One of the things they never talk about in school is choosing a career, based on the type of lifestyle you want to have. Yet, that is probably the most important aspect of your career decision – particularly if you are building a business of your own.

Here are five questions you need to sit down and answer for yourself, as you are choosing the type of business you want to build.

1. Where do you want to live?

This is not only a choice of location, but also the type of dwelling you want. Do you want a condo downtown or a 3-bedroom home in the suburbs? Would you like to find a Montana ranch for sale with having own cattle, or you prefer living out of an RV as you travel the country? Each of these choices helps narrow the type of business you want to create.

2. Where do you want to work?

Have you dreamed of a 10-second commute to your home office where you can work in peace or do you need other people around to keep you excited about the work? You may want your own office building or you may be content to work out of one of the new virtual offices. These questions will help you recognize your work style and what you need to support it.

3. How much do you want to travel and where do you want to go?

If the thought of flying and staying in hotel rooms isn’t attractive to you, then there are automatically some activities you don’t want to include in your business. Speaking at seminars for a living, for example. On the other hand, if you love to travel and can’t stay in enough hotels, that dictates a totally different business.

It could be that you love to camp and visit national parks, here and abroad. Then think how you can weave that into your business by writing books, travel logs, or designing trips for people.

4. How many hours per week do you want to work?

This includes the time per day, number of days per week, for how many weeks out of the year. The Four Hour Work Week triggered a lot of people to rethink their work time and figure out other ways to do it so that they could be on the road for long periods without working.

On the other hand, many people enjoy working at home and feel more comfortable working set hours, leaving specific times free. You have to know what works for you and your family at this stage in your life.

5. How much money will it take to support the lifestyle you have designed above?

This is where a realistic perspective and a calculator come in. Be honest with yourself. If you want a large house, fancy car, multiple vacations each year, flying first class, then it may be unrealistic to plan to work 2 hours a day, 3 days a week.

This is the mistake many people make when planning their business to support their lifestyle. They don’t sit down and “do the numbers” based on reality.

These five questions will give you a great start to planning your business to support your lifestyle. Now to make that specific to your online business, you’ll want to look at Plan Your Online Business.