What is a lifestyle business, and how to start one?
Everyone knows small businesses, but not everyone knows what a lifestyle business is. In this post, I will show you the difference between the two and how you can start your own lifestyle business to take your life goals to the next level.
My story
We also like to travel a lot…
But before you keep reading, let me tell you who I am and why you should listen to me. My name is Deniero Bartolini, and I have been an internet entrepreneur for over a decade. I started selling Google Ads (They were called Google Adwords back then) as a premier partner in early 2012. Then in 2014, I started selling on Amazon and Shopify. In 2016, I opened a digital marketing agency focusing on revenue share (taking 10% of my clients' sales), and in 2018 I started coaching entrepreneurs on how to scale online businesses. If you want to know more about me, my podcast, and everything else, click here!
Now, back to your life and money goals!
In a nutshell, a lifestyle business owner doesn't just optimize the systems for profits, and does not want to sell their business. Don't get me wrong. You still need to run a profitable and sustainable business! But you don't get obsessed over growth. Instead, you get to make decisions based on
free time,
location independence,
ability to network, and
the flexibility of your schedule.
Think of a regular business as a living entity that needs constant attention. It's not uncommon to meet entrepreneurs that work 80 hours a week because they constantly need to meet deadlines, close more deals, or hire more people. After all, business growth doesn't happen automatically and requires Herculean effort.
The priorities of a lifestyle business owner
Instead, a lifestyle entrepreneur may want to build a business to support her dream lifestyle. She may want to travel the world, a beach house, or live on a yacht. So after looking at her expenses, she decides that she doesn't need more than 750k in revenue per year (which could translate into a 200k take-home)
In the example above, the lifestyle entrepreneur will need to work double as hard in the beginning stages of her business. That's because she is not only building her book of business but also implementing the systems that will allow her to step out of her business and have it run on its own.
But when those systems are in place, and she achieves the revenue goal she had set, she will enjoy the fruits of her hard work.
That's because instead of chasing perpetual business growth, she will use her earnings to carefully orchestrate her team and her work to be on autopilot (or almost).
Real-world lifestyle business example
Enough with the theory now... Let's look at a real-life example.
Let's say you are a dentist tired of working day in and day out from your local practice.
Can a dentist work remotely?
So you decide to put together a consulting firm for dentists that want to open multi-location practices, and you promote your program nationwide.
For this done-with-you service, you charge dentists $15,000, and your goal is to sell 40 packages a month. At the end of the first year, you are on pace to hit your 600k revenue mark, and since the majority of the services you offer are fulfilled online through a portal, you have very healthy margins (your take home is 300k) and you don't spend more than 20 hours helping each client.
Instead of turning this program into a full-fledged consultancy with offices, in-house staff, etc., you decide to keep it nimble and 100% remote. And on top of that, you choose to cap your client intake to the $600k mark to keep your schedule light and flexible.
Now, this is what you call a perfect lifestyle! You work only when you want to, can travel the world, and are still using your hard-earned degrees to make a great living.
The beauty of a lifestyle business is that you don't have to give up on your current knowledge and skillsets to become successful. We live in the information age, so as long as your skills are in demand, you can always find a way to package them and sell them to a niche starving for help.
I used a dentist as an example because out of all professions; most dentists don't believe that they can build a remote business. But as you saw, all you need to do is think out of the box and find a need that can be fulfilled remotely.
Just like dentists, accountants, lawyers, doctors, marketing experts, dance instructors, plumbers, and virtually any skilled worker can turn their experience into a lifestyle business.
If you don't believe me, hop on a site like Udemy and check how many instructors make multiple 6- and 7-figures selling their courses. And that's just one income stream for them. In addition, each instructor may collect ad revenue from their Youtube videos, affiliate kickbacks from products or services they promote, and so on.
If you are tired of working in an office or feel stuck at a job you outgrew, it's time to plan your way out. But if you still haven't found a truly exciting alternative to your current situation, opening a lifestyle business may just be your first truly exhilarating goal to work towards.
Get more information
If you feel lost and don't know where to go next, I suggest you look through this site to get more ideas and follow me on Instagram at @denierob.
Also, head to your favorite podcast platform and search for "The Remote CEO Show." There you will find unique and inspiring interviews with 6, 7, and 8-figure earners who build the business and lifestyle of their dreams.
As a last word of advice, don't get started on this path for the wrong reasons (i.e., you don't want to work hard.) As I mentioned above, building a lifestyle business requires a lot of work upfront. This is because you are not only getting the clients, but you are also working double as hard to build the systems to automate the whole.
So be mindful of that and invest your energy and time upfront. Your future self will love you for it!
