Everywhere I turn lately I see people resounding something so simple and so effective when it comes to producing income with an online lifestyle businesses. Don’t. Huh? Yeah…don’t produce income. Forget it. If you’re getting started, or struggling, do something you love instead, do something you know and share it with and for your friends, colleagues (loosely interpreted) and family.
Note: Hard work and educating yourself along the way is a give in.
Oh not that crock again! I just heard the token guy from Europe yell…and I agree with him! What about the tools?! The new web apps! Affiliate marketing, the science of keywords and online advertising! Business, not passion! I want business tips! Monetization! Web traffic secrets! Social Media!…I know!…me too!…but I can’t shake that I’m blinded by all the information, it all takes a back seat, that it’s complimentary to doing what you enjoy and know. Your BUSINESS success will start (and survive) from small tight circle growth and doing things you enjoy…monetization and traffic will follow, here’s why.
That’s How They Did It…
If you listen to the success stories out there, you’ll notice a running theme. This is what it sounds like (very paraphrased)…
- Zen Habits – Leo Babauta “I wanted to quit smoking, get healthy and I just starting writing…later experimenting with ads and ebooks”
- Stuff White People Like – Christian Lander “It just became this thing my Philipino friend and I were talking about, I started it and shared it with a few friends and it just grew…”
- 1000 Awesome things – Neil Pasricha “I don’t have any technical skills, I just started a site, and wrote a few articles, Wired pick up this one post and it went from there to a book deal”
- Green Exam Academy – Pat Flynn “I put my notes online for this exam I was studying for on Architecture and people started asking me to make a book. I just went from there.”
The above examples weren’t out money hunting, they were just turning something they knew, something they loved, into an idea for others to consume. It grew from there. Now, that doesn’t mean people out there purely hunting for dollar signs can’t make money, I’m not that naive, but I’m finding…that’s just not the way you become part of something meaningful and sustaining.
Interesting observation, three of the above websites have a Wikipedia…
Special Thanks
Jet Set Life – Robert Murgatroyd put together an awesome resource called Secrets of Successful Muses (part of their “Jet Set Money” membership…fancy names I know) that really allowed me to see the big picture of how the above guys are making it. The Pat Flynn interview he has especially just made things click. Robert is one of those guys actually living this life, boldly showing it off and providing resources for others to do it. I may review his course in more detail later, I’m working through it now, check it out.
Endurance…
Fusing business and life is scary but it’s also the essence of a lifestyle business. Work must stay separate, but it’s different than a 9-5 where work and life are completely different worlds. How many of us have to actively attempt to decompress from work so we can feel like we have a life? That makes me sad, and shouldn’t be so with a lifestyle business.
In a lifestyle business your “work” needs to be compartmentalized into your life, but also embraced. It can’t feel forced or it falls into the same traps as a company job. It’s imperative you enjoy what you’re doing! It becomes sustainable this way. Sure, you’ll adapt your actions (eventually) to monetize, but make sure that starting a membership site or writing a book is a morphed idea from something you genuinely enjoy, this way you’ll push through the initial barriers. Example: I don’t like writing, but I love helping people with computers. I’m using tips, tools and tricks to write and promote a book on backing up, which is an outpouring of my passion. Start with something you enjoy, be open minded from there. Gary Vaynerchuk loves wine, he could care less about video blogs, but he was open minded on how to morph his love for wine into something for others to consume.
The New Economy…
We’re blinded (I know I have been) by the new avenues of how to make money online, how easy it is in concept to make “online ad dollars”, to get “paypal-ed”, get a book deal, etc that we completely forget a lifestyle business is more about doing what we love and gaining the currency of joy, self expression, opportunity, and freedom then it is about dollars or using tools. It’s still about the dollars, just not in a cold sense. This is different than an offline business. An offline business stands much sturdier on calculated decisions alone. The playing field has shifted in this new economy.
Traditional businesses are often filling a tangible life need, while online businesses, rarely so. There’s cross over sure, but let’s be real, the online businesses we’re stabbing at here are selling us “how to live well in Thailand”, “how to have a zen life”, french sailor shirts, or GPS voices. Most times, our businesses don’t even sell a physical good, they are content based! Trust is tantamount for the buyer and passion pivotal for the seller. When we forget this, we falter.
Momentum…
Do what you love (or at least enjoy), and do it for your friends and family first, ask them to share it! Let your next idea be influenced in this way. The context with which you bring to helping someone you have some sort of relationship with is inherently more committal than a complete stranger or an idea you have no “umph” for. Productive momentum swells in your direction without you even knowing it. So many, including myself think that our online plans need to be executed in secret on the interwebs with big business mindsets. Our viral tools and new SEO theories will win the day and create unending streams of money..NOT! in reality we’re scared…creating content for friends in your field or family is not only more valuable, you’ll enjoy it more, get started quicker and do a better job. (plus they’ll call you out when it sucks)
Onward.
Note: The business type is important here. There’s a lot of room to include a more traditional or “typical” business structure, in which I would heavily focus on system design, outsourcing, and documentation. I still value them highly, but motivation is paramount to a lifestyle business and when starting out in general.
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