Getting Started With Your Lifestyle Business

Image Posted on December 2, 2015

The first time I heard the term ‘lifestyle business’ was when I started designing this blog. I wanted to be able to define what I do, and the category I fall under as an entrepreneur. I like to see myself as a serial or multi-passionate entrepreneur, and now I’m adding ‘a lifestyle business owner/entrepreneur’ to the list.

I basically turned my passion into a business (personal interest) – that’s how I coined the term ‘lifestyle business’ even before I spent about an hour searching for the definition online. It is not a new term, there are several definitions in different resources – but most have negative and biased attitudes towards it. I don’t think it matters anyway – because I’m still a lifestyle business owner/entrepreneur, and I am unstoppable.

 

Lifestyle Business: My Definition

From my point of view,  lifestyle business is the best form of business for people who want to be free and happy – maybe the pictured quote below is a little cliché, but it’s true

The happiness part:

Prior to starting my first business – I grew up taking care of children including my younger siblings, cousins; I’d help out at the local church camps every holiday, and also volunteer at our local community art center – organizing activities for children. I love children, and planning to launch a business for their pleasure made me so happy. I don’t think my family was surprised when I first shared the camp business idea with them.

My other businesses involve a combination of writing, designing, mentoring, consulting, teaching and learning new things – and if you know me very well, you’d know that these are my obsessions, my pastimes.

The freedom part: 

In the past few years, I have been juggling multiple interests, I’ve had a lot of good ideas, and, of course, I can’t do everything at the same time; but I have tried every good idea thrown at me. I can do all that because what I do allows me to work on other projects, and also have the lifestyle I desire without having to sacrifice my personal life. In other words, I get to try new things because I can, I have a flexible working and work-life balance, and I can choose to stay in the UK or Nigeria, and still get to run my business from anywhere.

So! now you know why I have the picture quote. Here is my definition:

Lifestyle business is a business that reflects your way of life – your personal interest, values,  and enables you to use your talent, skills and hobbies; gives you the freedom to work in a way that sustains the lifestyle you want, and gives you a sense of self-fulfillment.

Running a lifestyle business means you have the freedom to make your own decisions, and you are not driven by profit to keep your investors happy, like most corporate businesses – you are more focused on the value, you work on your own terms, and you set your own hours. You earn money doing what you really love –  and it can be just about anything: from selling your DIY projects online, to opening your own fashion boutique, or a design studio.

If you don’t know the true meaning of success, (click here to read mine).

A lifestyle business is not very different from a corporate or, in general, terms a ‘Startup’ business. The difference is probably the structure/design. Most startups are harder to build and sustain, and profits don’t come easily – but when it comes, the owners begin to enjoy the freedom and flexibility lifestyle business owners already enjoy.

(Pictured: A day in the life of a lifestyle business entrepreneur  – that’s me in Orange).

 

The Growth Potential For A Lifestyle Business

So! I know what you are thinking – NO! a lifestyle business doesn’t have to be small at all. Doesn’t mean you won’t or shouldn’t make money or employ smart people. You must know that the main reason people go into lifestyle businesses is for the freedom to live a great life while running their company – unlike a startup whose aim is to grow big enough to provide a return to investors.

In other words, a lifestyle business could be any size, can be very profitable from the very beginning, and has a high growth potential – and it’s all up to you to decide how big you want your business to grow.

For instance: with my camp business, I currently book hotels and hostels, and hire equipment for my camp business, which is quite expensive – but my short-term goal is to build our own camp site, which will have all the equipment and resources we need; and my long-term goal is to have more than one camp sites.

Excitingly, my small lifestyle business has a high growth potential. Again! it can be just about anything if you can cultivate your creative brain.  Another example on how you can grow a lifestyle business, using the DIY and fashion boutique examples above – is opening a physical DIY studio to teach people how to make their own things.

 

What Lifestyle Business Is Not

So you know what lifestyle business is, and you are probably excited and ready to get started – but let’s set realistic expectations before we go any deeper.

1. It is not about having the freedom to do as little as you want.

Don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet, because it’s not about having the freedom to do as little as you want, right from the offset. I don’t believe anybody should start a business sitting at the beach sipping a cocktail, even if it’s a knitting business – come on you are not Richard Branson yet. I also don’t think anyone serious about starting a business should spend the first few days, weeks or months doing nothing (chilling’). Let me tell you the truth, starting a business takes a lot of hard work, success doesn’t come overnight. So won’t you rather do all the work now and rest later when you’ve reached your goal?

• In my opinion, it’s about starting a business with little capital – I have actually never gone out looking for funding or investment to start my business, but I work extremely hard to get results. My lifestyle business(es) enables me to start up whenever I want without any serious capital.

2. It is not just a ‘Mom and Pop’ Shop

According to Business Dictionary online, “a mom and pop shop is a small, independent, usually family-owned, controlled, and operated business that has a minimum amount of employees, has only a small amount of business volume, and is typically not franchised, therefore open for business only in a single location.”

Contrary to popular belief, a lifestyle business isn’t just a mom and pop shop. It can be anything, any size, and very similar to any startup. A lot of people have started really successful lifestyle businesses online, Click here to read stories about three highly successful lifestyle entrepreneurs – these guys run extremely successful blogs (Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, and Chris Guillebeau). Here is a really successful lifestyle business, called Mindvalley, the company has never taken a VC or loan, and it’s really interesting how they’ve evolved.

Of course, we also have really successful lifestyle business entrepreneurs in Nigeria, like Bella Naija, and MUD Nigeria. If you’re still not convinced you could run a big lifestyle business, you might be interested to read Epic Things Start with Small Humble Steps. It’s a good read, and I think it will help you understand the concept of starting and running a lifestyle business.

 

Quick Guide To Starting Your Own Lifestyle Business

So now you know what lifestyle business is and isn’t, and you also know that you can grow it  to any size of business you want. Now, let’s go deeper:

If you already have an idea of what you want to do, then skip to the ‘How to start your lifestyle business’ section below. If you don’t have any idea yet – you should start by evaluating your skills, talents, personal interest, values, and your passion. Write down at least three things (5 is good too) that make you unique, then write down 3 -5 ideas that come into your mind. After that, find a problem, that people are willing to pay for – no idea is a bad idea. Have you heard about these two lifestyle entrepreneurs who get paid to wear company t-shirts (iwearyourshirt.com)? Again! there is NO BAD IDEA, even if it’s about making better mousetraps – you shouldn’t be worried about or be ashamed of your idea.

HOW TO START YOUR LIFESTYLE BUSINESS

Now that you have a good business idea in mind, there are several steps to get started:

• Have an Effective Action Plan: I don’t mean a business plan – it’s different, it’s a simple list of all of the tasks that you need to finish to meet your goal. Of course just like any other business, you need to have an action plan before you get started. Why? Because it can help turn your idea into a reality, gives you a clear direction, and also helps you understand your idea better. Click this to read 5 Reasons Why Your Business Idea Needs An Action Plan.

• Start your Business Plan: A business plan is not something you write overnight just to get it over with. It’s the most important document for any business, and should not be rushed. It is a living document that evolves over time, and should adapt to a changing marketplace.  That’s why I suggest you start it, but not close it – keep it flexible and unfinished, you will see that you may have to change your business idea a number of times even before you get to launch it. However, if you are looking at reaching out to investors, then you can go ahead and close it – but we are talking about a lifestyle business  – and so we don’t need any VC or Loan right? RIGHT!

• Get a Blog first and then a Website: I’m not trying to repeat what a lot of bloggers have already written –  I am only going to explain why I think you should get a blog first before a website. I have done the opposite so many times before, and I think it takes a long time to get results, unlike a blog. Blogs drive long-term results, and it’s an inexpensive way of selling/advertising your new business. A lot of people read blogs to stay up-to-date and to learn how to do certain things. Having a blog can connect people to your brand, can help you develop a relationship with potential and existing customers, and also drive traffic and awareness to your business and website. You can use your blog to share some practical guides and advice, and some ‘how to’ tips. People with real needs would visit your website to view your product or service, from your blog.

• Make a Realistic Social Media Strategy when you Join the Party: You already know the benefits of using social media for business – again, I’m here to tell you the truth. In reality, not all your Facebook friends, Instagram and Twitter followers will subscribe to your services or buy your products from day one. A lot won’t even respond to your Facebook page invite – it happens! but why focus on growing your social media likes/followers overnight, when you’ve got a business to run.  I suggest you focus on the number of people who have engaged with you, accepted your invite, and are interested in knowing more about your business; because if you impress them – they can become outspoken evangelists for your business, and others will come around eventually. I’m not saying stop promoting your business online – of course you have to keep doing that every day, but don’t beat yourself over followers or likes, because social media success does not happen overnight.

• Learn a Few Things from the DIYers, Photographers, Makeup Artists and Fashion Designers:  People love to see your work and how it works before they buy into, and these group of people have got it going for them, thanks to YouTube and other social networking sites. They use this medium to showcase their work, it drives interest and repeat customers, and we can learn a few things from them. This can work for any business, products, services –  think outside the box – just about anything can be done to drive interest and awareness for any business.

• Spread the word: I believe you should start with your family and friends, they are an inexpensive way to sell/promote your business. If they don’t understand your business idea, I believe you should help them understand, so they can also share it to their friends and colleagues. If you are into products or DIYs, make something for them as a gift – something they will use every time – and if you are into services – design a solution to meet their needs or lifestyle. Your family and friends are your life size/walking billboard waiting to be utilized, Simple. Some tips: don’t make it obvious that you are using them to promote your business, especially if you are the type to always receive and not give – I’m sure your family will be happy to receive something from you too.

• Be Bold to Approach your Potential Clients: This is something I struggled with when I started, and I still do. This is how I see it – if you don’t try you will never know if the answer would have been a yes. Honestly, getting a No is not such a bad thing, It’s just a no, not the end of the world. To me ‘No’ means you’ve got something new to learn, ‘No’ means you’ve got a challenge, and it’s an opportunity to prove yourself, ‘No’ means you are still a human and humans make mistakes, they get things wrong every time; and the best part is, you can ask them for feedback. I have never heard of anyone dying from a constructive criticism – young people and new entrepreneurs need that every time to grow – so ‘No’ can also mean your idea is really good, and it does have a future only if you change something.

An finally! (I’m totally digressing) A ‘No’ can save you a lot of stress, time, money and embarrassment in the future; so go ahead, make that call, send the email, Get a Yes or NO… it doesn’t matter, it’s only a word… Stay Positive Always, no matter what… and you will make it happen for you. Goodluck!