3 Lessons for Service Based Startups

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. Though there are often a lot of things that need to be considered when creating your start-up, from having a marketable product, having the ability to effectively communicate with possible clients and customers, you may be able to get more information from this page or others similar if you were possibly interested. Regardless there are many thoughts and issues to consider when founding a start-up.

One such issue may be the struggles of working from sunrise to sunset, running off to a meeting that started 10 minutes ago, wondering how to find the best PEO company in California or in our location, 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. If you have a unique product that you think can make a dent in the sector you want to start in, keep at it, this could be lucrative and propel you forward. It is important to keep things tight-lipped in the early stages so no trade secrets get out and damage your business, if this does happen, then looking to the likes of firms such as Dhillonlaw.com can help with getting this sorted so you can get back on track.

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. You don’t have to be scared to ask for help either, the help is out there. Especially on the IT side, things can be tricky to keep track of. That’s why you can hire people to come in and support you and you can access them wherever you live in the world too. There are some good examples of Business IT Support Melbourne area for instance, you can see what support services you could be offered for your business.

Make something people want.

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

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