How to Build a Lifestyle Business in Your Spare Time

I used to spend a lot of time watching TV many years ago.

And I used the excuse, “I don’t have time,” when in reality I didn’t feel like doing much. I wanted things to be easier.

It felt much more comfortable to relax in front of the TV than to do anything “hard.”

Since then, I’ve changed quite a bit. I still enjoy watching TV, but my priorities are different.

I get a lot of emails from people telling me they’d like to start a lifestyle business, but they just don’t have time.

This seeming lack of time is what I want to cover in this post. Just for a moment, I’d like to ask you to suspend your beliefs that this isn’t possible.

Open your mind to the possibility that you have more than enough time to build a lifestyle business in your spare time.

Yes, even if you work a full-time job and have kids.

The Problem is NOT Time

It’s how you prioritize your time.

You’ve probably heard this before. But that doesn’t make it any less true.

This whole thing about time is another very convenient excuse. It may be more believable than all the other excuses, but it’s still an excuse.

Because let’s face it. If you truly wanted to, could you find 15 minutes during the day to work on your business?

Of course you could.

There are people out there who have less time than you, and they are going after their dreams, and that means you can do it, too.

But you have to stop putting up obstacles in front of yourself.

Yes, you may be swamped, but there is always a way to find time to work on something that’s important to you.

False Solutions

The solutions I often hear from people go something like this, if I only:

• Could quit my job
• Take a vacation to focus on my business
• Had more clarity on what to do

But these are all excuses.

If you quit your job, you wouldn’t get any more done than you do now. Plus, you would probably be stressed out because you don’t have any money coming in.

It’s classic Parkinson’s Law, which states: work expands to fill the time available for its completion. If you quit your job, you’d just spend more time procrastinating and doing useless tasks.

I know, because I’ve been there.

Stop waiting for something to happen, and start with what you have.

The Real Solution

This is not about getting more time, it’s about:

1. Finding pockets of time
2. Focusing on the right tasks
3. Getting more done in less time

It’s about working hard, but also working smarter. It’s about working with what you have, even if that means working just 10 minutes a day.

The more time you have on your hands, and if you use that time wisely, the more progress you can make.

But this doesn’t mean that you can’t make tremendous progress with just 30-60 minutes of focused work per day. Yes, it will be slower than someone who’s putting in 3 hours, but you can only do what you can do.

We have this false notion that we need to drop everything to do something, that we need to make dramatic changes.

But building a business takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight, and sometimes just having one to two hours a day is more than enough to make significant progress.

You can build a business in your spare time.

Is it going to be easy? Nope.

Will you have to get more organized? Probably.

But is it possible? Definitely.

How Much I Work

On a typical day, I’ll work around 2-3 hours.

But during these hours I’ll get more done than most people do in 8 hours. Sometimes more than some people do in days.

Since becoming a father, I’ve had to become extremely efficient. I’ve had to fit work into the few hours I have in the morning.

It has also helped me separate work from life. I used to try and work all day long, but it was only burning me out.

I was trying to force progress. Now, I get my things done in the morning and then I live life. I’m a classic overachiever, so this has been hard for me.

Focusing on the Right Tasks

If you’re starting out, or if you’re in the process of growing your business, chances are you won’t know what to focus on, when, and how to get it done.

This means you’re wasting time.

A lot of time.

I wrote about the cornerstones of a lifestyle business recently, but that post alone won’t help you focus on the right tasks, because it’s impossible to convey everything you need to know in a blog post.

You have to constantly focus on where you are going and then evaluate if what you are doing right now is helping you get there.

When you focus on the right tasks, you can often eliminate 80% of the things you’re doing. The good old 80/20 rule comes into play.

And this means you can make amazing progress with the time you have each day.

The Bottom Line

You already have the time you need to build your lifestyle business.

This is not about getting more time. That’s an excuse. This is about learning to use the time you have better. And focusing on the right tasks that give you the best results for your time.

Everyone can find 15-30 minutes per day to work on something they’re passionate about.

If you truly don’t have time to build a business right now, that’s fine. But don’t make excuses for why you can’t make it happen.

Own your decision.

If you’ve read this far, somewhere deep down you want to make this happen, so start thinking about how you can find that extra time.

And start looking at what you need to focus on first.

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