Are you building a business or a lifestyle?

Im in this for a freedom based lifestyle. The idea of creating a business is great, and i may not get filthy rich trying to build a freedom based lifestyle instead of a business..but the freedom is all I want. The freedom to enjoy my life while I am still young and still alive. As well as the money to do the things I want to do.

Chris,

I think you could say both. First off, people are sold on a lifestyle. I want to get up when I want to, I want to do nothing today, I want to buy this without checking the balance in my bank account. The vision of the perfect lifestyle is a huge driving force.

But, you need a vehicle to get your there. A business, as I look at it is a vehicle that gets me to my perfect lifestyle. A business is a set of systems that work in a manner to generate money, there in turn, allowing me to not have to run it, but to manage the process. This gives me my lifestyle.

If you do not have a business (a set of systems) in place, you will just be chasing a lifestyle. Chasing the next best thing, the next magic bullet, the next way to make money. Find a business (a system) that works and make it work for you.

That is my 2 cents, or 4..

Keith

Both. I want one business to fund a lifestyle that allows me to build another business.

I love this stuff. I want nothing more than to travel around for the rest of my life strutting around a stage and telling people what I think, and have those people go "wow, that's great, I sure am glad I know what you think."

But in order to do that, and not spend half my time yelling "buy my crap," I have to have something else paying the bills.

Lifestyle for me.

When I started out online I was making a lot more offline. I kind of "accidentally" started making money online and didn't know what I was doing.

I thought, "if I can make over $800 a month from a single page website with ten links on it while doing nothing, what would I be making if I actually worked a couple of hours here and there"?

That was back in 1994 with a "chat portal".

I hate other people telling me what to do and how long I have to do it.

(Must be the musician in me. I was a rock and roller most of my life until I "settled down" )

Hey man, I'm a free spirit. Can you dig it...good, I knew that you could

Lifestyle for sure. I want to travel, explore the world, volunteer abroad, dabble in hobbies and do really cool stuff. To do all that, I need money. :p

Building a business is a lifestyle.

Working for somebody else is building THEIR lifestyle.



~Michael

Both!

My business integrates so well with my overall lifestyle, that I don't even feel like I ever have to "work"... Sure, I knock out some weeks doin' major hours. But it never really feels like work, because I enjoy it so much.

I left a corporate life behind, and a home business that I truly loved for internet marketing, and I believe that I have both on the right track now for me.

Peace

Jay

Lifestyle with responsibilities (Hence Both)

I want to grow what I got now (no not more work). I got a good life style with is funded my the business. That way my wife and I work is on project basis. We work around our life style.

However at the same time if we are not responsible with our business's (websites), the lifestyle will go very fast.

Example of being responsible. I found out the day before I left for a 12 day vacation that Easter was the following Friday (being a at home entrepreneur I dont know the holiday schedule). So my customer service staff was off. Being responsible I checked email twice that day on that day to keep customer service flowing. I could have let it go, but feel that this comes with the life style and happy to do it to keep the business running smooth as 3 days is way too long to respond to a customer (should be hours at most a day).

If your business cannot run without you working countless hours, you have built a job.

Cheers,
Mukul

"If your business cannot run without you working countless hours, you have built a job." Mukul so true....

I am doing what I love, creating a team and systems to have the freedom of time and money to do more of what I love - helping people achieve their dreams. Paying it forward and loving every minute of it.

How can I help you?

Lifestyle!

It's about enjoying what you're doing. I can spend countless hours working on my next project because I enjoy it. Money is ok, but your personal satisfaction is priceless.

Tough question. I would consider this a lifestyle. I build websites/products to give them a good home. I enjoy what I do, but its not automated. I am the one making the ready-to-go business. If I don't make it, then I don't get paid, so to answer you're question its a little of both, but I do enjoy it so I don't feel like its a loss in any way.

It depends on whether people are more hedonistic or driven.

For some people, the goal is money, it's a way to keep score.

For others, it's about the lifestyle.

As for working long hours every week equals working at a job, that's a misconception perpetuated by books and sales letters which have glorified the travelling entrepreneur lifestyle.

If you're your own boss, that's what you are, you are not working at a day job and taking orders from others. If you put in the elbow grease and have automation in place, that's a potent combination which translates to more money in the bank. I would say there is nothing wrong with that.

The more time you spend enjoying your lifestyle, the more time your competitors have to usurp you. You do need to keep an eye on things.

Allen Lewis

given the chocie. Make $1m per annum but work 80+ hours a week, 5 days week 48 weeks a year or make $150,000 per annum....free time I'll take the latter thx.

Lifestyle. Period, point-blank.

I've made boatloads of money as a Las Vegas Sports Gaming executive but I worked 6 days a week for 9 mos of the year.

Thanks, but no thanks.

I now value life's most precious, non-renewable resource: MY TIME ON EARTH.

Definitely a lifestyle for me. I got my IM business to a point where I make enough to have the lifestyle I want and do the things I want to do, then didn't allow it to get any more time-consuming than that - even if it does result in more money. I want the time.

That doesn't mean you can't grow your income and make more while still working a small amount though. You just put the proper systems in place and continue learning and implementing new strategies and your income can continue to increase anyway. Like when I learned a new email marketing technique that made me almost 2x as much as a typical mailing to my list does, in the same amount of time invested.

My goal is to build a highly profitable business that supports my lifestyle. Obviously I'm going to have to master delegating my time, so I can focus on what's truly important to me.

I treat it as a business and as a result I can enjoy the lifestyle ;D

My inspiration like many is to be able to work from home able to make money without getting out of bed
Have a good amount of free time to do other things
I am not affraid of working but dont want to work every hour of the day either

My over all goal is to be able to make a living online and move to berlin
By a living I mean about 1,500€ (around the 2,000USD mark)

At the moment I would settle for 600USD a month (it will pay rent)

I'm with Keith here.

It's the lifestyle that got me sold to the idea of getting into IM, but ultimately, I'm building a business, which i plan to carry on and develop for the long run...

Lifestyle. Never cared about being super rich, I just wanted to build a business, the majoirty of which can be outsourced. Trying to get to the point where I only work a few hours each week.

I have never cared about being super-rich, or having an extravagant lifestyle. I simply want to have my freedom, not work for anyone else, and be well-enough off that I can take vacations when I want, eat where I want, and not have to check my bank account.

Just want a lifestyle of freedom.

Both, for sure.

Without my business how could I have this lifestyle? I'll tell you: Never!!

And best of all, the bigger my business gets, better my lifestyle gets!!

Now, who would have thought of this?

Oh this one is easy, both.

I am building a business to support the lifestyle that I want. Being in the military for as long I have been I am tired of being away from the familiy all the time. IM brings that possiblity of working at home and spending more time with the family as well as high return on my hard work

Everybody dreams to make money online from home, but now i only concentrate to build my online business.

I'm building a business to have a freedom lifestyle, to be able to give myself and family the things that we want and need, but also to build a business to where its a long term commitment working every day to live the life a have always dreamed.

So I would be building a business that I enjoy doing every day, also something to be looking forward to with the benifits to have a freedom lifestyle.

I don't know, I work all the time. Id like to think that eventually I will build a "lifestyle" out of my business. That's whats supposed to happen right? You just have to be patient and not only work hard, but work smart as well. If you give up you guarantee failure.

There is a false dichotomy being presented here. It's not either/or, it's the same thing.

EVERYTHING you are doing IS building your lifestyle. The only question is what kind of lifestyle is it?

Don't kid yourself.

Stop dreaming of a lifestyle and realize that you are living the one you want right now.

All the best,
Michael