How to build a business around the life you want to live

Want to know how to build a business around the life you want to live? Did you start a business for freedom, control over your time and a better work/life balance, and now it all feels like a far-fetched dream? Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can absolutely build a business around the life you want. You just have to get intentional and make strategic decisions. Keep on reading to find out how to build a business around the life you want to live.  

 

This page may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

Step 1: Get clear on the life you want to live 

I thought long and hard before choosing the title of this blog post. In the world of business and entrepreneurship there is a lot of talk about finding a good work/life balance and creating a business that works for you. I could have easily written a blog post called ‘How to build a business that fits around your life’ (and who knows maybe I will one day) but I chose not to. The fact is that right now you might not be living your dream life and so building a business that fits around your life at the moment isn’t necessarily the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be living your dream life and having a business that allows you to live that life. That is why I decided to focus on how to build a business around the life you want to live.  

 

The big question is “Do you know what life you want to live?”. Some people have a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve, but others don’t. Before you start building your business in the right way you need to get clear on the vision for your life so if you are clear you can move onto Step 2, but if not take some time to work out what you really would like your life to be like.  

 

There are so many personal development tools out there to help you start to create a vision for your dream life. Some of my favourites are the wheel of life and the perfect week. The Wheel of Life is a great tool to help you think about your life from a well-rounded perspective as you have to choose 8 different areas of your life to consider. You can find out more about the wheel of life here. The Perfect Week is an exercise to help you visualise what a week in your dream life would look like. You can find our more about the perfect week here.  

 

 

Step 2: Design your ideal business that will allow you to have the life you want to live 

Once you are clear on the life you want to live you can start designing your business. I work with business owners who solely, or predominately, sell their services and/or products online. One of the reasons that an online business is so appealing is because it allows freedom around location. If the vision of your dream life involves a lot of travel, then it would make sense to have a location-independent business rather than a physical shop. That example is pretty obvious but there are so many more choices you can make in order to create a business that truly works for your dream lifestyle.  

 

Here are some examples of how knowing what you want your life to be like can impact what you decide to offer.  

 

 

Want to be able to take months off at a time – Have a signature live group programme that requires x months prepping for the launch and then xx months delivering but then there are months when you can be free to do what you want. Or ensure you have passive income streams that allow you to be able to make money without physically having to work.  

 

 

Want to work throughout the whole year, but only work 1-2 days a week – Run a membership or mastermind programme. 

 

 

Want to only have to work when you feel inspired – Create digital products and build the necessary team around you.  

 

 

When designing a business around the life you want to live some common things to consider are: 

• Where you want to be able to work from 
• When you’d like to work (and when you’d like not to) 
• What you’d need in order to work 
• How available you are happy to be  
• How much money you’d like to be able to personally earn through the business 

 

Step 3: Map out how to build that dream business

You might be reading this and be thinking about starting a business or you might already have a business (but it isn’t providing you with the life you want yet). In either situation there is a gap between where you are and where you want to be. Now I would love to say you can click your fingers and you’ll have your dream business and dream life, but that isn’t how it works for most people.  

 

You will need to map out how you get to that dream business stage and appreciate that in the meantime it might not provide you with everything that you want. However, you need to realise that this is a season of your business and if you can go through it then the reward will be worth it.  

 

For example, maybe your goal is to have a membership so you have recurring revenue and can work 2 days a week. Right now, you are offering 1-to-1 coaching and your feel your audience is smaller than the number of members you’d need in the membership to make your desired revenue target. That would mean in the meantime you continue to offer 1-to-1 coaching, but with the membership being your utlimate aim you focus on building your audience and behind-the-scenes are creating the membership offering.  

 

A lot can happen in a year, especially when you are strategic. That is why I run 2022 Strategy Days. We’ll work together for the day and work out how to make your business goals for 2022 happen. We’ll review your services and pricing, as well as your marketing and sales strategy. Then we’ll end the day by putting a monthly plan together so you know exactly what you should be focusing on . You find out more and book a 2022 Strategy Day click here. 

 

Step 4: Stick to the plan whilst regularly checking in with the vision for your dream life.  

 

Once you’ve mapped out how to create your dream business that will allow you to life the life you want you need to stick to the plan. Keep your bigger vision in mind and ensure that the choices you are making are supporting that. However, we are human and things change. It could be that it takes 1,2,3 or even more years to get to the point where you are running your dream business that works perfectly around your dream life. In the meantime you might decide you want a slightly different life. Nothing is wrong with that and by regularly checking in you can ensure that you are continuing to build a business around the life you want to live (rather than the life you wanted to live 2 years ago).  

 

Extra things to consider:  

If you follow those 4 steps then I have no doubt that you can build a business around the life you want to live, but here are a few extra things to consider.  

 

1. Think about all of the non-client work  

It is very common for service-providers to focus on how the business works in relation to clients, but not everything else. Running a service-based business is so much more than just working with clients and delivering the services. There is admin, finance, tech, marketing, email, legal and more. Ensure that you have properly consider these aspects of your business and how they’ll be looked after (either by you or by someone else).  

 

 2. Set clear boundaries with clients and stick to them 

Designing a business on paper and actually making that happen are two very different things. Often I come across business owners who should have reached their ideal stage in business, but because they aren’t great at sticking to their boundaries the reality is very different. Find out more about setting boundaries in your business here. 

 

 

There you have it! You now know how to build a business around the life you want. 

 

I truly believe that if you’ve decided to start a business then you should be aiming to build a business that you love and that allows you to live the life you want. There are plenty of examples of business owners out there already doing it so there is no reason that you can’t do it too. It just requires you to be honest about what you want and then to get clear on how to make that happen.   

  

 

NEED HELP TO BUILD A BUSINESS THAT ALLOWS YOU TO LIVE YOUR DREAM LIFE?  

I believe that every business is unique as the business owner who runs it. As a result I work 1-to-1 with coaches, consultants and online service providers to get strategic in their business and ultimately build a business they love and that works for them.  

 

Whether you are looking for help creating the vision and mapping out how to get there, or you would like ongoing support to help you get there I have a 1-to-1 service for you.  

 

You can find out the other ways of working with me here or send me a message here to discuss other options.