Hey Reader,
OK, this is contrarian talk for a newsletter called The Exit Plan, but if you’ve been here a while, you'll know that exit doesn't have to mean a sale, it absolutely can mean building a business that can run without you.
This is your business - you get to decide the rules and the goals.
We live in a culture that worships scale. Unicorns. IPOs. “10X everything.”
But not every business needs to be a legacy empire.
Some of the happiest and most financially secure entrepreneurs I know run what others might call “lifestyle businesses.” They didn’t sell for billions. They’re not in the Financial Times. But they own their diary. They own their freedom. And they’re making six or seven figures doing work they actually enjoy. And the smart ones - they’re taking home multiple 6 figures.
I’ve seen this first-hand. One of the smartest entrepreneurs I ever met ran a simple consultancy. No team bigger than five. No funding rounds. No exit. Yet earned more, travelled more, and slept better than 90% of the “building a Unicorn” founders I’ve met.
Here’s the truth most people won’t say out loud: a lifestyle business, done right, can outperform a legacy one on the things that actually matter: happiness, health, and freedom.
A lifestyle business isn’t “settling.” It’s a conscious choice.
And let’s clear up a myth while we’re here: lifestyle doesn’t mean broke. It doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself. It doesn’t mean scraping by, juggling invoices, and calling it “freedom.”
What it does mean is you’re unlikely to have a 100-person payroll. You probably won’t build the kind of business that sells for nine figures. But you absolutely can and should make as much money as possible.
A lifestyle business can still generate multiple six or seven figures. The difference is that the profits go to you, not to chasing overheads or dividends for investors. It’s wealth you control, built to fuel your life — not consume it.
Research backs it up. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that founders optimising for independence consistently report higher satisfaction, even when earning at or above peers who chase legacy-scale exits. In the UK, more than 60% of female entrepreneurs say their primary reason for starting a business wasn’t wealth — it was flexibility and control. Lifestyle doesn’t mean small. It means designed.
3 ACTION TIPS / TOOLS
- Start with Your Non-Negotiables
Before you design your business model, design your life. What hours do you want to work? How many weeks do you want off? How much is “enough” income for you to live well? Once you know that number, you can reverse-engineer the business.
- Productise Your Expertise
Lifestyle works best when revenue isn’t tied directly to hours. That’s where courses, group programs, memberships, and even books come in. Joe Wicks is a great example — and deserves a whole newsletter of his own. He built a lifestyle empire on systems, content, and products that sell without him needing to be in the room.
- Guard Your Freedom with Systems
Freedom doesn’t come from chaos. It comes from boundaries and structure. Automate payments. Use tech and AI to replace manual tasks. Build SOPs so clients get the same results without you being glued to the screen. Lifestyle works because it’s disciplined, not sloppy.
Building for lifestyle isn’t a compromise. It’s a decision to live well now, not just someday in the future.
You don’t need a billion-dollar valuation to have a meaningful business. You don’t need to exit to win.
Sometimes the bravest move you can make is to say: This is enough. This is mine. And this is how I want to live.
And don’t get it twisted: lifestyle doesn’t mean broke. It doesn’t mean playing small. It means building big enough to give you both wealth and freedom — without needing to sell your soul or your company to get there.
We’ve got this …
