Often times when we hear of the word, “startup,” we tend to automatically think of Silicon Valley/Beach tech start ups. Or a garage-based company on the verge of becoming the next big Uber overnight. Let’s ditch the social connotations --This term is generally meant for any organization or business on a mission to find a good, repeatable, scalable business model. From Handlr’s personal experience, it’s quite a wonderful ride to be on. The struggles of working from sunrise to sunset, running off to a meeting that started 10 minutes ago, or just juggling life, they’re predominant in our lives. These struggles confront the face of any entrepreneur launching their start up business regardless of industry. We’d like to share 3 lessons we’ve learned along our journey with service based startups:

Bootstrap and hold on tight

Funding your business from your own savings account lights the biggest fire under your @$$. There’s no cushion from a wealthy bank or investor, just you, yourself, and your business-baby. Staying self-funded leaves you no other choice but to focus on revenue and makes you think, “What’s going to make me money from Day 1.” And the perks? You stay your own boss and you learn the value of the dollar much faster. This is why you chose this entrepreneur lifestyle, don’t forget it

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.”

— Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon

Be fearless

Nothing will end your career as an entrepreneur faster than fear. Having doubts of the worklife you want will inhibit your visions to come to fruition. Fear is also a game of perception. You can see challenges as opportunities of growth, or obstacles that you’ll be stuck behind forever. Challenges, obstacles, failures, whatever your fear is and however you word it --will always be there and it’s a matter of how you react to them. Failure is expected in our industry and will happen at some point in your career. Just remember, be resilient, take it in stride, learn from it, and get back on the bull.

“You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.”

— Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

Solve a problem

If you can help people accomplish something in a much more efficient way, or solve a problem, you are probably off to a great beginning in the startup world. Ask yourself, “Is my idea/service different than the competitors in the market?” That’s your value. So provide a solution, find your value, and the profit will follow.

“Make something people want. ”

— Alexis Ohanian, Founder / Reddit, Hipmunk, and Breadpig

“Your biggest enemy is the unknown and assumptions.”

— Donald Bittar

“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”

— Mary Kay Ash

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.”

— W. Edwards Deming

“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.”

— Seth Godin

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

— Andy Warhol

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

— Henry Ford

“Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing...layout, processes, and procedures.”

— Tom Peters

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”

— Peter Drucker

“Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.”

— Gary Ryan Blair