4N is made up of lifestyle businesses.

I'm involved with a group here in Wales trying to raise the profile and increase the voice of micro businesses in the Principality, the statistics are that if each micro business in the UK employed just one more person each there would be no unemployment in the country.
An impressive statistic IMHO.
These micro businesses are usually the ones referred to as lifestyle businesses and discounted by the big boys and yet as a group their power could be phenomenal. Perhaps we should look at the opportunities in 4N to bring all these people together and give the multinationals a run for their money!

Agre with Mimo, and good analogy Stef

Brilliant post Mike,  really succinctly put and I agree fully with the points you made.

Stef, loved the mexican story really brings it home to people to decide what is important to them in their lives.

When will peeps get it's not just the person and biz you are sat in front of, it's all the people they know and experiences they have.

Steph, I loved your post it is so true, yours also Mike. I agree also with all other comments too in this post. Even if there are more small//micro lifestyle businesses in 4N as opposed to traditional SME/larger grey suit businesses, does it really matter?. Even solicitors, accountants, surveyor’s financiers, retailers etc etc need people/customers/clients whichever business the 4N member is in.

I know which side I would prefer to be on having been involved as the managing partner in a SME successful roofing & building business, tendering to local authorities/housing associations/schools/colleges/NHS hospitals etc anything from £10,000.00 to £500,000.00 contracts. This included up to 50 employed/self employed staff/tradesmen/apprentices at any one time. Everyone had to be fed out of one trough. In house bookkeeper/accountant £60k plus car plus bonuses plus everything else, surveyors/contract managers £55/60K plus same expenses, marketing manager similar. secretarial staff also well paid. Take into consideration all paid holidays and additional pensions/private health care for staff together with all business overheads/loans/overdraft etc. Believe me it can be a nightmare with very little thanks or reward and a lot of back biting. Once you get onto the moving treadmill it's really difficult to say" I want to get off."  Yes, the money was sometimes good which allowed a few holidays and there was also a lot of fun aspects to it but home life suffered especially being committed and ultimately responsible and doing it, doing it continually day in & day out. Stress eventually takes its toll and in my case floored me with illness, it is very hard to run any business particularly if you are condemned to a hospital bed. Leaving it to other people to run does not work, not unless it is a larger business with a few directors. Would I go back on that treadmill again No I wouldn't. 

 I am not worried if 70% of 4N members in my surrounding areas are lifestyle businesses as most of them have a house or property that at some stage will need advice on repairing/updating/refurbishment of their properties.  When that happens I would like to think they would look in the 4N members area and search me out, particularly after the summer when the rain/storms/snow descends and gutters are overflowing with debris & leaves and water has seeped into those unmaintained roofs/lofts/buildings/interiors etc.

So here is me saying Good Luck to all you 4N members at least you are not sitting moaning and waiting for something to happen. You have as Brad put's it”got off your arse"' and done something, be you lifestyle businesses or traditional ones whatever your size. It’s not by size that you win or you fail just be the best in whatever you do.

Regards,

Maureen Johnson  

 

   

Absolutely agree with many of these comments.

And I'm delighted that this thread pointed me at the Wikipedia definition of a lifestyle business, and the example of car manufacturing which isn't.

Phew, just in time, that could have been a massive mistake!

What about if you buy a kit car and make it at your leisure? 

 

Ha Ha, thanks Adam. That would definitely be a lifestyle decision, but I'd need a lifestyle business to provide the time and money to make the lifestyle hobby come true!

Out of interest, what do people think of my current career? Spent a life in the multi-national corporate world, then 10 years running hotels and restaurants. Now keeping pigs and making just enough to get by. Seeing my kids every day for most of the day. Eating mangoes & bananas (and fresh pork!) from my own farm. Wearing shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops every day.

Mind you, really starting to itch to get my teeth into something else soon before I go crazy! Watch out, 4Ners!

I imagine most would find (the idealogical dream of) fishing to be a little more appealing than pig farming Steve!

I agree with most of the above.  IMO 4N does have a lot of lifestyle businesses.  Is that a bad thing?  No.  Does it put off "big businesses"?  Potentially yes.

There's absolutely no shame in running a small business that you enjoy and pays enough to lead the life you want to lead.

I do have dreams of a growing business where other people do most of the "real work"...but if anything that's also for lifestyle reasons, as I don't want to be tied to a desk hammering numbers into my calculator all day #notreallywhataccountantsdo

The comment was almost certainly derogatory.  I think their point was that 4N members they've met don't take business at all seriously.  

 

To me a lifestyle business is self employment. If that makes my business a lifestyle business then so be it.

I haven’t gone down the self employment route to make my fortune (although it would be nice) I have done it to allow me a better lifestyle. I work when I want, how I want and I get to spend lots of time my grandkids.

Larger businesses are generally made up of people who went in to self employment to get rich (nothing wrong with that) and that is what has driven them to get offices, employees etc. So you end up with a community or people who do everything for the money and a community who do it more for the lifestyle.

This results in a kind of snobbery where those with bigger companies look down on us lifestylers because they see us lacking in drive in some way.

I dont think it is just a networking thing, I think this exists through out the business world.

Ps. Stef, I absolutely love that. 

I like the story Steph and I may well be off to Mexico to see if that chap needs a hand, but would just like to add that a "lifestyle" business might mean, especially when starting out, that you do also have to work hard.. I think we should avoid the suggestion that it is necessarily the case that because someone opts for a work/ life balance that maybe means they earn less, they dont also have to work bally hard for what they do earn. Surely a lifestayle option is as much about doing a job that itself sustains and enhances your life - while you are doing it.. I gave up the Civil Service after 21 years to try and live my life and earn my living on my own terms, and that in itself is rewarding and life enhancing. - but also for the present much harder work..

Steve, total respect for you in doing what you want to do.

But I'm sure there are things you could do in an hour or three a day, given a decent internet connection, to liven up work between feeding pigs and clearing up what they produce!