6 Proven Ways to Get Your First Customers

Starting a business is hard enough - but starting a business without a base of customers can be even harder. You're up against all the other businesses who are also trying to get their foot in the door, so you need to be aggressive and creative in order to stand out. In this blog post, we will discuss six ways that you can start getting customers for your new business!

1. Friends and family - Your friends and family are the best first customers. Use them to get feedback and improve your product. Gain experience and credibility, so getting other customers down the road will be much easier.

2. Referrals - Some of the world's largest companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Amazon, started their way and grew tremendously with a referral program. Offer incentives and encourage customers to refer others to your business. Allow your customers to do your marketing for you and keep them engaged with you over time. Customers referred to you are motivated and more trusting of your brand and make for excellent customers. Consider joining an affiliate network like Commission Junction and Share a Sale - allowing professionals to refer to your brand and gain access to a broader potential customer base.

3. Social Media - Post completed jobs, discounts you're offering, and positive reviews by customers. You should post frequent, high-quality content on one of the top platforms like TikTok or Instagram. Soon enough, you'll gain a following, get exposure to new customers, increase loyalty in existing customers, and remind them to shop with you again.

4. Influencer marketing - Consider partnering with an influencer to promote your product. Look for ones with a medium following - 20 - 100k followers, High amounts of likes and comments (to see that the person is credible and the followers are real people), and reach out to them by direct message. Most will agree to feature your product to their followers for a price that's often significantly cheaper than online advertising, and will even draw people to your social media page.

5. Online Advertising - Advertising using Facebook Ads and Google Ads is one of the most popular sales channels. It's infinitely scalable and allows you to get a high-quality and relevant client base. The disadvantages are: There is a learning curve involved - you may have spent 100s of dollars before seeing your first sale. In addition, the cost of online ads is high in general and can eat into your profits fast, so it's important to not rely on it exclusively.

6. Cold Calls - Cold calls are the oldest trick in the book. This method requires no startup costs, no prior skills, and can be very effective. Work on your sales pitch, practice it, and start reaching out to potential customers on Linkedin. If you are selling B2B (your customers are businesses), you'll likely be able to find 100s of potential cusotmers that are specific to the niche you're targeting.

I recommend implementing a combination of multiple methods when starting out. After you find out what works for your business, you should focus on what's working and begin scaling that method.