspired to get the results faster and easier than you ever thought possible.
Click here to schedule your call right now!