service providers

i’m curious for those of you who run your own online services business:

• what initially got you interested in starting your own service?
• what were some of the early challenges or obstacles you had to deal with?
• how long did it take before you felt like things were working or “successful” knowing of course that success can mean different things to different people?
• if you’ve been running a successful business for 5+ years, what’s one thing you’d do differently if you were starting over today?
• has word of mouth or reputation played a bigger role in your growth than advertising?
• what is some advice you’d provide to someone who’s interested in entering this line of work?

p.s: i’m not looking to get into the service scene myself. i mostly enjoy being on the buying side and occasionally selling accounts, but i’ve always found the whole thing pretty interesting.