What is a lifestyle business?

We don’t do it just for fun of course, we need our businesses to pay us. While some of us set out to earn to earn just a modest amount from our business, others of us want or need to earn a decent sum. Of course it doesn’t matter to anyone other than ourselves how much we need to make from our business. The point is that we need to design our own business to fulfil our own needs.

We also have quite different ideas about how much time and effort we want to invest in our business. Some of us would probably like to spend more hours than we do on our business but can’t because we are, joyfully, curtailed by family life. Others of us are past the kid stage and are running a business for fun, purpose and spending money. For others of us kids were never part of the package, instead we are running our businesses so we can take time off to travel and work, for free, with people less fortunate than ourselves.

What we do have in common is that we don’t want a huge business, but we do want one that’s profitable. And that means one that pays us a good return for the time, effort and stress we’ve put in. That word ‘stress’ is a biggy and that’s largely why we want a small business. We don’t want the worry of a merry band of  employees to pay every week. That’s not to say we don’t want any help – some of us love to employ people so that we can share the work – we just don’t want an army, that’s all.

The unifying thread is that we are all running a lifestyle business. That is, we are all running businesses that both fit into, and feed, our lifestyle. And what can be wrong with that!

We’re quite common really. Which may surprise you. Something like 80% of people who start businesses are looking to start a lifestyle business rather than an enormous enterprise. Yes. we’re not all looking to be the next big thing. We just want to be successful by our own measures. And happy doing what we love.