What is a lifestyle business?
A lifestyle business is exactly what it says on the tin! It is a business that fits in with your lifestyle and is not so focused on growth and profit but on achieving a good work/life balance. It obviously needs to make some money (no one wants to be poor!) but there are many benefits (and some pitfalls!) to working for yourself. Don’t confuse a lifestyle business with a small business because some lifestyle businesses do very well (providing a good income) and some small business owners work very hard with little to show for it.
Why start a lifestyle business?
The most obvious benefit is that you will be your boss (although that’s obviously a two edged sword!) and you can arrange your working life around what matters to you - flexible hours and/or remote working means more time for family, friends, hobbies and interests. Smart phones and/or laptops and a good internet connection mean that depending on your business you can work from anywhere - and we have! In fact we had a couple of years where we avoided the worst of the UK winter weather with extended trips to Spain. We worked in the mornings and enjoyed sunshine, good food and wine for the rest of the day!
What do I need to consider before starting my lifestyle business?
Probably top of the list is to ask yourself whether temperamentally this is a good fit for you. Be very honest with yourself because if you know you that you are much more likely to focus on the life side of the equation (I may have been guilty of this!) and little on the work side you are unlikely to succeed - unless you are very lucky and your product or service sells itself! Having said that, the ideal is to make something that you already enjoy, are interested in and have a good knowledge of into your business and therefore it shouldn’t necessarily feel like work - you still need to do your accounting though and that is definitely better done as you go along rather than trying to make sense of a bag of receipts at the end of the year.
Working for yourself can be quite isolating (it obviously has the same pros and cons as working from home) so if you like the buzz of the office you may find that days at home are quite lonely - not insurmountable as there are shared office spaces (at a cost) and cafes - even your local library. Does depend on your business as not all these spaces are suitable for business calls and your personality but could give opportunities for networking or just meeting like minded people.
You also need to be realistic about what your chosen business can provide in the way of income compared to the hours you put in. You may be able to knit a fabulous Aran jumper but if you can only manage to knit one a week you’re going to struggle on the income front unless you are prepared to do a lot of social media and sell as a high quality bespoke product. Be brutally honest with yourself about how much money you need to live on (at least at the start) and how many hours you can devote to building up your business and keeping it running - what sacrifices are you prepared to make?
Last thoughts
Running your own business is not for everyone but the world is changing rapidly so I think its definitely worth spending a few minutes thinking about what you really want to be doing. You may decide you are right where you want to be or that you want a change of direction within your chosen career but maybe, just maybe, you’re ready for a new adventure!