Build a sustainable lifestyle business (without millions of followers)

In 2008, Kevin Kelly wrote an essay that changed the way a lot of us think about being successful as an independent entrepreneur. 

He wrote that to be successful as a creator, you didn’t need millions of followers or to make millions of dollars each year. 

Instead, what you need is true fans. 

1000 true fans. 

The math still works, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Because what he said about your true fans is even more important than the numbers. 

Here’s what a true fan is:

• Someone who buys from you again and again
• Someone who actively promotes you to their network
• Someone who is steps beyond the role of ‘customer’ to support you and your work

To make a business model work with 1000 true fans:

• You have to create something for your true fans to purchase each year
• You must have a direct relationship with your true fans
• They must be able to pay money directly to you, without intermediaries

This is what we call a lifestyle business. 

Now, the beautiful thing about this concept is that you don’t need to follow the sales and marketing game plan that the ‘big names’ do. Or have a ‘breakout hit’ that generates millions of dollars in a single year. 

You don’t need to reach the ‘masses’, but can instead focus on a smaller group of people that you serve more deeply (known as your ‘niche’).

What you do need is to focus on creating things of value, attracting your first few fans, and continuing to show up, create, and serve them. 

And you have to keep doing it again and again. 

You can’t just create a single product and ride that wave into retirement and beyond. 

That’s not the dream of a lifestyle business. 

Here’s the math on how to make a living with a business focused on true fans. 

We’ll stick with the $100,000 revenue target for simple math, but feel free to adjust it to the numbers to make sense for you. 

1,000 true fans x $100 per year = $100,000

If you need to move this number up or down, you can change either input:

10,000 true fans x $10 per year = $100,000

5,000 true fans x $20 per year = $100,000

500 true fans x $200 per year = $100,000

100 true fans x $1,000 per year = $100,000

The revenue per fan is meant to be an average, and can come from one purchase or multiple smaller ones. 

The more complexity you choose to layer in (employees, marketplaces that take a % of revenue, paid advertising and promotion), the larger your annual revenue needs to be.

The beautiful thing about creating for true fans is that you never run out of ideas. 

You have a built in market research group, where you can ask what they need and want. 

You continually create new products and offers that become assets in your business, just waiting for the next true fan to discover you and buy your entire back catalogue.

And it doesn’t stop other people from buying from you – those just aren’t the people who you are creating for. 

What is not a true fan:

• A follower on social media
• An email subscriber
• The customer who bought from you once

These people have the potential to become true fans, but they don’t get that label until they really start to show up. 

Here’s a quote from Kevin Kelly’s essay on what a true fan is:

“A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.”

I want you to take a moment to think about your customers. 

Who are the ones that you would consider to be true fans? 

Actually make a list of names, and count out how many ’true fans’ you have right now. 

These are the people who:

• Buy your products and services before there are testimonials for it
• Respond to the questions you pose in your email newsletter or social posts
• Share your most recent offer with people in their networks, and sing your praises when they do

You might be no where near 1,000. That’s ok. 

Focus on serving the ones that you do have, and showing up where others like them can find you. 

This isn’t the ‘passive income’ create it and forget it dream that you’ve been sold. It’s also not the ‘you never need to market’ dream I know some of you wish you could figure out. 

Instead, this is the path to creating a business that allows you to live a quality lifestyle while creating meaningful work that has an impact on the lives of your community. I know for many people, myself included, that’s the path that is calling to us.