A fundamental question for any entrepreneur: What do I want from my business?

[Erik Heyl]

My wife and I are definitely Lifestyle. We figure what's the point if you can't travel, and experience new things because you've got an empire. Life, especially the past 3 years (Mum dying, my brother dying in 3 weeks after a cancer diagnosis), is too damn short. So for us, the idea is moving to a country with better tax laws and lower cost of living (and maybe, please god, no idiot politicians). We're in Canada right now.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ernman]

Great post! Rep xfr

Lifestyle

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[astr0]

Small enterprise.

My prospects currently have two options to get what they want: freelancers or "normal" outsourcing corporations. The problem first is the limited skill set of an individual, meaning one freelancer usually good at 1-3 skills max. The problem with second is that they usually work with larger businesses/enterprises so their process is tuned for that. Their average budgets are way higher than in my niche, projects are way longer and they spend a lot of customer's time and money on bureaucratic things that make no sense in my niche. Like even the sales process can take weeks or even months.

I'm gone fix that, but can't do it alone.

P.S. Some scale will also make marketing a lot easier.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Shirkahn]

Fantastic post!!!!

Interesting enough I have scratched some of my business ideas based on a similar principle you have mentioned.

I simplified it for myself by asking one question related to my business ideas:

„Will this buy me a private jet to take me anywhere I want to go?“

In fact, i am not interested in owning a private jet because I see it as a bad return on investment - rather rent, lol.
But if the answer is no, I don’t waste my time even if I totally love the idea. I usually try and pitch it to someone else and wish them Luck and even mentor them a little.

Right now my focus is on my enterprise idea which is currently in soft lauch and working toward my hard launch. I won’t have great rewards in the beginning - so no instant gratification but instead long term sustainable growth until the final f@ck you sale. Yes baby.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Johnny boy]

Excellent post. I couldn’t agree more. At first I wanted a lifestyle business, then I realized I’d get bored and I wanted more so I started thinking long term.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bumped, marked NOTABLE.

 

[Ubu_roi]

Great post!

I'm just wondering: is a lifestyle business really Fastlane?

By the way, I'm personally more inclined towards the lifestyle business, but I'm not really sure it can reach the kind of magnitude that brings you to to the Event...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Knicks]

Isn't a lifestyle business a selfish approach? Yes, I get it we are working mainly for ourselves to either satisfy our desire for a better life than we have now or had in the past. I also confess to be guilty of this attitude. Getting out of the slowlane is just a satisfying thing in itself. To say goodbye to your old life and begin a chapter of freedom of choice and autonomy is what everyone here wants I guess. In the short term at least.

What if someone is eager to build a legacy but haven't build anything yet? Maybe then a lifestyle business is the right path to build the dream life one ever wanted. At this point the mission would be to create value for others and simultaneously build net worth. I think it's also possible to get a mind-shift in terms of meaning and purpose, because the successful one person company and the more or less ordinary life seems simply too boring. The solution in this case would be to put oneself out of the equation and sell the business.

The second step in the journey of the now more experienced entrepreneur would be to find something to put his money and time in. And here comes my point: Isn't an enterprise business, built around a great idea that benefits society so much that the price you're asking is a no brainer because of the value you're providing, the only thing that matters in the end? Meaning in terms of scale and impact. Just like saving the world from a major disease or providing a solution for a better life.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you driven by an inner force to change the world for the better and to leave a legacy and even rewrite history by a little? Or are you in search of an easy life by your own means?

For me accomplishment means that my actions really benefitted society in a great way. Like the invention of something new and revolutionary.

Is an attitude like this beneficial in the beginning as an entrepreneur or am I destined for failure because I'm thinking too big right at the start of my journey?

 

[diogoatmelo]

While lifestyle does have that "travel" and nomad feel stuck to it, for me it's more about having more options and alternatives. I don't travel much like I said, but the option to stay for a month when I do travel is the main focus. I have that option, most people don't.

So it isn't about travel, it's about having the option to move freely.

I do not travel much. Maybe 1-3 times a year. However, when I go I stay for a month where I go. Maybe that is not unusual, but back in my day and people I know that work standard jobs, it's typically a week or less for them.

A week they had to work a year for to obtain ( so they had to work their job a year or more to get the week ), and they had to ask/beg for once they got it. Many times they have to "coordinate" their time off with others in the office so the department is not short staffed with more than 2 people off at the same time. And once they get off for that week, the Monday back they have a pile of work 2 weeks thick to now go through.. so what's the point of taking off a week if you come back to 2 weeks of work you have to sift through on Monday? Let's not even mention the phone calls and emails they still get while on their week off too. It happens. This happens in the enterprise... I know maybe not for all, but it does.

I'm in this position. But, to be fair, I have only worked here for 4 months so I don't yet have the right to take vacations. And, to be honest, I don't care for vacations. That's why I feel enterprise is my kind of endeavor.

I do feel, however, tempted by lifestyle businesses due to their development speed, as you mentioned. I feel this will provide me with the resources to quit my job and focus solely on my entrepreneurial career.

And, most of all, it will give me the much-needed experience without the potential downside being too high. At least that's how I feel.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bump, a lot of new folks here.

 

[Antifragile]

• Are you looking to build something with massive scale and impact?
• Are you looking to build something with the intent to exit for 8 figures or more?
• Are you looking to build a team that can take you places farther than you could ever go on your own?
• Are you interested in being a CEO of a large company?
• Are you interested in working 60-80 hour weeks for years? 40 hours from a dayjob are included in this estimate and don’t burn yourself out people, be smart.
• Are you willing to risk 5, 10, or more years of your life to see a business idea through to its fruition?
• Are you looking to get investors to invest in your products and ideas?
• Are you looking for your own David vs Goliath journey?
• Are you looking to push yourself to your limits and build a legacy?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, then an enterprise business is probably for you.

What an excellent post. Thanks to @MJ DeMarco for sending text today to direct to this one.

For me its 100% enterprise. Whenever I got a little bit of "lifestyle" I felt bored and unhappy. I am in RE and love it. The answer to most of those questions quoted above are a resounding YES. Especially the last one: "Are you looking to push yourself to your limits and build a legacy?" - Absolutely!

Great post.

 

[MTF]

Elaine's book came out today so I guess I can post the short page that I'm in. I'm quoted in a few other places but they were just a couple sentences and not worth mentioning. I've haven't started the book yet, so I can't make any comment on the rest of it.


View attachment 42126View attachment 42127

Thanks for reminding me about this book. I was waiting for it. Cool to hear you're featured there.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

Don't a lot of "lifestyle businesses" fall into MJ's "monomorphic pay" principle?

Not if they comply with CENTS.

 

[Jonathan French]

I’ve got a friend that I call a few times a month to see if he’s taken action on his ideas and help him break down any barriers he may have. We’ll talk about what he’s doing and he’ll throw up a bunch of excuses about why he can’t launch yet, albeit it’s been 4 years since he started his entrepreneurial journey. His excuses may be something like this; “I have to have videos first, I have to have a website first, I have to have this and that before I can make my first calls”. Mind you, this cycle has been going on for years, but he's made a bit of cash here and there while hustling.

I never knew if there was a single question I could ask that would help him find out what it was he really wanted from being an entrepreneur.

I had a thought that maybe I should figure out what question should be asked at the beginning of anyone's journey.

The question that popped into mind was: Do you want a lifestyle business, or an enterprise?

It turns out he wanted a lifestyle business, but was getting advice from someone building an enterprise. He never knew that what he wanted was a lifestyle business, but now he can go out and get the resources he needs to get it done.

I think that this is a fundamental question that any entrepreneur should ask themselves before starting any sort of business.

What is it that you are wanting out of your journey? What do you want your journey to look like?

Let's break down the two business types.

Lifestyle Business: Some E-commerce/Amazon businesses, drop shipping, SEO services, copywriting services, Freelancing, other internet related ventures that focus solely on you as the one and only “employee” in a company. Lifestyle businesses make enough to cover your lifestyle and that’s about it. They allow you to potentially work a few hours a day, if that, and from anywhere in the world. Disclaimer: Some lifestyles may require millions of dollars a year, so you make that much to suit your lifestyle.

• Do you want “profitability” within 1-2 years, or even after few product sales?
• Do you want to be able to work from anywhere in the world with just a laptop and an internet connection?
• Do you want to travel a ton and have your journey to be filled with daily adventures?
• Do you want to do whatever you want, whenever you want, without worrying too much about money?
• Do you want to work as little as possible, no shame in this, and still be able support your lifestyle?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you probably want a lifestyle business.

Enterprise: Some software companies, franchises, massive brands (Yeti Coolers, Johnson and Johnson, Hershey's), large brick and mortar operations (BNSF Railroad, RotoRooter, Gamestop), real estate. Enterprises are huge beasts of scale and a product of relentless execution. Businesses that are at the top of their game, with the intent to dominate a particular market. Enterprises offer you the chance to exit for a large sum of f*ck you money, in exchange for sacrificing 10 years of your life.

• Are you looking to build something with massive scale and impact?
• Are you looking to build something with the intent to exit for 8 figures or more?
• Are you looking to build a team that can take you places farther than you could ever go on your own?
• Are you interested in being a CEO of a large company?
• Are you interested in working 60-80 hour weeks for years? 40 hours from a dayjob are included in this estimate and don’t burn yourself out people, be smart.
• Are you willing to risk 5, 10, or more years of your life to see a business idea through to its fruition?
• Are you looking to get investors to invest in your products and ideas?
• Are you looking for your own David vs Goliath journey?
• Are you looking to push yourself to your limits and build a legacy?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, then an enterprise business is probably for you.



The right choice is what it is you want for yourself. For me, I want an enterprise. I want to take down some of the biggest companies in my industry. I don’t care about traveling, or going places. I just want a massive project to work on and lead a team, as that’s what satisfies me.

What would satisfy you might be sipping coconuts on a beach in Puerto Rico and enjoying seeing $500 in profit for the day. You might enjoy a trip to Thailand to meet up with other like minded lifestyle entrepreneurs for a few months just because you have the freedom to do so.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and both journeys have their own challenges.

Think about what sort of business it is that you want, lifestyle or enterprise, and then figure out how to build it.

Great post

I prefer my enterprise type business and the reason is because …. I’m lazy

The enterprise is the only place where you have a system working for you, i have a brick and mortar business with 3 locations so far, i can be gone for a month and noone would notice, but i would stil get richer each day.

My job now is to find new locations and it’s great fun and no pressure.

In a lifstyle business i would be kinda slave to my work (no work no money).

Regards
Jonathan

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

I work from home so I can spend more time with my kids and family. I’ve no interest in getting an office or hiring employees. I’ll grow my business using processes and technology (and by picking/finding a model that can allow me to scale without increasing headcount).

Hmm. I may increase headcount soon. But still work the same number of hours.

 

[justinbiz]

Not if they comply with CENTS.

I knew I had just listened/read about CENTS (again), but I had a damn hard time re-locating the core text in the Rat Race book. I even had a book mark on #44! Calling it "The Fastlane Strategy" in the TOC was the issue, since it didn't refer to CENTS at all.

 

[Simon Angel]

Hmm. I may increase headcount soon. But still work the same number of hours.

@Andy Black I don't have that desire to hire and manage people either. I like my work and delegating it to others means I'd have less control over the end result. I still use others as resources to help me pull off a marketing campaign when I only have the time (and desire) to get the copywriting done, though.

 

[Simon Angel]

Good post! It highlights the irony of a lot of arguments. That is that the lifestyle business actually demands more of YOU as the owner than the enterprise.

Don’t believe me?

Who handles pissed off customers? What about the happy ones? Who does your books? Your taxes? Your bank account BS? Your website? Who orders inventory? Who monitors inventory? Who forecasts sales? Who runs the ad accounts? Who photographs the shit? Who designs it? Who handles wholesale orders? Who finances large wholesale orders? Who checks a company’s creditworthiness? Who sells? Who manages social media?

I can do this all day…. The answer is you.

An enterprise begins to offload that stuff on someone else and because that person is dedicated to that position, they do it better. Your company becomes better and your customers like you better. Your company is stronger and more competitive because of this and can withstand the test of time better.

I fit the "lifestyle business" shtick more but I can definitely see your point. Curiously, as soon as I read your post I instantly had this sort of objection in my mind:

"Ok, so they delegate everything to others. As "lazy" as that is, they still needed some money and resources to even be able to afford to delegate all of that to others, though, so they still had to get a job at first to be in that position, etc."

But then I remembered you could have zero money and a good idea + execution plan which you can sell to investors/like-minded individuals and still get a business up and running... And be the driving force behind it all.. And then turn that into a machine that pumps out money, jobs, and freedom.

And so, once again, I arrived at the following conclusion:

I F*cking love capitalism.

 

[MTF]

What are we defining as a lifestyle business and what are we defining as an enterprise business?

IMO an enterprise business is a business modeled after corporations. You have an office, managers, employees, departments, investors, a board of directors, etc. Your goal is to increase the profits and value of the company, not necessarily yours. You're receiving a salary and can't easily increase it to whatever you want. In general it's more of a "serious" corporate environment than a casual small business.

In a lifestyle business you're the sole owner (or maybe have a partner), have few employees (and ideally zero 9 to 5 employees and only freelancers), and can pay yourself as much as you want without any scrutiny. This business is generally location-independent, works with clients/contractors ideally remotely, and is designed in such a way to maximize whatever kind of lifestyle the owner wants.

Enterprise = priority on business growth over the owner's lifestyle
Lifestyle = priority on the owner's lifestyle over business growth (EVEN at the expense of profit)

Enterprise = business is an end in itself
Lifestyle = business is a tool for a better lifestyle

The way I see it, in many cases (not all) people interested in enterprise businesses are obsessed about their businesses and business growth and may not have many passions outside of it. People who prefer lifestyle businesses usually aren't as invested in their businesses and their business is a tool to help them live a better lifestyle.

In an online world, any VC-backed tech startup is usually heading the enterprise way while most content-based businesses are lifestyle businesses.

In an offline world, a local surf shop may be a lifestyle business while a chain of sporting goods stores is an enterprise.

I know a guy who runs a Facebook Ads agency with over 200 clients and has a team of freelancers doing the prospecting, sales calls, fulfillment, and customer service. He works a couple of hours a day and is travelling with his wife at the moment.

Is his a lifestyle business or an enterprise business?

IMO it's a lifestyle business. He has a team of freelancers and works very little, focusing on his own lifestyle. So the business accommodates his lifestyle instead of his lifestyle being devoted to the needs of his business.

Are we discussing solopreneurs vs having a team? Can the team be on demand, or do they have to work a set number of hours per month?

By default, all solopreneurs own lifestyle businesses (you can't have an enterprise business without employees) but not all lifestyle businesses are solopreneurial.

Or are we saying the goal of a lifestyle business is just to cover the cost of our lifestyle and we’re not concerned with growth?

The goal of a lifestyle business is to enable the owner to live their life however they wish.

If they want to work only 6 months each year and take the rest of the year off, they can do that because they aren't obsessed about maximizing profit and growth (impossible in an enterprise model).

I wouldn't say it's just to cover the cost of the owner's lifestyle because then by definition a lifestyle business would never generate more than maybe $200-300k/year (probably enough to cover living costs in any country). Successful lifestyle businesses can generate $1m+ a year. Very few people have lifestyles that cost so much so I wouldn't define lifestyle businesses by some kind of an income ceiling.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Walter Hay]

Good point! I've heard about it but haven't explored it much. Have you sold on there before? Do you like the platform?

Check out Trustpilot reviews before you even think of selling on Gumroad.

Walter

 

[diogoatmelo]

Great post.
I'm a bit late to the party.

Personally, I think enterprise is my kind of thing. However, @eliquid did mention owning several lifestyle businesses, which is something I considered.

My way of thinking was to start with a couple of lifestyle businesses that I'll gradually automate and work less time on. These businesses provide me with resources to live and time to work on an enterprise project.

This isn't written in stone. Maybe one of the lifestyle businesses turns out great and I end up not wanting to leave it.

Am I wrong in thinking like this? I would like to know your opinions.

Plus, I have an issue with lifestyle businesses - it almost seems a rule that you must travel if you own such businesses. I don't want to travel, at least right now. I know that no one will make me do it, my point is that the two concepts seem too connected.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[diogoatmelo]

I would still steer you away from "vacation" and "travel freely" mindset.

I used that as an example, since we were on the whole "trips" and such vibe.

Instead of thinking of "option to move freely", just think of it as options.

And while you don't care for vacations ( I get it ) just make sure sure you are not lumping "vacations" as the reason to go enterprise. Make sure you are measuring "options".

For example ( granted I am not the best at commenting on enterprise, so take what I say with grain of salt ), I got up at 10am today. No, that's not when I started working, but when I got out of bed.

I had the option to do that. Lazy? no, I had a reason to.. but not very many people working in Enterprise can do the same unless they are the boss and owner and even then some think this sets a bad example to others. Again I am not an enterprise expert, but unless you have put in years and marketing and have the cash flow to really have the "enterprise", would you do the same? Maybe. If I came in odd hours daily to the office, I would think my employees would be a bit disgruntled after a while. Again, your the boss though so I am just speaking out loud.

I took a 3 hour lunch with my wife and kids on a Tuesday, and went to watch a movie with them. I saw the Joker. Afterward, I smoked a cigar and cut down a tree. Later that night I did business stuff. I had the option to move my hours around.

A week before that, I worked on 2 projects I really personally wanted to work on. I didn't have to work on anything someone gave me, or someone needed help on, or that I felt were so pressing that my company really needed it and would cause issue if I didn't. I had the option to work on any project in any way I felt.

I might be painting the wrong picture as I am sure several in Enterprise can say they can do all this too.

But doing things "my way" and having the options to do so, just seems easier to come by on the "lifestyle" road.

But each person gets their own mileage.

Yeah, I'm using "vacation" and "trips" as an example.

I get what you're saying. You're in control of your time, and someone on an Enterprise might not be able to control theirs. At least fully.

I do think that depends on how you build up the business, though. You might not be able to do that for the first years, but I do think it'll become possible eventually.

Then again, I might be wrong, as I have no experience. It would be nice to hear from someone who has done it before.

 

[Paul David]

Great thread.

I've tried the enterprise thing in my 20's and early 30's. Didn't work out in the end.

I am however still stuck in between. Travel is a big passion of mine so a lifestyle business would help with that. I also want to move to Spain which I've stated on here many times. The UK is just not somewhere I wake up happy each morning. Weather is depressing.

However part of me also wants to build something that lasts when I've gone. ie Facebook, Mars, Under Armour, Nike etc.

When I move to Spain I'm not someone who's going to be sitting on a beach all day twiddling my thumbs. If i'm not travelling and visiting places I'll be working on my laptop. Hopefully on something that I can say at the end I built that.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[journeyman]

Really good thread, and with good timing as I've been thinking about this a lot.

I've tried at least 3 'lifestyle' businesses. All of them didn't make a single $. I did have some success with freelancing but I am nowhere near good enough to make full-time income from it. My plan was to make some money from a lifestyle business and travel while I am young, eventually using profits as capital to fund the enterprise, which has always been the end goal.

Due to the failures, I keep thinking that I waste my time with these small-time ventures as I really want to make an impact in biotech. The counter-argument is, if I can't execute at a high level at something simple, how am I going to succeed at something 10 times more complex?

I came here for answers, but I left with more food for thought. I'll take it.

 

[MTF]

I guess people may have different definitions of what a solopreneur business is.

My self-publishing business is in theory a one-person business but in reality I need contractors for various tasks.

I just don't need to hire employees. I only hire per project and it's an independent person I don't need to manage. Though I guess if you hire the right employee you also don't need to manage them.

Either way, looking forward to her second book and to reading about you @biophase in there.

 

[eliquid]

When I was talking to Elaine, she had mentioned that many of the businesses in her One Person book, now have many employees. And people would complain that these businesses aren't one person anymore! But at the time of the research they were one person. This just shows that many companies evolve and grow.

I think that if you put that no employee constraint on your business, you are suffocating it from the start. You don't need to have 50 employees or even 10. Why not just have 1 or 2 or 3. I just can't see someone purposely keeping it at one person when they know that they need help.

My business crossed a new personal milestone for me last month. I had my employee hire someone. So the 5th person in the company, I don't even know. I just told my employee how much we could pay and he went out and found her. I know her name, but nothing else about her except that she's doing very well at her job.

This is the way I believed business should be ran/started.

I know it's not the only way, or the way everyone does it.. but it has always been my belief it should be.

Other people will think differently of course.

I like to keep things simple and prove out my next steps. Moving in a fashion similar to this just makes total sense to me.

It's nice to see to examples of this out there.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

What a fascinating article on how Gumroad operates with zero meetings, zero deadlines, and zero full-time employees. It sounds like a mix between an enterprise and a lifestyle design model.

No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees

I absolutely love their focus on flexibility. It seems to have the best of both worlds for everyone involved (including their employees who are often part-time entrepreneurs).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[James007Hill]

Interesting thread and concepts. In some ways it is something I struggle with - deciding what type of business I want. I do sometimes flip flop between wanting to build a business that generates a comfortable living and a lot of freedom and flexibility in the process, or going all in from the point of view of sacrificing my freedom and flexibility for a few years for the potential of total freedom and flexibility for the rest of my life after that.

As others have alluded to however, there are many in between types of businesses and similarly what starts as a lifestyle business could easily morph into an enterprise that could end up giving you the truly unscripted life. The key for me recently has been to not overthink it on the basis that doing something, indeed anything, is better than being crippled by the indecision and doing nothing, as I've been guilty of in the past!

 

[woken]

Although I wasn’t familiar with the question, I knew what I wanted to do from the beginning.

I picked up a lifestyle business, one might say, in order to take care of basic needs and expenses. I picked something that only takes 3-4 hours / week on purpose.

Now that my basic needs are covered, I can start working towards my enterprise business without having to worry about compromising stuff because I have to sell something in order to survive.

For me, this makes perfect sense at the present.

There’s a lot of work to do until I can start bringing people in, but that is necessary in order to achieve my goals. I cannot build what I need to build all by myself.
As entrepreneurs, we like to dabble with every aspect of the business, but we must realise there’s better skilled people for each department of the business.

The plan is to put together the idea, the framework and processes in place for others more capable for the job. I’m just sharing the vision and putting together the right team to take my business where it needs to get.

 

[AlaKhalil]

I’ve got a friend that I call a few times a month to see if he’s taken action on his ideas and help him break down any barriers he may have. We’ll talk about what he’s doing and he’ll throw up a bunch of excuses about why he can’t launch yet, albeit it’s been 4 years since he started his entrepreneurial journey. His excuses may be something like this; “I have to have videos first, I have to have a website first, I have to have this and that before I can make my first calls”. Mind you, this cycle has been going on for years, but he's made a bit of cash here and there while hustling.

I never knew if there was a single question I could ask that would help him find out what it was he really wanted from being an entrepreneur.

I had a thought that maybe I should figure out what question should be asked at the beginning of anyone's journey.

The question that popped into mind was: Do you want a lifestyle business, or an enterprise?

It turns out he wanted a lifestyle business, but was getting advice from someone building an enterprise. He never knew that what he wanted was a lifestyle business, but now he can go out and get the resources he needs to get it done.

I think that this is a fundamental question that any entrepreneur should ask themselves before starting any sort of business.

What is it that you are wanting out of your journey? What do you want your journey to look like?

Let's break down the two business types.

Lifestyle Business: Some E-commerce/Amazon businesses, drop shipping, SEO services, copywriting services, Freelancing, other internet related ventures that focus solely on you as the one and only “employee” in a company. Lifestyle businesses make enough to cover your lifestyle and that’s about it. They allow you to potentially work a few hours a day, if that, and from anywhere in the world. Disclaimer: Some lifestyles may require millions of dollars a year, so you make that much to suit your lifestyle.

• Do you want “profitability” within 1-2 years, or even after few product sales?
• Do you want to be able to work from anywhere in the world with just a laptop and an internet connection?
• Do you want to travel a ton and have your journey to be filled with daily adventures?
• Do you want to do whatever you want, whenever you want, without worrying too much about money?
• Do you want to work as little as possible, no shame in this, and still be able support your lifestyle?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you probably want a lifestyle business.

Enterprise: Some software companies, franchises, massive brands (Yeti Coolers, Johnson and Johnson, Hershey's), large brick and mortar operations (BNSF Railroad, RotoRooter, Gamestop), real estate. Enterprises are huge beasts of scale and a product of relentless execution. Businesses that are at the top of their game, with the intent to dominate a particular market. Enterprises offer you the chance to exit for a large sum of f*ck you money, in exchange for sacrificing 10 years of your life.

• Are you looking to build something with massive scale and impact?
• Are you looking to build something with the intent to exit for 8 figures or more?
• Are you looking to build a team that can take you places farther than you could ever go on your own?
• Are you interested in being a CEO of a large company?
• Are you interested in working 60-80 hour weeks for years? 40 hours from a dayjob are included in this estimate and don’t burn yourself out people, be smart.
• Are you willing to risk 5, 10, or more years of your life to see a business idea through to its fruition?
• Are you looking to get investors to invest in your products and ideas?
• Are you looking for your own David vs Goliath journey?
• Are you looking to push yourself to your limits and build a legacy?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, then an enterprise business is probably for you.



The right choice is what it is you want for yourself. For me, I want an enterprise. I want to take down some of the biggest companies in my industry. I don’t care about traveling, or going places. I just want a massive project to work on and lead a team, as that’s what satisfies me.

What would satisfy you might be sipping coconuts on a beach in Puerto Rico and enjoying seeing $500 in profit for the day. You might enjoy a trip to Thailand to meet up with other like minded lifestyle entrepreneurs for a few months just because you have the freedom to do so.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and both journeys have their own challenges.

Think about what sort of business it is that you want, lifestyle or enterprise, and then figure out how to build it.

Thank you for your post, was really helpful to me personally!