All of the "Startup" resources, like The Lean Startup, etc that aren't busy glorifying VCs or the SV model, are useful for these businesses.
The only difference between a "lifestyle" business and the "Silicon Valley" model is whether you are in control over your own destiny and focused on building a business, or whether you're selling out to people who want to increase your risk and their possible profits, with the expectation that you'll get a nice bonus in your acquihire.
In a way, YC and VCs have ruined startups, by making people think this SV model -- which is great for Facebook, google and yelp, but terrible for the billion other startups is the One True Way.
There is truly a place for VCs and yes some businesses definitely need that kind of funding. But right now it seems VC is so available things are getting funded that will never be able to hit that 10x mark.
So businesses that could have been great bootstrap businesses will grow too fast with too high a burn rate and flame out at a series A or B crunch.
Meanwhile, if the business could have taken it slower they could have built something really valuable for themselves.
That's based on the assumption that the crunch will happen though, and even if those companies flop, I think it's quite important to analyse exactly where they went wrong rather than put them down as just another startup that couldn't scale properly. If you're a bootstrapping startup hoping to enter the same market, this is crucial as you can at least try and avoid those mistakes - who's to say that you won't crash and burn too?
(This is more like advice to myself actually as I'm currently in a dilemma between that "wait" that you've just described and the intense worry of not getting first-mover advantage through that waiting)
You sir, are a smart man. And the only other person I've ever heard to suggest that besides myself (not tooting horn, just honest that no-one thinks that way).
This is a way that fixing income inequality would help certain entrepreneurs. If more money can come from customers (poor/middle class/small business) rather than investors, then early revenue will be more attainable than early fundraising.
Decentralizing economic power would shift our economy away from capital-intensive moonshots and toward consumer products though.
The entrepreneur sub-reddit frequently has posts from guys who are starting or trying to start online lifestyle businesses. It's somewhat hit or miss. But if you check it every few days you can find some real gems. Some of the businesses really open your eyes to ways to make money online.
The narratives are much less about massively disruptive, world changing startups and much more about making a good living through mostly internet businesses.
My advice is to just try stuff and see what sticks. The space of unexplored business models is much larger than what's covered in the typical self-help places.
