Lifestyle Businesses: The Wave of the Web Future?

My parents both graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in programs that combined artistry with technical ability. My mother majored in Textile Design, while my father studied biomedical photography.

While life took their careers in different paths, they've retained not only those specific skills, but the broader passions that surrounds them. My mother's gift is transforming spaces to make them feel intensely welcoming. Our seasonal displays are legend among friends and family. My father takes his photos and turns them into greeting cards, invitations and more. Together, they buy broken down antique furniture and retrofit them into beautiful, funky collector's pieces.

I've been pushing them for a couple years now to just formalize this and start a business. My mom can take on clients - stores or residences - to create particular themed displays or decorations. My dad can create cards and other items for gatherings. And together they can create marquee pieces.

They're interested, but there are so many stumbling blocks to the process. Learning how to legally organize a business, thinking about marketing, figuring out how to price a product, actually handling the financial transactions, etc.

It seems to me that we're moving into a period where people are very seriously re-evaluating happiness and success. This reevaluation is pushing people to try to find careers that intersect with their values; it's changing the way that some structure what sacrifices they are and are not willing to make; and it's making people re-think "retirement."

I think that a product of all of this is going to be more and more talented people thinking about how the things they like doing or making but have maybe always considered a hobby could become a business. For some it simply won't be viable, but for many others, I think there is an incredible opportunity.

I wonder how the emergence of the internet will impact this process. Online marketplaces like eBay have made it far easier for people to become self-employed. Services like PayPal take care of specific pieces of the small business process. I'm sure there are small business consulting and information collectives that I don't know about that exist to help guide people like my parents through the process of building a new business.

I also wonder though how this might impact the entrepreneurial ambitions of my generation. Being surrounded by folks in the web startup world, the emphasis is still swing for the fences. With no IPO's happening, the exit tends to be seen as being bought by a Google sized company, but the emphasis is still on big money and movement.

This might always be the case. It might be a factor of wanting the freedom to do lots of different things over the course of a life. It might be that web developers love solving problems and want to keep trying new things.

But I wonder if we will see a shift to people building strong, successful, thriving companies that are designed to be a home for creativity and ideas for longer than the 6 months it takes to convince someone to buy it?