1. Copy what’s working
Having no competitors is not a good sign. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
If there are no other products in your market you probably have to invest a lot of time and money into creating the product and evaluating the market. You also need to change people habits meaning a lot of money needs to be spent on marketing.
Instead go into a market where money is already being spent, evaluate the competition and then try to do it just a little bit better. That can be to compete on price, service, features, delivery whatever really.
This will have your lifestyle business up and running much faster.
2. Create a business that can be automated
If you need to spend time proportionally with each new client, then you’re doing it wrong. It’s ok to spend a little more time if you got 100 clients than if you have just one, but it shouldn’t be 1 to 1.
In the beginning it is ok for things to be proportionally but you need to be able to automate this down the line be using either technology or outsourcing. If you build a business that needs you all the time, you won’t gain freedom and you will eventually end up working you ass off.
3. Start with something you are passionate about
A lot of people tell me that they have no idea of what that should build. The same people can talk on and on about some obscure hobby they have. Well, there you have it.
Start out with by building a business around something that you are truly passionate about. Just for one second don’t think business plans and markets, just that you are passionate about this subject.
You passion will be transferred to your potential customers and you are less inclined to quite at the first sign of obstacles (and believe me, when building a business you will hit obstacles along the way).
4. Just Do It
All successful lifestyle entrepreneurs share one secret ninja ability.
They DO stuff.
They don’t sit around at parties explaining everyone what a great idea they have, or how much money they will get if they only chose to implement their idea.
Successful entrepreneurs know that they won’t make a dime just having an idea, so the act on that idea, kick ass and do stuff.
I love Nike’s slogan “Just Do It” because it’s short (something my limited brain can remember – great :)) and it’s something I again and again want to tell people who are telling me about their new great idea but I know won’t ever pursue it.
5. Realize that there is no 4 Hour Workweek
I think it was a great book, and it was the one that inspired me to take action and work less and live more. But if you think that this is a quick fix for being a lazy ass, then think again. It is hard work while you are building the business, the idea is to have it as automated as possible once it is built, but until then forget about actually building a business using only 4 hours per week (unless you have a really long timeline).
Timothy Ferriss himself spend 80 hour weeks before he look at automating his business!
6. There is no failure, only feedback
Now this is a statement that is used in NLP and as I wrote earlier you will experience obstacles when building a business.
Now you can be use those obstacles to tell yourself that you’re a failure and you can’t build a lifestyle business, or you can simply think of them differently.
There are no failures only feedback on how not to do things!
And now that I know how not to do it, I can simply try and do it again, this time with a higher chance of success. If you thought of yourself as a failure, there is a chance that you will quit all together in order to avoid any repetition of a potential future failure.
7. Focus on producing
You are either producing stuff or consuming something that someone else produced. So where do you want to be?
Yeah sure watching X-Factor on television is probably great entertainment, but it’s not bringing your lifestyle business forward.
If you want a lifestyle business you want to have a producer mindset. To create content, products, checklists for outsources, writing sales copy, autoresponder emails and what have you.
Remember one thing, while “research” might sound like a good idea. Don’t get stuck with this, when you are researching you are consuming and you want to start producing as quickly as possible.
8. Reach out – or you go crazy
When creating a lifestyle business you are most likely a solo entrepreneur. And if you would you could probably just sit around home in your 3 day old underwear and nothing else (unless you have a spouse that is on you ass about it :)).
If you don’t reach out and talk to other people you will eventually go crazy. And I’m not talking about just chatting with people on Twitter or commenting your Friends’ updates on Facebook. I’m talking about going out and interacting with real humans.
9. Solve people’s problems
Want to make money? Easy enough, just solve people problems. The hard part is most often getting your problem solving product in front of people having the problem.
A lot of clever people want you to built stuff that you yourself would want to buy. Forget about that, I could come up with the first 10 products that I would like for myself that no one else in the whole world would like to pay money for.
No instead you should focus on solving common problems – and have this mantra in your mind as your building the business and your products. You only make money as long as you solve other people’s problems.
The closer you can come to solving the exact problem, the easier it will be to pursued people to buy your product.
10. Kick ass and have a blast
Remember that you don’t build a lifestyle business over night, so unless you enjoy the process you will eventually run out of energy.
For someone like me who’s very result oriented, this can actually be a hard thing as I don’t value the process that much.
So this is one of the things that I’ve worked a lot with for the last couple of years.
So while you’re using your ninja kick ass skills on building your lifestyle business that will provide you with time and freedom, remember to enjoy the journey as well.
Rasmus Lindgren is the author of The Lifestyle Business Rockstar: Quit your 9-5, kick ass, work less, and live more!,which is a guide to prioritizing your life and achieving work-life balance by starting a lifestyle business. To learn more, visit LifestyleBusinessRockstar.com
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