If you could give only 1 advice to yourself at the beginning of your startup, what would it be?

Identifying the market is every thing and it is the hardest thing.

Eat the elephant one bite at a time ;)

All advice in this discussion is valuable. My advice to myself :) would be - set constraints on resources, especially time but also money. Track these resources carefully because you need both to get users. Hope this helps.

If you’re starting a small business in a local community, you can take advantage of some older and conventional methods.

Have courage + be kind! No matter what you do needs a ton of courage to face all the odds + kindness to yourself and others in the process.

Advice: Build something that few people love instead of something that many people like and don't run after people that will never love your product. Why? It's much easier to scale a product that is loved by its first 100 customers than something 1000s of people somewhat like. Asking for payment early on (even if it's scary), helps a lot in separating the "lovers" from the "likers" :)

Don't get attached to your project. If it's not working, either go to a different one or pivot.

Set up financial systems and reporting properly from day one and track it vigilantly week over week. As you scale this will be one of your strongest tools and discipline will save you significant time and headache in the future

follow your instincts

Get the money lined up. Start looking for ways to fund your business, such as through peer-to-peer lenders or investors, before you're in a real cash crunch.