The times have shifted SO MUCH in the last 7 – 10 years. But I've seen them shift even more in the last 3 – 5 years with how things are moving in the online world. Honestly, the traditional work models are rapidly shifting. And let's be honest, the quest for a work-life balance has never been more crucial. This need for balance and the desire for flexibility and freedom have given rise to a new phenomenon – the lifestyle business. For me, as a mom of two kids in a ton of activities, creating an online lifestyle business felt right. It felt like it would allow me to be present at all of their activities.
I realized as I was building out my Facebook Ads Agency that creating this business was going to be super important. And I wanted to be present for my family. I knew as my kids got/get older and I knew I needed to do it differently.
Lifestyle businesses are revolutionizing the traditional notions of success. They challenging the paradigms of the corporate world. And essentially, allowing individuals to design a work model that aligns with their personal passions and lifestyle preferences.
This unique business model is not about accumulating vast wealth or creating the next Silicon Valley unicorn. Of course, that WOULD be nice ;). Instead, a lifestyle entrepreneur is about creating a sustainable AND consistent source of income. This will support your preferred lifestyle and frees you from the 9 to 5 grind. It's more about the time freedom and earning enough money to feel comfortable. It doesn't mean that you won't work a lot, it just means when you work is more up to you.
The real power of a lifestyle business lies in its capacity to grant you more time to do the things you love. And still ensuring financial stability. It's about a particular lifestyle that you want to create in a way that works for you and your family.
What Is An Online Lifestyle Business
An online lifestyle business is a digital enterprise where the main aim is to sustain a particular level of income and/or financial freedom. This will help to support the business owner's desired lifestyle. These businesses are primarily online-based, leveraging digital tools and platforms to reach customers, sell products or services, and drive revenue.
Online lifestyle businesses can take various forms, such as eCommerce stores, blogging, affiliate marketing, coaching and consulting services, digital content creation, and more.
The defining factor of an online lifestyle business is its operational model that is designed around the lifestyle of the owner. Rather than being built with the intent to sell or scale exponentially, these businesses aim to offer a balanced lifestyle. It allows entrepreneurs to work at their pace, on their terms, and from anywhere in the world. When you first get started it might come with long hours, but the primary goal and concept of a lifestyle business is to create revenue and some passive income to allow more freedom and “almost” complete control of your schedule.
5 Tips To Start An Online Lifestyle Business
Starting your own lifestyle business can be a rewarding endeavor. Imagine the time freedom, flexibility and personal growth that you go through as you are building out a brand new business. It is so rewarding and exciting, but it requires careful planning and execution. Here are five tips to help you embark on this exciting journey.
Identifying Your Passion
Identifying your passion is a crucial step when starting a lifestyle business. This is because a lifestyle business revolves around the idea of creating a balance between work and life. What better way to achieve this balance than by turning what you love doing into a source of income?
Your passion is what genuinely excites you, drives you, and gives you a sense of purpose. It could be a hobby, an interest, or even a cause you deeply care about. Building a business around your passion can be a source of motivation, keeping you engaged and committed even during challenging times.
Here are three points to consider when identifying your passion:
- Reflect on Your Interests and Hobbies: Look back at your life and identify activities or interests that have consistently brought you joy, satisfaction, or a sense of fulfillment. These can offer invaluable clues about what your passions might be. Remember, these could be anything from writing, painting, or music, to hiking, cooking, or gardening.
- Analyze Your Skills and Strengths: Identifying your natural abilities and skills can also help uncover your passions. Are you an excellent communicator, a creative artist, a whiz with numbers, or a natural leader? Reflecting on your strengths and how you can align them with a business can help you choose the right path for your lifestyle business.
- Consider Your Values and Goals: Finally, consider your personal values and long-term goals. What is important to you in life? What kind of lifestyle do you aspire to have? Understanding what you value and where you see yourself in the future can guide you towards a business idea that not only aligns with your passion but also with your personal values and life goals
One thing I do want to mention, that I think is incredibly important to mention is that – it does NOT always have to be about your passion. When I started my Facebook Ads Agency, I was accidentally thrown into it. I LIKE the business because of the freedom it brings me, but it's not a hands down HELL YEAH I want to do this until I'm dead sort of niche for me.
It's something I'm incredibly good at, and it is also giving me the free time to focus on other passions like my digital business and building out a lifestyle company versus just one piece. I'm able to start building out multiple streams of income so that I am not relying on just one.
So yes, I do think identifying your passion is a good idea because it is one of the paths of least resistance. I do think that if you find something that is MUCH easier for you to check out (your niche) – you can start there too.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Determine Your Niche
Finding your niche is about identifying a specialized segment of the market that you can serve uniquely and effectively. It's about finding a distinct intersection of your passions, skills, and market demand, where you can carve out your own space and build a business that stands out from the competition.
By focusing on a niche, you can target your products, services, and marketing efforts towards a specific audience. This focus can make your marketing more efficient, and it can also help you develop more tailored and high-quality products or services.
Here are three points to consider when determining your niche:
- Evaluate Market Needs and Trends: Look at the market landscape related to your passion and identify the needs, pain points, and desires of potential customers. Are there trends or changes in the industry that might create new opportunities? Understanding these aspects can help you identify a niche that is ripe for innovation and where your offerings can fill a gap.
- Assess Your Unique Value Proposition: A strong niche often hinges on a unique value proposition. What can you offer that is different from what is currently available? This might be a unique product feature, a novel approach to service delivery, or perhaps a strong personal brand that resonates with your target audience.
- Validate Your Niche: Once you've identified a potential niche, it's essential to validate it before investing a lot of time and resources. This validation could involve market research, surveys, or even a small-scale launch of your product or service. By validating your niche, you can gain confidence that there's a market for your business and minimize the risk of your venture.
Determining your niche involves a delicate balance of passion, skill, and market demand. However, when you get it right, it can set the foundation for a lifestyle business that stands out from the crowd, aligns with your lifestyle and values, and delivers value to a specific market segment.
Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan is an integral part of starting any business, including a lifestyle business. A well-thought-out business plan serves as a roadmap that guides your business decisions and helps you maintain focus on your strategic objectives.
Despite the more informal nature of a lifestyle business, a business plan can help clarify your business concept, identify potential challenges, define your goals, and reveal opportunities. It provides structure and purpose, ensuring that all your business activities align with your vision and goals.
Here are three points to consider when creating your business plan:
Define Your Vision and Objectives
The first step in creating a business plan is to articulate your business vision and objectives clearly. Your vision is your long-term goal for your business, the ultimate aim that you aspire to achieve. Your objectives, on the other hand, are the specific, measurable actions that you plan to take to achieve your vision.
Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
Detail Your Marketing and Sales Strategies
A key part of your business plan should be your marketing and sales strategies. You need to outline how you will attract and retain customers. This involves understanding your target audience, deciding on the marketing channels to use, setting a marketing budget, and planning specific marketing campaigns and sales tactics. This is something that you should not be skipped over. If you need help with this, I do offer 1:1 support with this. Check that out HERE.
Financial Projections
Your business plan also needs to include financial projections. This CAN be so scary. I get it. But the reason why you do this is so you have an idea on what you will bring in.
This should include an estimate of your startup costs (if you're just starting) and an ongoing budget. You should also forecast your revenue. That involves making educated guesses about your sales It can be intimidating but giving yourself a real life idea is so helpful for your business. And if you choose to sell physical products it will let you reverse engineer those numbers. That way you can see what the markup will need to be. Financial projections can help you ensure the financial viability of your lifestyle business and assist in budget management.
Creating a business plan may seem like a daunting task, especially for a lifestyle business. However, this essential document can help bring clarity and direction to your business operations. It will force you to consider the realities of the business environment, making you better prepared to navigate the road ahead and achieve your lifestyle business goals.
Leverage Digital Tools and Platforms
In an online lifestyle business, digital tools are your best friends. Utilize tools for productivity, communication, project management, marketing automation, and more. Similarly, leverage online platforms like social media, blogs, and eCommerce platforms to reach your audience and sell your products or services.
A few tools that we use to manage our b
Maintain a Growth Mindset
Maintaining a growth mindset is crucial for the long-term success of any business, including a lifestyle business. Having a growth mindset means embracing challenges. It means that you will stay persistent in the face of setbacks. Additionally, you'll understanding that intelligence and skills can be developed. While lifestyle businesses prioritize balance and personal satisfaction, it's still essential to maintain a growth mindset. Constantly learn, adapt, and evolve your business based on market trends and customer feedback. Remember, the ultimate aim is to sustain your preferred lifestyle, which requires a sustainable and growing source of income.
Here are five points you need to embrace:
- Embrace Challenges: Challenges are an integral part of running ANY business. Rather than avoiding them, a growth mindset involves seeing challenges as opportunities to learn and improve. This approach can help you navigate business difficulties more effectively and come out stronger on the other side.
- Value Effort: In a growth mindset, effort is not seen as a chore or something to be avoided. Instead, it's viewed as the path to mastery. Understanding that it takes time and effort to grow a successful business can help you stay committed and persistent, even when things get tough.
- Cultivate a Love of Learning: A key aspect of a growth mindset is an insatiable desire to learn. This could involve learning new skills, keeping up-to-date with industry trends, or seeking feedback to improve your products or services. Continuous learning can help you adapt and evolve your business over time, ensuring its long-term success.
- Learn from Criticism: Receiving criticism can be tough, but it can also provide valuable insights for improvement. A growth mindset involves seeing criticism as useful feedback rather than a personal attack. By learning from criticism, you can make necessary changes and improvements to your business.
- Encourage Innovation and Creativity: Maintaining a growth mindset in business also means fostering an environment of innovation and creativity. This might involve experimenting with new ideas, taking calculated risks, or finding unique solutions to problems. An innovative and creative approach can set your lifestyle business apart from the competition and drive ongoing growth.
Photo by Ewan Robertson on Unsplash
Successful Online Lifestyle Business Ideas
Let's look at some ideas on the type of business you can create while building an online lifestyle business. I'm going to share some of the ones I thought of and give you some real life examples so you can see too! What I love the most, is that I've been researching this and there are so many incredible lifestyle business opportunities out there. And I've found some amazing business owners and digital nomads who are creating massive success in their lives and businesses. Let me share some with you!
Here are ten online lifestyle business ideas that could serve as the foundation for a satisfying work-life balance:
eCommerce Store Owner: Set up an online store selling products that align with your interests. This could be anything from handmade crafts, organic skincare products, sustainable clothing, or specialty coffee beans. With platforms like Shopify, Etsy or Amazon, setting up an eCommerce store is more accessible than ever. I actually did this too! I am selling digital products though. You can check out my digital product eComm store by clicking HERE.
Blogging: If you enjoy writing and have a passion for a specific subject, blogging could be a perfect fit. You can earn income through advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or even by selling your own products or services.
Digital & Online Course Creator: If you're knowledgeable in a specific field, consider creating and selling online courses. Platforms like Udemy, Teachable, or Thinkific make it easy to reach a vast audience eager to learn new skills.
Affiliate Marketer: Affiliate marketing involves promoting other companies' products and earning a commission for any sales made through your referral links. This business model works great if you have a blog, a high-traffic website, or a strong social media presence. This is one I that I use. I don't make a ton of money through this yet, but a few thousand dollars a year is amazing!
Virtual Coaching/Consulting: Offer virtual or online coaching or consulting services in a field you're knowledgeable in. This could be life coaching, business consulting, fitness coaching, or even nutrition coaching. This is honestly how I started my business. I would offer coaching and done for you services. I still offer the done for you. But virtual coaching was a huge part of helping clients get the results they wanted. And… it gave me the ability to have a more flexible schedule for my family.
Social Media Influencer: If you love creating engaging content and building an online presence, consider becoming a social media influencer. You can make money through sponsored posts, collaborations, affiliate promos and brand partnerships. You just have to be good at digital marketing. And also, at recognizing how the algorithm works so that you can get in front of as many people as possible.
Podcasting: Podcasting is a booming industry. If you have something to say, starting a podcast around your area of interest could be a lucrative business! You can earn money via sponsorships, donations, or selling related products. You could even earn money selling your own products. I know podcasters who use “commercials” to sell their own digital products. I recently started a podcast too!!! Go listen HERE.
Freelance Services: Offering freelance services allows you to make money by leveraging skills you already possess. These can also be called Done For You services. That's what I do for Facebook Ads. I manage my clients Ads for them so they don't have to worry about them, themselves. Whether you're a skilled writer, graphic designer, programmer, or digital marketer, businesses are always on the lookout for freelance talent. This is close to what I do, but I have an online Facebook Ads Agency and I'm focused on building out digital products on the side. If you have
Online Fitness Trainer: If you're passionate about fitness, becoming an online fitness trainer can be a rewarding lifestyle business. You can offer personal training sessions, create workout plans, or even start your own fitness YouTube channel.
Self-Published Author: With platforms like Amazon KDP, it's easier than ever to publish your own books and reach readers worldwide. Whether you write fiction, non-fiction, or guides and how-to books, self-publishing can turn your passion for writing into a profitable online business.
Starting an online lifestyle business can be the key to achieving the balance and satisfaction you crave. It's an exciting journey. And you get to create something meaningful that aligns with your passion and lifestyle preferences. And how cool that it can allow you the freedom to live life on your terms. You're one step closer to building the lifestyle business of your dreams.
If you're ready to change how you do business, book a complimentary call HERE. Let's talk about what your goals and next steps are for you and your business.
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