Lifestyle business

Lifestyle Businesses are businesses that are set up and run by their founders primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of income and no more; or to provide a foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.

Some types of enterprise are more accessible than others to the would-be lifestyle business person. Those requiring extensive capital (for example: car manufacturing) are difficult to launch and sustain on a lifestyle basis, others such as small creative industries businesses are more practical for sole practitioners or small groups such as husband-and-wife teams.

In conventional business terms, Lifestyle Businesses typically have limited scalability and potential for growth because such growth would destroy the very lifestyle for which their owner-managers set them up. Nevertheless, the term should not be interpreted pejoratively, because Lifestyle Businessess in areas such as the creative industries can and do win awards and provide great satisfaction to their owners and customers. If sufficient high-quality creative producers begin to naturally cluster together, such as in Brighton, England, during the 1990s, the perception of a place can be radically changed (see Porter's cluster).