Lifestyle Entrepreneurship Is the Ultimate in Work-Life Balance The Internet and social media make it possible to blend satisfying work into the rhythms of your entire life.
By Kimanzi Constable Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It's amazing to think about all the opportunities that are available to entrepreneurs today. In this Information Age, social media and the Internet have created a whole new way of doing business and making more money. The access has taken away many of the traditional gatekeepers.
Today, we also get to learn skills and strategies that we can use in the offline world. You can take your knowledge and leverage it for opportunities that wouldn't have been available even 10 years ago. It offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to create a lifestyle business centered on a topic or idea you love and are passionate about.
I'm writing this article from a café in Madrid, Spain. I was hired by a company to train at their offices here in Madrid, and in Marrakech, Morocco. They paid me a generous fee and covered all of my expenses. I'm traveling the world and using the knowledge I gained online for an offline opportunity. It's not just me. There's a new generation of lifestyle entrepreneurs who are redefining what we traditionally think entrepreneurship means.
Related: How You Know You've Created the Company of Your Dreams
The true meaning.
The term and idea of "lifestyle entrepreneurship" has gotten a bad rap. The negative connotation is because of spammy YouTube videos or Facebook ads that promise opportunity but deliver hype. "Living the laptop" lifestyle is possible, but not in the way it's portrayed.
Lifestyle entrepreneurship simply means you create a business around the kind of lifestyle you want. It's not that you work in your business and then come home and live. Your business supports your life and allows you to create freedom while making an impact in people's lives.
A lifestyle business usually allows flexibility in your schedule and location. It's a business that you can operate from anywhere in the world or takes you anywhere in the world. I travel several times a year internationally, but still write and coach. The travel is part of my lifestyle business. I get to take my family on incredible trips while the business continues to make money. That, to me, is freedom.
Related: 10 Tips That Will Help Launch Your Startup Faster
Change what you believe is possible.
Four years ago, I had a business in the vendor industry. It meant that I was up at midnight delivering bread. Today, my lifestyle business brings surreal opportunities and chances to live out what once were dreams. It took fours years to make this lifestyle my reality, and it didn't start until I changed what I believed.
Self-limiting beliefs keep you from taking action on the kind of life and business you want to create. Doubt, fear and the voices of negative people keep many entrepreneurs from all that's possible in their life. This journey to freedom starts in your mind. Change what you believe is possible and then take the first steps. You have everything you need. The haters are wrong.
Never settle in life or business.
A well-lived life will mean something different to every entrepreneur reading this. There is no one-size-fits-all definition. I think we all can agree that if we settle for "good enough," we'll never experience "great."
This Information Age has opened a whole new world of opportunities to take a new or existing business to greater heights. This is the time to take advantage of all the opportunity by not settling. Use the tools and access to do things that may have merely been dreams.
Lifestyle entrepreneurship is not a myth -- it's just been portrayed in a bad light. You don't have to travel the world to be a lifestyle entrepreneur. You have to figure out what kind of life you want to live and create a business that supports that lifestyle.
Life is too short and time is the one thing we can't recover. Create a business that helps you reach your major life goals. The opportunity is there. The tools and knowledge are freely available. It's hard work to build, but it's worth the effort. The rewards you'll experience can be life changing.
If you are willing to wake up each day determined to work hard and focus, you'll reach your goals. There is no overnight success. Every case of overnight success has a backstory of years of hard work and focused effort. There are those entrepreneurs who love to talk about all the things they will do, and then there are those who do it. Be the entrepreneur who takes action and you'll create a business and life you love.
Related: 7 Lessons From Entrepreneurs Who Kept Their Day Jobs While Starting Their Businesses
