Are You A Closet Lifestyle Entrepreneur?
Henrietta Harrison, M.A., L.M.F.T

Okay, so "What is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur?" Put simply, someone who goes into business primarily for lifestyle rewards rather than financial rewards. The lifestyle payoff might be living on the beach or at the base of a ski mountain, working fewer or more flexible hours, escaping the tyranny of corporate culture, doing the kind of work you love or any combination.

There are 20 million small business owners in the U.S. and it's estimated that up to 90% of them are motivated primarily by lifestyle rather than money.

John Warnillow, a market research guru based in Toronto, suggests there are three types of small business owners:

Mountain Climbers: they're primarily driven to achieve financial success
Freedom Fighters: they mainly seek independence
Craftspeople: they want to do the work they love

Warnillow sees Mt. Climbers as 10% of small business owners, Freedom Fighters as 30% and Craftspeople as 60%. So by his estimate, 90% care more about lifestyle than wealth.

Make no mistake, Lifestyle Entrepreneurs are not hobbyists. They are business people intent on making money; but their focus is not primarily acquisition of wealth. They are people who have identified the life they want to live and then started a business which fosters and pays for that life. They agree with the writer Christopher Morley's definition of success: "spending your life in your own way."

Why do Lifestyle Entrepreneurs start the businesses they do? There are probably as many reasons as there are business owners. Some reasons include: the independence of being your own boss; flexible work schedule so you can play golf every day, being able to work from home to help your kids with their homework; making your living doing something you love doing; living where you want; doing work that has special meaning for you, to name a few.

Do some of these desires and aspirations sound familiar? If so you may be a closet Lifestyle Entrepreneur.

So let's say you decided to give up the corporate life, forego your paycheck and do your own thing. How would you get started?

First, you need to imagine your ideal life. If you could do whatever you wanted to, what would it be? It's crucial to assume anything is possible. People have created viable businesses scuba diving in the Bahamas, baking cookies for pets, guiding motorcycle trips through the Himalayas. First dream up your ideal scenario and then ground it in reality by finding a way to do what you want to do.

Another way to get started is to ask yourself "What do I do for fun?" People create businesses out of the wackiest hobbies and pastimes. Remember, we're talking about creating a life, not just a living.

Figuring out what we want out of life can be surprisingly difficult. Many of us are so consumed by the often overwhelming routines & responsibilities of daily life we've forgotten how to daydream. Or, we simply lack the spark to go after our ideal life and turn our occasional fantasy into daily reality. We find lots of reasons why we can't: "I have too many responsibilities", "I can't afford to", People like me don't do that sort of thing", "I wouldn't know how to go about it". There are 1001 reasons to stay stuck with the status quo.

If you're going to be a Lifestyle Entrepreneur you've got to get unstuck and start moving toward your ideal life. That's a big part of what Coaches do when we coach our clients. We help them to figure out what they want to do with their life and then help them make it happen. Put another way, "Where do you want to end up? What will it look like when you get there? How can you get from here to there?"

A coach is like a personal trainer for your life. Your coach will help you shape up the parts of your life you're not satisfied with. Think of your coach is a skilled partner who will help you to focus on a vision for where you'd like to be, guide you through an action plan to get there and help you stay the course through accountability, encouragement and support. Your coach's mission is to help you attain what hasn't been attainable on your own.

Coaching is about re-inventing yourself as someone living your values & priorities more genuinely. It's a way to generate a high degree of focus, to marshal strengths and overcome obstacles to accomplish the possible. Coaching is about possibility thinking and co-creating ways to make possibilities happen. As George Eliot wrote "It's never too late to be what you might have been."

So, if you think there may be a Lifestyle Entrepreneur deep inside you itching to emerge, do something about it. Anything. Take one tiny step in the direction of visualizing your ideal life and then making it happen. That tiny step may turn out to be the biggest move you'll ever make.