Do you want to create a business that suits your lifestyle? Here you will find three steps that will help you in your journey:
1. How do you want your life to look like?
The first and the most important step to create the business which suits your lifestyle is to understand how do you want your life to look like. There is no point in starting something which is not congruent with your life vision. I know that you can think: “I don’t know how my life will be. I just want to create a business which will give me an income to support me, my family and allow me to have 2 weeks summer holiday.” I see your point of view but if your personal goals are only financial and you don’t know where you are going then you will end up anywhere. So start with your life first and then think about your work.
You see this approach really changed my life. I was so focused on building my career and earning money that I was close to burnout. After my graduation, I entered the job world and for the next 5 years, I covered various positions in recruitment, career counselling, sales, marketing and customer service. I worked in the cities like Rome, Milan, London and Manchester. I liked my job but I wasn’t happy. I was constantly thinking about how to reach my targets, make happy everyone, my boss, my colleagues, my family (so they could say how wonderful was I) and planning my holidays to escape from all this. I realized I needed to make my life and my work fit together instead of trying so hard to make my life fit the job.
So today I have a question for you: What do you want your life to look like? Sit down relax, take pen and paper and write down your answers to the following questions:
1. What time would I like to wake up in a day? (early or late morning…)
2. What do I want to see when I look out of my window (mountains, ocean, garden …)
3. How would I spend my morning?
4. What time would my ideal workday (or night begin)?
5. Work-wise, where do I feel most at home – is it a studio, an office, a classroom, in a kitchen, a workshop?
How do you see/hear/feel your life now? What can you change to live the life you want? Only when you know what you want your life to look like you can create ideas for satisfying work that will allow you to have the life you REALLY want.
2. How can you come up with ways to generate income?
The second step to create your dream business is to figure out ways to generate income, something that you possibly like. For me, it was about combining my personal experience as an expat, my background in recruitment, psychology and career counselling. Career coaching and consulting for expats and people who are thinking about changing careers seemed obvious to me. This was my business idea! What about you? What are your gifts, interests, skills you enjoy using (is not about what you are good at), experiences. What people are complimenting you about?
There is another very important point: What are your financial goals and needs? You need to be clear on your financial commitments! How much do you need to generate so you can live the life you want? There need to be a match between your life vision, your business idea and your financial goals.
3. How can you build your confidence?
A very common obstacle to creating a business is a lack of confidence. Maybe you are thinking: I’m not competent enough, I don’t have enough knowledge, everything has to be perfect before I launch my business or what others will think about me. We all have our limiting believes. For me, it was my attitude about money.
So how can you build your confidence? The most important is to be clear about what you want, please see the 2 steps above, then elaborate your action plan, how can you reach your life and business vision and create a support team. It can be a group of people who are like you thinking about working at what they love, people who can hold you accountable. You can join local business networking groups or hire a mentor, coach, someone who is one, two, three … steps ahead of you. (Do not expect some members of your family, some friends or colleagues to understand your journey. The thing is that they love you, they want you to be safe and changing career, starting a business may scare them).
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Currently, she is enjoying a laptop lifestyle while travelling across Europe.
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