Lifestyle Business
Recently on Davette Harvey’s The Entrepreneur Zone, I provided the basics of business strategy. Hopefully the listeners received glimpses of insight within our discussion, but my aha came afterward. Davette and I were discussing the concept of holistic business strategy or business strategy that does not just cover business needs and goals but the goals of one’s personal life. That is when Davette told me how she enjoyed having me on the show because I served lifestyle businesses. Lifestyle business was not a term I had heard before but I quickly learned that it is in fact who I serve.
Some entrepreneurs begin their businesses to make millions. Some do it to bring their product concept to market. Some do it to serve others through their unique skills. But the people I love to work with start their businesses to have the life they desire. They no longer want to work by terms that are not their own. They want to create the rules. They want to define their work day. They want to determine what success looks like to them. And most importantly, they want to create a business that allows them to live life fully. It is no longer working for a living, but living through one’s working. As Davette said, “my work is play and my play is work.” Work and business is not compartmentalized into a segment of the day and neither is one’s life.
How many of us feel like we are playing a role at work? How often do we feel like we are changing hats to go into our personal life? How often do we feel we need to hide part of our personality or stifle some of what makes us happy to retain our jobs? Why can’t our personal and professional lives be one? We spend too many hours of our lives working not to make those hours satisfying to our souls too.
They can be. The first step is for you to define what you want. Read this again: define what you want. So often we believe we need to fit into the structures of existing businesses. Why? Why can’t we pitch the existing mores of the business world and create our own? Take some time and write down what your business day would look like. Where would you live? When would you wake up in the morning? Who wakes up next to you? What do you do first – read the paper, exercise, or check your emails? What do you do next? What is the step by step progress of your work day if you could define it anyway you would like? Be as descriptive as you can. Really feel, see, hear, taste and smell what that day is like. If you are starting your own business, ensure that this perfect work day is reflected in your business plan. Create the business plan around the life you want to create. If you work for someone else, how much of your perfect day can you have in your current position? What needs to change to make your day as close as possible to perfect for you?
Share with us your personal lifestyle business description.
