In this post I’m going to (hopefully) get you to challenge yourself about why a lifestyle business is the right choice for you and to do that I am going to ask you to consider a few key questions that are important for anyone considering putting their time and effort into creating a lifestyle business, or any other kind of business for that matter.
My goal is to get you thinking about what you’re trying to achieve and get you to be honest about why this is an option your are considering, all with the intent of getting you one step closer to having your own successful lifestyle business.
Why are you considering a lifestyle business?
While this may appear to be the easiest question to answer, the truth is there can be a wide range of responses and depending on how you are approach coming to your own answer could have a serious impact on the outcome. The key here is to dig deeper into your thoughts and really challenge yourself to understand what it is that motivates you as in most cases the real root of many people’s desire is not as easy to uncover as it may seem.
Money!
If you’re like many people considering building their own business this may have been the first thing that sprang to mind when you saw that question and I’m not afraid to admit that when I first started out this seemed like it was my motivation as well. But I’ll be honest, I’ve done okay for myself without a lifestyle business, I’ve been able to grow up in a good household, find work that interests me and in turn generate a decent income, so was that really what would motivate me to do the work required to be successful?
The reality is that a lot of the time, money will only get you so far. There will come a point that no matter how much you are getting paid to perform a task or do a particular job, it’s highly likely you will not enjoy what you are doing to earn it. And let’s face it, in the beginning of all businesses, money is not generally going to be rolling in the door, so will you be able to keep doing those things when there is no money involved?
So, if it’s not really money, what could it be?
Let’s dig a little deeper and see if we can uncover any other possible motivations or questions that you should be asking yourself…
While money sounds good in theory, it’s very likely that it’s not the money itself that is important, it’s what the money will allow you to do that is really going to keep you up at night, give you the strength to choose to work on your business instead of watching the latest episode of your favourite television show or give up a few hours of sleep.
And now is when you might find things get really interesting, because as you start to peel away at the layers of a question like this you can may start to discover things about yourself that are hard to admit or you didn’t even really know. But it can be tricky, so here’s a way you can approach it that may help…
If you didn’t need to worry about money, what would you do?
A cool way that you can approach the next layer of thinking is to take money out of the equation. Let’s say you didn’t have to worry about money at all, each and every month you’d have enough money coming in to cover your bills, keep your family or yourself in the manner in which you’ve become accustomed… what do you think you’d do each day?
Of course your immediate answer might be… nothing… but let’s be honest how long do you think you could keep that up before you’d go stir crazy? While the idea of doing nothing might sound appealing I believe that everyone has a particular calling to do something with their lives, no matter whether that is big or small, so I think you should move on from ‘nothing’.
I think this is quite a difficult question to answer, I mean once you get past the permanent holidays or daily hobbies which are likely to get boring at some point (although turning a hobby into a profession is a different story) you will now start to find yourself really exploring some interesting possibilities and maybe uncovering a new perspective on your life.
Naturally there is no answer here for me to guide you towards, there are so many possibilities… but here are a few ideas that may be floating around in your head:
- Volunteering: Have you done a small amount in the past and wished you had more time to dedicate to a cause?
- Mentoring: Do you have a set of skills that you would like to pass on to another generation?
- Teaching: Is there a subject or passion that you have which you’d like to share?
- Hobbies/Sports: Are you a collector or expert in a particular hobby/sport? Are there others like you that would benefit from your knowledge and experience?
- Building: Do you want to leave your mark on this world by helping to build something, whether that be a structure or a business?
- Caring: Are you drawn to nurturing or caring for people?
I have no doubt there are plenty of other potential ideas to explore, the key is to challenge yourself to really get to the bottom of what it is that drives and motivates you… and then consider how you could build a lifestyle business to help you achieve that.
In conclusion
The purpose of this article was to get you to start thinking a little more deeply about what drives you and motivates you, the key point being that anyone who is considering creating their own lifestyle business really needs to understand that ‘Why’ of it all. You may have heard this referred to in the past; why do you want to create a business, why do you want to be different to the masses, why are you prepared to put in the hours to learn and put your skills in to practise.
It’s a very important question and not something that you may uncover in a single session or from just one article like this. It can also be something that evolves and changes as you move through different stages with your business, it’s entirely possible that you could start out with one why and find that you end up with an entirely different one as time passes by and you continue to discover more about yourself and your goals.
I believe that your WHY is one of the single most important aspects of the journey to creating a successful lifestyle business, so this is a topic that I will return to in the future. There are a number of great resources out there for helping people to shape their why and I will be pulling together a set of resources to share with you in another article, so don’t forget to check back again soon, and of course if you liked what you read today please share with your friends or add a comment or ask a question.
