Business lifestyle - lifestyle business?

Business lifestyle, lifestyle business. How do you go about making a choice on how to run your business?

Many businesses remain as ideas, many splutter and fail and some just don't work.

It's a truth that running your own business can be a lot of hard work for little or no more pay than your previous employment.

By giving up your job and going it alone you have to accept you may fail.

I’m not dismissing the idea of self employment because if you have read this far you are probably realistic enough to accept this already.

But, you have to make a choice if it's for you and if that choice is yes you then have to take on those responsibilities.

People who do make those choices and make a go of it roughly fall into four camps:

The life of leisure

The Business is successful to a point but will have little growth beyond a pre defined point. The owner doesn't want to expand further because it is too much work. This may be due to other commitments or just lack of interest.

The hedonistic approach.

The Business is a means to supporting a defined lifestyle. The owner works for a limited time each day or week so as to pursue other interests. One example is typified by travellers who work to support their travels. You can just as easily right a report in a nice location as you can write the same report at your desk.

The adventurous approach.

The business is driven by the owners desire to express their skills and talents in a meaningful way. Creative arts and passions are supported by this model.

The traditional model.

The business is driven by material gains. Pre defined goals and targets are set with the aim of encouraging investment and further growth. Most large companies and corporations operate this model.

These and all of their variations are acceptable models that can work but as an owner or operator you have to make a choice on your abilities and desires.

The first three models need a driving force to make them continue. The owner or founder needs to be constantly involved to keep the direction of the business fit the aims of their goals.

If the owner of the business loses interest then it also loses direction and will probably disappear. This type of lifestyle business is a way of keeping your options open but not necessarily a way of making large amounts of money.

The fourth model or traditional approach has more possibilities for expansion but retaining control of it is only a means to an end.

Another option is to keep your job or downgrade the hours so as to run a business as a sideline or hobby. Many successful entrepreneurs have 2 or 3 businesses and continually expand these and create more.

(This has the advantage of spreading the risk of a downturn in income but requires a full time approach).

The purpose of this article is to make clear some of the options available to you and make a choice about a business lifestyle that fits your aims and needs.

It is crucial to think out what you want from working for your self and make a choice before you begin.

Because when you start working for yourself the only thing you can be sure of is that you will have plenty of choices to make.

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