There’s a growing resistance to spending 9 to 5 at the office, embarking on long commutes that bookend each day, and living to work instead of working to live. From the great resignation to a rising anti work movement, many are rethinking their jobs, reconsidering their careers, and reevaluating their relationships to their professions. But one class of work innovators are abandoning offices forever by building companies that allow them to earn a living while still enjoying life: lifestyle business entrepreneurs.
What is a lifestyle business?
A lifestyle business is a passion centered company that generates enough profit to allow an entrepreneur to work and live from anywhere, earning an income on their own terms. The only criteria of a lifestyle business is forming a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation that generates enough profit to support the lifestyle you want to live. Therefore, what a lifestyle company actually looks like differs for every entrepreneur. Starting a business in the lifestyle niche could mean creating and selling digital courses on photo editing, freelancing as a product designer for various clients, becoming an online influencer in the productivity space, creating a niche app as an independent software developer, or starting an ecommerce dropshipping business that sells home goods. Any business that allows you the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime, while optimizing your lifestyle fits the description of a lifestyle business. A lifestyle business conjures the image of running a company from the beach, a laptop in one hand and a margarita in the other. But what the growing category of lifestyle business truly offers entrepreneurs is the option to turn their skills and hobbies into businesses, while also designing the life they truly want. That can mean working from home in a small town close to family or globetrotting the world, taking business calls from an iPhone full of travel photos.
small business vs. lifestyle business
A startup focuses on building a technological product or service that generates millions or billions in revenue, typically raising venture capital funding and growing a team to achieve this aim. Many startups take years to find profitability. Successful startups are generally acquired by a larger company or have an initial public offering (IPO). While startups are increasingly embracing remote or hybrid work, most startups are co-located with a central headquarters and satellite offices. Startups emphasize scale and impact. Examples of startups include a dating app, a media company, or a genetic testing service.
A small business generally focuses on providing a good or service. To fund a small business, business owners typically turn to their savings or a loan from the bank. Successful small businesses return their initial investment and eventually find profitability. Small businesses generally start as one person or a small team, growing in size as they scale. While small businesses increasingly embrace unlocking new customers by using the internet, many small businesses are location dependent, serving a particular city, state, or country. Examples of small businesses include a vintage clothing store, a restaurant, or an artisan selling hand-dipped candles on Shopify.
A lifestyle business is generally internet-first, selling digital goods or software, providing a virtual service, or operating an ecommerce business remotely. Lifestyle businesses generally have a low upfront cost that does not require outside funding. Successful lifestyle business entrepreneurs have the flexibility to work from anywhere. Successful lifestyle businesses must become profitable quickly, allowing an entrepreneur to fund the lifestyle they want this could mean earning $50,000 per year or $1 million per year. Lifestyle businesses operate flexibly, sometimes reducing their working hours below 40 hours per week, often turning to outsourcing and automation and emphasizing lifestyle over work. Examples of a lifestyle business include selling online templates, providing virtual consulting, or a clothing dropshipping business.
Lifestyle businesses untether you from a specific desk, instead allowing you to embrace flexibility: working from anywhere, anytime. Many lifestyle entrepreneurs begin their business so they can travel as they work, bouncing from Airbnbs with stable Wi-Fi to rooftop lounges with a laptop plug in. Others take a different approach, using the “anywhere opportunity” to leave bustling city centers like New York or Los Angeles to move somewhere quaint and quiet, while still earning an income online. Regardless, starting a lifestyle business provides the unique opportunity to live and work where you want, not just where there’s a thriving job market. Instead of taking a two week vacation every 12 months, you can satisfy your wanderlust and be on the road 365 days of the year. Rather than “Work-from-home Wednesdays,” you can run your business from a home office while getting to spend more time with your children. In place of early morning meetings, you can embrace your inner night owl, working into the evening. A lifestyle business unlocks the opportunity to iterate on your lifestyle, experimenting with different modes of work and life.
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