Mark Henrick in his new book, “The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You a Life” (subtitled: Not Just A Living) pens some astonishing facts about entrepreneurs. According to Henrick, 90% of entrepreneurs owning small businesses do not target colossal incomes. Instead, they are “lifestyle entrepreneurs” who have taken up businesses to exercise freedom in work. In an interview to BookPage, and also through his book, Henrick elaborates his theories and advices entrepreneurs on ways to make their start-up dreams come true.

‘The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You a Life’

Henrick defines “lifestyle entrepreneurs” as people disinterested in becoming filthy rich and instead having started businesses for lifestyle reasons. Simply explained, these business owners are averse to dictates and wish to pursue careers as, when and how they like. Lifestyle entrepreneurship allows business owners to live in areas they want to, work when it is suitable, choose kinds of work and spend as much time doing work they want to. Flexibility is the key to such businesses, leaving owners enough time to spend with family, indulge interests, serve social causes, etc.

Supporting his work as being different from typical business how-to manuals, Henrick says his book not only dismantles entrepreneur myth, but also reveals why such large majorities of business owners target lifestyle entrepreneurship, what are their business aims and how they can achieve it. Henrick breaks the general assumption of rapid growth and humongous profits as being the only entrepreneurial goal. Henrick further opines that if lifestyle motivations are illegitimate to business ownership, it means that entrepreneurs live no life outside their professions

According to Henrick, the biggest fear holding back start-up entrepreneurs are that their business will fail, leaving them jobless, penniless and humiliated. Although unpleasant, Henrick concludes, situations are not likely to conform to such exaggerations. Contrary to how most people think, most businesses survive for several years before closing down, leaving their owners rich and reaping profits than when they started

Answering whether in view of the current economic upheaval, now is a good time to start lifestyle businesses, Henrick says that businesses generally grow during slow economies. Most people, he says, are compelled to start businesses during these times owing to scarcity of jobs. Besides, as Henrick strongly feels, slow economy means cheaper rent and easy availability of good talent.

Businesses that are geared to succeed will succeed irrespective of good or bad economy. According to Henrick, the real issue is personal challenge. 

An individual gets only one life, and no other time is the best than now to start living the way he/she wants to.