How did you guys actually get your first 10 paying customers?

I'm asking because I feel like I've tried a bit of everything and somehow I'm still spending more time trying to get clients than actually doing the work lol.

Everyone says post on LinkedIn, ask for referrals, send cold emails, build your personal brand... okay, but I've been doing some of that and it's either crickets or people saying "this sounds great!" and then disappearing when it's time to pay.

I don't have a big audience or a huge budget for ads. Also not particularly interested in spending months making content before I get a single client.

Did you get your first few customers through people you already knew? Cold outreach? Random networking event? One weirdly successful post?

And if you did cold outreach, how many people did you have to contact before someone actually said yes? I genuinely have no idea if I'm being impatient or just doing this badly.

I would be happy to hear what worked, even if it sounds boring. Especially if you've tried things that were a complete waste of time.

28 minutes ago, Nora Nakamura said:

How did you guys actually get your first 10 paying customers?

I'm asking because I feel like I've tried a bit of everything and somehow I'm still spending more time trying to get clients than actually doing the work lol.

Everyone says post on LinkedIn, ask for referrals, send cold emails, build your personal brand... okay, but I've been doing some of that and it's either crickets or people saying "this sounds great!" and then disappearing when it's time to pay.

I don't have a big audience or a huge budget for ads. Also not particularly interested in spending months making content before I get a single client.

Did you get your first few customers through people you already knew? Cold outreach? Random networking event? One weirdly successful post?

And if you did cold outreach, how many people did you have to contact before someone actually said yes? I genuinely have no idea if I'm being impatient or just doing this badly.

I would be happy to hear what worked, even if it sounds boring. Especially if you've tried things that were a complete waste of time.

Cold email. Not the automated 500-emails-a-day nonsense. 👎

I picked a narrow type of business, found people who clearly had the problem, and sent short messages explaining what I thought I could help with. Most ignored me. A few replied. Some calls turned into customers.

It wasn't exciting, but it worked tho. 👌