As a fledgling entrepreneur seeking financial freedom, of course, you’re looking for lifestyle business ideas from other successful people.
Lifestyle businesses enable you to find the time to support yourself, your family and your lifestyle while having the time to do the things you enjoy doing.
But, how do you choose the right lifestyle business for yourself? What are some of the best lifestyle business ideas? This is what I address in this article.
For me, my personal journey to the life I wanted started with my blogging lifestyle business. But, what worked for me might not be the perfect recipe for you. That’s why I’ve created this list of the best lifestyle business ideas for 2021, in the hope that you’ll find an idea that resonates with you, and you can start your journey towards financial freedom. Plus, you can learn even more in my upcoming webinar!
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What a lifestyle business is
- The characteristics of a lifestyle business
- The advantages that a lifestyle business has over traditional business models
- Key components to consider before starting your lifestyle business
- 3 real-world examples of successful lifestyle businesses
- 7 creative lifestyle business ideas for you to begin TODAY
Table of contents
- What is a lifestyle business?
- What are the characteristics of a lifestyle business?
- What are the benefits of running a lifestyle business?
- Starting a lifestyle business: What you should know
- Three real-world examples of six-figure lifestyle businesses
- X creative lifestyle business ideas for 2021
What Is a Lifestyle Business?
Put plainly, a lifestyle business is any business that allows you to live how you want. You are the founder, director and manager of your lifestyle business, so the business works how you want it to.
| “YOU ARE THE FOUNDER, DIRECTOR AND MANAGER OF YOUR LIFESTYLE BUSINESS — SO THE BUSINESS WORKS HOW YOU WANT IT TO.” Mike Vestil |
In most cases, a lifestyle business is established with the goal of sustaining a stable level of income.
For some, that stable level of income might be making 300 USD per day, whereas others might have higher financial goals.
Essentially, your lifestyle will determine how much revenue your lifestyle business needs to generate. For example, if you live a frugal existence and enjoy the simpler pleasures in life, such as growing your own produce, home-cooking, going for long walks in the forest, and reading as many books as you can, then your lifestyle business doesn’t need to generate hundreds of thousands per year!
If, on the other hand, you enjoy jet-setting around the world and partying in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Paris and New York, then your lifestyle business will need to produce more to support you.
What Are the Characteristics of a Lifestyle Business?
Lifestyle businesses consist of several fundamental characteristics that enable them to operate how the founder wants.
Generally, lifestyle businesses take little if any investment to get off the ground. They are long-lasting, can be very profitable when managed correctly, and will most often generate passive income.
Little-to-No Initial Investment and Easy-to-Control Costs
Unlike other business models, such as opening a physical business (a restaurant, store or dive shop) or founding a startup, a lifestyle business generally needs no financial injection to get it running.
The best lifestyle business ideas enable the founder to start slow and grow gradually, easily controlling any costs. This keeps risk and stress to a minimum, making the journey that much more enjoyable.
Long-Lasting
Many of the lifestyle business ideas we will share with you later in this article are designed to support your lifestyle for many years to come.
The point of starting a lifestyle business is to escape the 9-5 grind, so a lifestyle business isn’t any good if it only lets you out of the rat race for six months!
Location Independent
For most entrepreneurs, freeing up their time is motivated by going to the places they want to go and seeing the people they want to see. This means not being tied to any particular place.
A lifestyle business facilitates this because the most creative lifestyle business ideas out there aren’t dependant on a location — they depend on the person running it.
With a lifestyle business, you don’t need to go to your restaurant or go to the office to handle your startup. In most cases, if you’ve got a laptop and a semi-reliable internet connection, you’ll be able to make sure your business is running smoothly, then get back to doing what you want!
Profitable With Passive Income
Passive income is the holy grail of making money while leading the life you want — it means earning money separate from working hours.
Most salaries are dependant on the number of hours worked. An employee agrees with their employer to sell their time for a pre-determined price in a contractual agreement. Thus, the employees’ earning potential is capped by the number of hours they are willing or able to work.
With a passive income revenue stream from your lifestyle business, you earn while you don’t work. If you’ve set up your lifestyle business correctly, you’ll earn passive income with just a few hours, a few days a week.
You can dedicate the rest of your time to your community, hobbies, family or whatever cause you feel passionate about.
What Are the Benefits of Running a Lifestyle Business?
There are multiple benefits of choosing a lifestyle business over a different business model.
As I’ve already mentioned, a lifestyle business requires little-to-no initial investment, can generally be run from anywhere, and generates passive income.
One of the best things I’ve found about starting my lifestyle business is the chance to meet so many other inspiring people who value the same virtues as I do. I can have discussions with these incredible people and share their knowledge with others, like yourself, who are also seeking financial freedom.
But how does a lifestyle business measure up against, say, running a startup? Or, a physical business?
Benefits of a Lifestyle Business vs Startups and Physical Businesses
Lifestyle businesses and startups can easily be considered one and the same — but they’re not.
Yes, a startup is usually a passion project, something the founders feel passionately about, but it’s on a whole different level than a lifestyle business.
And with physical businesses, there are other things to consider, particularly licensing, stock and staff management, and logistics.
- Funding
For one, a startup or physical business usually takes tens if not thousands of dollars to get up and running.
Startup founders generate this capital through sequential funding rounds, all of which take ownership away from the founders.
The more people invested in your business, the less autonomy you have, and the more people you have to answer to. Thus, you own less of your own time as the founder of a startup or physical business when compared to a lifestyle business owner.
- Time Commitment
Funded start-ups are designed for rapid expansion and fast profitability.
While many of the early profits will go back into the startup, investors want to see early revenue growth to know that their investment is secure and worthwhile — meaning startup business founders will be working around the clock to grow their business as fast as possible.
With a physical business, you’ll be working the longest hours of any employee to ensure your service or product is up-to-scratch.
The whole point of starting your lifestyle business is to get away from this vicious cycle of work and money, so be very clear about the scope and goal of your project before embarking.
- Risk
As with any investment, there is significant risk involved in starting a startup or physical business.
While the potential financial upside is often significantly greater for startups, there can be a lot on the line, making for a pretty stressful first few years of running the business before achieving financial freedom and living the life you want.
Starting With Creative Lifestyle Business Ideas: What You Should Know
Deciding you want to change your life with creative lifestyle business ideas is an empowering step in the right direction.
But, before jumping in with both feet, there are two things I want to talk about: value and visualization.
Create Value
The one constraint a lifestyle business has is this — it must provide a benefit to your customers.
If your business doesn’t help improve your clients’ lives, it won’t work as a lifestyle business. Your lifestyle business needs to solve a problem that you notice people have.
Consider your lifestyle business with this context, and you’ll be off to a good start.
Visualize Your Lifestyle Business
I’d like you to visualize the type of lifestyle business you want.
Doing so will give you a clear idea of the type of lifestyle business best suited to your needs.
A great way to do this to write down these questions and answer them for yourself:
- What will a lifestyle business enable me to do?
- How much income do I want to make?
- How much work do I want to do?
- How flexible do I want my schedule to be?
- How much growth potential do I want for my business?
- What is my timeframe?
Consider these questions in the frame of the daily life you want to create, and you’ll have a good idea of which kind of lifestyle business will best suit your needs.
If you’d like, you can save, download and print off the sheet below and keep it at your desk to help guide you towards the right lifestyle business for you.
3 Real-World 6-Figure Lifestyle Business Examples
Here, I want to show you three lifestyle business examples of people who have taken this concept to the next level and live their dream lives. Some of these guys are your average Joes, and others are world-class athletes.
But regardless of who they are and where they’ve come from, all of these individuals inspire and remind me just how amazing it is to live life on your own terms.
- Coach Domonique
People who are passionate about other people often succeed very well at running a lifestyle business.
Take Coach Domonique as an example — she turned away from the lawyer career path to pursue her dream of helping people realize their own potential through coaching.
With a nurturing nature and a drive to excel, Domonique earned coaching certificates and began her coaching lifestyle business. Now, she can adjust her schedule as she wishes, taking on more clients when she needs, or working only with her steady clients when she wants time for herself.
Domonique handles her business as she sees fit — and her clients love her for it.
- Nathan Florence
Those of my freedom fighters who are into wave riding will probably know John John Florence’s younger brother Nathan.
Nathan avoided competitive surfing, often overshadowed by his world champion older brother. But that didn’t stop Nathan from creating his own 6-figure lifestyle business based on Youtube Vlogging and Instagramming.
Through his social media accounts, Nathan gives his followers insight into his daily life, his workouts, his supplements, his equipment, his travels and exploits — all done just by documenting his incredible lifestyle.
In return, Nathan has healthy sponsorship deals with some leading health and wellness brands that fund him and give him the freedom to enjoy his life.
The key to Nathan’s rapid success as a lifestyle Youtuber has been consistency, creating a personal connection with his audience, and offering valuable insight that benefits his followers — information such as how to train, eat and prepare for surfing.
While Nathan is at the forefront of his sport, if you have a passion for an activity and excel at it, documenting your training and your journey could be a very enabling lifestyle business.
- Mark Dawson
Self-publisher Mark Dawson reportedly earns over $400,000 per year from his extensive library of self-published books and eBooks for Kindle.
Mark experienced frustration at the beginning of his writing career — way back in 2000 when his first book, The Art of Falling Apart, flopped.
But, after learning how to research hot topics and self-publish on Kindle, Mark now enjoys a lifestyle where he can write, read or do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to.
While you certainly don’t need to grow your self-published library on Amazon to the extent that Mark has, this example demonstrates the immense potential that eBook publishing has as a lifestyle business.
7 Creative Business Ideas for Lifestyle Entrepreneurs in 2021
Now that I’ve given you a clear idea of what a lifestyle business is and demonstrated how accessible it can be, let’s take a look at some of the best business ideas for lifestyle entrepreneurs that you can consider during 2021.
These ideas are focused on creating a passive income — so we’ve excluded some popular lifestyle business ideas that take more of your time.
Self-Publishing on Kindle
Are you a gardening or yoga expert? Do you see people struggling to get the most out of home cooking or nutrition? Or perhaps, like Mike Dawson, you’re an unrealized thriller author. Then write down your stories and expertise and help people lead better lives with your knowledge.
There are over 90 million Kindle users globally and over 500,000,000 Kindle books sold through the platform yearly.
As self-published authors keep 70% of their profits, self-publishing on Kindle is a fantastic lifestyle business idea. Once you create a library of 10-15 small but desirable books, you’ll see passive income coming in every month.
Online Course Creation
Lifestyle business entrepreneurs can share their knowledge with people looking to learn from them. With the e-learning market predicted to be worth $325 billion come 2025, there is plenty of opportunities to earn passive income as an online course creator.
Know about a particular but perhaps obscure skill — like animal training, flying a drone, hooping, skipping, embroidery, painting, even how to make and fire a slingshot? Then create an online course.
While celebrities offer writing, cooking and acting classes on Masterclass, everyday individuals like yourself deliver video courses to students through online platforms like Udemy, Thinkific and Teachable.
Starting a Youtube Channel With Sponsorships
Starting a Youtube channel might be one of the most enjoyable lifestyle businesses out there.
Take the channel In The Pocket MMA, for example. A relatively new and small channel (57k subscribers), these guys make compilations of their favorite MMA news and fights and post them.
They already work with Man Scaped as a sponsor, and as they continue to publish content consistently and grow, more sponsorships will come.
If you’re passionate about anything — rock climbing, free diving, surfing — you can make compilation videos or instructional videos and create a profitable Youtube channel lifestyle business around it.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing offers enormous potential as a passive income lifestyle business. If you own a website, Youtube channel or Instagram account with a dedicated number of followers, you can recommend products to your followers.
You’ll earn commission on every product you sell from your site because, as a registered affiliate marketer, you are assigned a unique tracking code that identifies you as the seller.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping involves the manufacturer or storer of goods delivering products directly to consumers.
This means that as a drop shipper, you don’t need any stock of your own. Simply set up an e-commerce store, market your products and enjoy passive income while the manufacturers take care of delivery and stock for you.
Amazon Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA)
If you can source your product, using an FBA lifestyle business model enables you to store your products at Amazon’s warehouses and leverage the Amazon website to advertise and sell your wares.
This business model benefits from established high-volume traffic, but you’ll need to make your product stand out because competition can be stiff on these platforms.
Starting a Blog
This lifestyle business is close to my heart because it’s how I started.
Blogging isn’t as easy as it used to be and takes plenty of upfront leg work. But, the beauty of this lifestyle business idea is how you get to truly share your story with the world and make passive income doing it.
Blogging becomes profitable through affiliate marketing, but once you’ve grown your blog to a specific size, you can be very particular about the products you recommend.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this article has given you insight into why starting a lifestyle business can be a good idea — and whether or not it is a good idea for you!
The ideas I’ve included are the best and most accessible ideas for creating a passive income stream, and I didn’t want to overwhelm you with too many options.
If you’re wondering how to get started today by implementing these lifestyle business ideas, then I’m offering a 100% free last-minute sign up to my online workshop on how we used a brand new “Silver Lining Method” to make $10/day, then systematically grow to $100/day, then $1,000/day and more.
