Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Lifestyle businesses have evolved over time.

Subsistence farming was a lifestyle business.

Still is.

25 years ago, the term became derogatory VC-speak for self-funded startups.

Recently it’s been overhyped by social media influencers with flashy cars living in exotic locales.

The truth is something else.

Whatever your definition, a lifestyle business is far easier to manage with ubiquitous internet and freemium software tools.

It might be as simple as managing dividend income or real estate appreciation but, controlling some side income is important.

Audience reach is insane if your lifestyle biz leverages retail e-commerce:

• Etsy has 96 million active buyers worldwide.

• Shopify and Amazon have built huge passive income for drop shippers.

• eBay - a little long in the tooth - still ranks 4th behind only Walmart, Amazon and Apple online US with almost $10 billion sales last year.

• Facebook Marketplace has over 1 billion worldwide online shoppers every single month despite the scammers.

These all require little investment and have relatively easy-to-control costs. Most importantly they are location independent.

High-profit, low expense businesses have been far better at weathering the storm of economic turmoil.

For experienced white-collar professionals the typical first step is creating their own consulting practice.

They have established knowledge, reputation and contacts.

Your experience turned into digital products has some one-time creation expense but can build passive income.

Whether it’s coaching, bookkeeping, writing, design, real estate, investing - or any other detailed work experience - knowledge workers can steal and repurpose ideas that are already working.

Investment newsletters have been doing this for decades. Kiplinger was early, but the Motley Fool has taken it up a notch. Though privately held, the company may be worth as much as $500m today based on this tried and true sales funnel:

• Give away enough free info to build audience.

• Drive free newsletter subscribers to content-rich web site.

• Sign up for a relatively inexpensive 1 time product: $99.

• Offer a $495 annual stock advisor pick. Multi year discounts.

• Upsell exclusive new research - $2,500 lifetime access.

• Lather. Rinse. Repeat. With every new audience member.

This is just an example of the typical funnel you might build.

Digital assets could include an ebook. Or a podcast. Or a YouTube channel.

Upsell could be an event. Or an online course. Or a Masterclass.

We all have knowledge available to define a unique lifestyle business.

I’m not saying you will or you won’t build a $500m Motley Fool lifestyle.

I am saying the Launch Key will continue to share ideas and highlight subscriber community members who have made progress in that direction.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

WordPress isn’t a new tool.

But is has helped level the online playing field for small businesses needing an internet address.

Whether its a blog, store, portfolio, or something entirely different, you have the freedom to create a site that fits you, and own all of your content and data too.

Here are example third party themes ready to plug into your WordPress account and have a professional consulting site in short order.

Old School Wisdom

Jason Fried and David Hansson follow their own advice in Rework, laying bare the surprising philosophies at the core of 37signals' success and inspiring us to put them into practice.

Rework may help rethink how you start something new.

Free Knowledge

It’s not too late to write about what you know.

Blogging is an older idea, but the concept can be applied to LinkedIn articles or long form content that may lead to products or more.

Pete McPherson was a corporate CPA who was laid off in 2017. Today he has thousands of free resources and podcasts and has monetized his side hustle into speaking engagements and courseware.

Visual Crapshoot