Top Essential Tips & Tricks For Building A Lifestyle Business
“Lifestyle business” gets a bad rap by association with less-than-reputable internet marketers. You’ve seen the ads promising quick cash and a life of luxury — if you buy their course. There are staged photos and big, misleading claims of wealth.
However, lifestyle business is what you make it. You can build a business that allows you to live the life you want while generating revenue through new age opportunities. In a lifestyle business, you will most likely generate a most of your revenue online selling courses, coaching, digital information products, membership websites — the list goes on. You can also add the elements of paid speaking and corporate consulting at events and companies all over the world. This allows you to travel the world training on your lifestyle business topic.
This kind of business and lifestyle is lived by many entrepreneurs. It’s the type of business that I’ve owned and operated for the last seven years. I travel to 20 countries a year for corporate consulting gigs while also generating revenue through multiple streams online. If your goal is to build a lifestyle business that lets you travel, creates freedom and financial security, here are four essential tactics to consider adding to your strategy.
Many millennials and gen z people are turning down jobs defined by 9-5 hustles, weekly deadlines, and constant work pressure. They prefer to monetize their hobbies and convert their passion into a profession. It gives you a better work-life balance, more satisfaction and allows you a lot of choices concerning schedule, location, and duration. Blogging, content writing, web designing, selling artifacts, coaching, and consulting are a few jobs that can become lifestyle businesses.
Unlike start-ups, one doesn’t require third-party investments and is mostly owned by individuals. With consistent effort and the right skills, one can have a reliable source of income. Read below the essential tips and tricks for building a lifestyle business.
What Is A Lifestyle Business?
A lifestyle business is a freedom-focused business.
It’s a different kind of career where you earn a particular level of income to sustain a lifestyle you want to live.
Typically, solopreneurs run lifestyle businesses. In some cases, these solopreneurs hire freelancers to run some of the operations
Thanks to its flexibility, you can run your lifestyle business anywhere — a cafe, a co-working space, a tropical island, you name it. As long as you have a laptop, reliable WiFi, proven skills, and heaps of passion, anyone can be a lifestyle entrepreneur.
Wondering what type of online businesses you can run as a lifestyle entrepreneur?
There are tons of options. From affiliate marketing and blogging to eCommerce and consulting, these location-independent small businesses are the ticket to achieving the work-life balance you dream of.
Take stay-at-home-mum Amy Anthony, who runs Oh So Spotless, an affiliate blog that teaches readers how to clean and organize their homes.
Decide the working style:
In lifestyle businesses, you have the liberty to choose the kind of projects you wish to take up. But it does not imply you can be lethargic and work when you like. To earn a substantial sum of money, one requires to have a brief plan. It includes deciding the hours you wish to work, the timings, and the amount of money you want to earn. The first step is to know the market is essential. That is, one has to be aware of the demand and the average pay. Also, you should know when and how to hire people. To keep you motivated at work you can also add some dietary supplements like CBD gummies which you can get from Sunday Scaries.
One has to decide the types of work you will take up. For example, writers can get into blogging, copywriting, social media content creation, editing, etc. The clients can have specific requirements like articles with ecommerce blog writing service content calendars, etc. Similarly, a graphic designer can get into web designing, online ads, and media jobs. So, it is necessary to select a niche and plan accordingly.
When you take up things without a plan, you end up working round the clock or do not have any work at all.
Build your business foundation.
The foundation of your lifestyle business starts with the structure of your business. You have to decide if this will always be a solo venture or if you’re building something bigger, such as an agency. You want to build according to where you’re going, not where you currently are.
The foundation also includes your online presence. This means a website, building your social media following, building an email list, and growing your network online and offline. There are many articles and videos on Entrepreneur on how to build each of these elements. In a lifestyle business, you need a solid foundation to point potential leads and customers back to. Your home base.
Learn to be a salesperson:
In a freelance-type business, you start the journey as a solo person. You do not have an organization tag that speaks about the work. Therefore, it is necessary to advertise your work on social media platforms. You can share your work, the procedures involved and publish feedback from clients. One needs sales skills to seek clients, come up with business proposals, and convince them, communicate effectively and building a rapport within a short time. The relationship that you maintain with clients and customers is as significant as the quality of your work. Thus, sales skills and interpersonal skills are essential to get projects.
Identify the target audience:
In any business, people either create a product or a service. In the competitive market, it is not possible to reach everyone at once. You need to classify the consumers and clients whom you wish to serve or sell. It is advisable to use social media analytics tools to determine the age group, location, interests of the visitors. Based on the data collected, one can design their marketing campaigns. Interacting with the right people will help you get feedback and improvise. Knowing that you listen to the audience increases their trust and loyalty.
Have a website and learn SEO:
Today all sorts of businesses require a website. Most consumers visit the site pages before making a purchase. The online presence in social media platforms can help in reaching out to new visitors. But they might simultaneously interact with other brands and businesses. Whereas when they visit a website, their attention goes only to your brand. You can define your quality and provide detailed information on the website.
A website can increase the credibility of a business. Also, people prefer to look at the web pages that show up on search engines. Therefore, an SEO-optimized website can enhance organic traffic, and you have the chance of getting more leads.
Start networking:
A lifestyle venture comes with liberty and responsibility. Though you are all by yourself, it is essential to interact with like-minded people and people in related businesses. Social media interactions are convenient but not as effective as in-person meetings. You learn to tackle challenges and make the best out of any situation by interacting with people who have faced similar challenges. It is a must to be genuine in socializing events as you can get new opportunities and referrals from the people in the industry.
Utilize the latest software tools:
Lifestyle businesses give you the freedom to decide the amount and type of work. At the same, you need to handle every aspect of the business right at the beginning. It includes making proposals, social media content, managing multiple projects, invoices, and clients. There are a handful of free apps that can help you stay organized and automate the processes involved. Few examples are Trello, Asana, QuickBooks, etc.
Final Thoughts:
While pursuing a lifestyle business, you can become the boss of your time. You are responsible for earning your livelihood and peace of mind. Therefore, it is necessary to enjoy the journey without getting deterred. Though you have to create a niche, it is advisable to diversify the income streams.