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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Making a Living Out of Your Passions

Some people are content to live a humdrum existence, oftentimes feeling trapped in their lives. They do things because they have to, even if those things don’t give them joy. 

However, some people are taking hold of their lives and are deciding that enough is enough. Instead, they are pursuing their passions. What’s more, many of these folks are actually making a living out of what they love most. These are lifestyle entrepreneurs.

What is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur?

A lifestyle entrepreneur is somebody who:

  • Goes into business not primarily for financial rewards but for lifestyle reasons
  • Has a fierce desire for independence: the desire to work for themselves and run a business that would fit their lifestyle and ages
  • Wants flexibility – are able to choose how much and when to work
  • Wants to be the boss
  • Has special lifestyle needs
  • They are looking to do work that matters

A lifestyle entrepreneur is an individual who creates a business that aligns with their desired lifestyle rather than solely focusing on financial success and growth. Unlike traditional entrepreneurs who often design their lives around their careers, lifestyle entrepreneurs prioritize personal fulfillment, passion, and work-life integration in their entrepreneurial journey. They aim to strike a harmonious balance between their work and personal life, allowing them to live on their own terms.

The concept of lifestyle entrepreneurship involves tailoring one’s business to support their desired lifestyle. Instead of putting the business first and then adapting their lifestyle to accommodate it, lifestyle entrepreneurs decide on the kind of lifestyle they want to enjoy and then build their business in a way that supports it. They emphasize freedom, such as the flexibility to work specific hours or travel as they see fit, as well as pursuing their passions and interests. Lifestyle entrepreneurs may focus less on business growth and more on earning enough income to support their chosen lifestyle.

Lifestyle entrepreneurship is also closely associated with terms like lifestyle business, digital nomad, and solopreneurship. These terms highlight the emphasis on personal fulfillment, autonomy, flexibility, and the ability to work and live from anywhere.

To become a lifestyle entrepreneur, individuals typically identify their passions, interests, and hobbies and develop a business idea that aligns with those areas. They prioritize creating a business that allows them to enjoy their chosen lifestyle while also earning income. Lifestyle entrepreneurs value experiences, freedom, and work-life balance over purely financial gains, although profitability can still be a goal. By building a business that supports their desired lifestyle, lifestyle entrepreneurs strive to create a fulfilling and balanced life.

Pursuing Your Passions

It all boils down to doing what you are passionate about – and making a living out of it!

One entrepreneur who is a perfect example of a lifestyle entrepreneur is Richard Busch. After a 30-year career as a highly successful magazine editor (he worked for National Geographic), Richard made a 180-degree turn and quit the job in 1997 at the age of 56 to pursue his passion for pottery.

When he was in his early 50s, Richard started asking himself what his life would be when the magazine career ended and what it was that he really wanted to do in the years to come. Richard described that stage in his life, “The more I thought about it, the more I felt like I’d really like to be a potter.” He sold his house in the Northern Virginia suburbs and moved to a farm where he had more room and space to set up a good-sized studio. Now, he has been featured in various magazines such as Entrepreneur and Costco’s Costco Connection, where I learned about him.

Forging Ahead

Some lifestyle entrepreneurs ease into their ventures so slowly that they hardly realize that they are in business until it is already a fact. Maybe someone who loves baking cookies and giving them to friends, only to soon receive orders – which are paid! – to bake more of her delicious cookies.

One example is  Nicole Simons, owner of the successful gourmet nuts business Fortunuts. She created her gourmet nuts only as holiday gifts to friends, who convinced her that she ought to sell her delectable nuts.

Others waffle for years or decades before suddenly they decide to change the course of their lives and become lifestyle entrepreneurs.

So how do you actually start? How do you make a decision from an ordinary employee to becoming an entrepreneur making a living out of your passions?

The Intuitive Approach

One way is to listen to your gut feeling that this is what you want and should be doing and then make a go for it.

When I was in my early 20s, I opened a video shop. I was addicted to movies, and I watched every film shown in town. I was in a video store renting a VHS tape (it was a few decades ago) when it hit me that since watching movies is my passion, I might as well open my own video store. I make decisions fast – so in a week’s time, I was already applying for licenses, checking out locations, and buying inventory. In less than a month, my video shop was up and running.

lifestyle entrepreneur

The Intellectual Approach

And, of course, there’s the more cerebral approach where you take time to think about what you want to do. Basically, you:

  • Ask yourself what skills you possess
  • Match the skills with the industry or business
  • Research specific opportunities
  • Research the market
  • Ease of entry: how much will it cost to start the business

Michael Reagan, Winner of SBA’s Small Business Person of the Year award for Arizona, drastically changed his life in the early 1990s. He quit his well-paying sales & marketing job in Chicago to start a FastSigns franchise (makers of quality business signs) in Phoenix, AZ. He spent six months researching what it was that he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

He followed what he calls a 3-step process to decide what business to start. First made a list of the characteristics of what he wants in a business: he does not want inventory but wants something that will be purchased by other businesses. He had a list of 103 characteristics when he finished. Then he matched the characteristics he identified with existing business opportunities and ideas. The last process was finding out how he could get into the industry. It’s a time-consuming process, but something that worked really well for Michael.

As Sigmund Freud said, when asked what makes a happy life, he responded, “To love and to work.” How great could life be then if you combined what you love with what you did for work? You can turn your hobby into a pastime or start a business from what you love to do best.

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