How to Get Your First 3 Clients as a Beginner Solopreneur

One of the biggest challenges that new solopreneurs and business owners face is getting their first few paying clients. Once we have a few paying clients for our business, the way that we show up. Our confidence, the way that we learn and the way that our business starts to grow and take shape really changes everything.

Hi, I am Dr. Marcella. I am a business strategist and coach, and here I share practical tips for solopreneurs and one person business owners so that they can grow and scale their businesses with profitability, sustainability, and without burning themselves out.

Should You Do Pro Bono Work When You First Launch Your Business?

Okay, so before we dive into how to get our first paying clients, I want to address something that a lot of people ask me. Should I do pro bono work when I first launch my business? And my opinion is yes, when we first launch a service-based business, it's really important for us to be able to test our ideas, to experiment, and to try the service that we're providing with a few people.

So that we can build testimonials, we can get real time feedback, and we can start building a portfolio of evidence. Initially, this work may well be free or heavily discounted, especially if you're someone that has expertise that you're now trying to sell through a business, but you don't have prior experience. It's really important to build the confidence in your services as well as to be able to start building confidence by working with real time people. So my first advice is if you've never tested whatever it is that you want to sell in terms of your service.

Please go and try it out with at least three clients. The easiest way to do this is to offer your services for free for the first couple of people, or you can do it at a very reduced price,

And you can let them know that you're working pro bono for a limited time so that you can test and develop your product and the way that you deliver your services.

Start With the People You Know

So once you've tested your idea with a few clients for free, and you've gathered some testimonials, it is time to start getting your first few paying clients. The first way to get your first few paying clients is to start with the people you know. Most of us will have some kind of network that we have built through our professional lives and even our personal lives. And it's really important to remember that every person has their own network.

So it is a big spider web of people that we actually have access to. So the first thing to do is to go through your phone, contacts, all of your social media followers and friends. LinkedIn and even your email addresses, and to make a list on a spreadsheet of the people that could potentially benefit from your services.

If this service that you're offering is new and perhaps you are pivoting from the career that people know you from. It's important to let people know that you're offering this service, so you can start by reaching out to your existing network. You can reach out directly to Friends, family, and Extended Network.

You can post on social media and announce your new service. You can reach out to people via email. You can contact them through direct messaging, and you can start spreading the word so that people. Can know that you offer this service.

One simple way to do this in a way that sounds more natural and less salesy or pushy, is to simply reach out to your network and let them know that you're offering this new service and ask them if they know of anyone that could be interested. That you'd be really happy to maybe offer them a free discovery call or consultation to help them get started or to help them with a particular challenge so that they can get a little bit of value before they commit to working with you.

So this is a nice way to be able to let people know about your services without trying to sell them something to begin with. I would always advise, especially at the beginning, to offer some kind of value upfront before you ask for a sale. So the way that a service business generally does this is through free discovery calls or free consultation calls.

One thing to remember when we're starting a new business is that businesses are all about relationships, and especially when you're just starting out, you need to be able to build trust. It is rarely going to be random people from the internet that are going to buy your services. It needs to be, for the most part, people that have already built some kind of trust with you.

So don't underestimate your network. Make a list of all of the people that you can potentially get in touch with, and simply let them know that this is what you're offering.

Offer a Beta, Pilot or Founders Programme

The second way to get your first paying clients is to offer a beta or a pilot program or a founders program. This way, you can test an idea without having it perfected, because if I'm honest with you, it's not going to be perfect until you actually.

Work with real clients and you test it and you evolve and you get feedback and you refine. So you need to take the pressure off and take the pressure off yourself and your clients by creating a founding program or a beta program or a pilot program, whatever you want to call it. So your clients come in with the understanding that this is a work in progress, and you come in with the understanding that you're going to learn from this experience and get feedback from your clients.

The way to be able to sell this is to offer it at a very discounted rate. So you price anchor, which means that you let them know how much the price point is going to be for the actual program, but whilst you're testing it, you have a heavily discounted price for the first five or 10 people that work with you to test this out.

So this way people know that they're paying less for something that is still in refinement, this way, you can continue to build your portfolio. You can continue to get testimonials. You can build your experience, you can build your confidence, and you can start to understand what the pain points and the transformations are that you want to offer to your clients by working with a Beta program, you can refine your offer and you can really get to understand what it is that you want to offer to the market. So I would always encourage you to start with this before trying to launch something that's already refined and perfect.

If we just take a quick look at the tech world, they have something called an MVP, so minimum viable product. Often things like apps, websites, and so on. They launch an MVP and get it tested with loads of people. At a very reduced rate or sometimes even free, so that they can get real time feedback and refine as they go along.

If they try to do all of that without clients testing it, trying it out, and giving feedback, the product would never evolve and it wouldn't get to the point where it needs to be to then launch it to the market at a higher scale. So we copy the same principle. We launch a minimum viable product. That doesn't need to be in any way refined or perfect.

We're testing an idea and we gather a few people who are interested in this idea and we work with them.

The point to remember here is that your offer doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to exist, and you will improve and refine as you go along.

Focus on Conversations Rather Than Content

The third point to remember when you are a beginner in business is that you need to focus more on conversations rather than content.

Many beginner business owners make the mistake of starting to post online in a random manner in the hope that they're going to get new clients this way. And for the most part, that doesn't work, especially with service-based businesses, where it's all about building relationships and trust. Instead, what you need to do is to focus on conversations.

So I have already explained, you already have a network of people that know you and like you and trust you. You need to start with them.

Early clients usually come from direct conversations, The way to do this is to reach out to your network, . Let them know what you're offering and invite them for discovery calls, consultations, coffee chats, even lunches. Speak to people, go to networking events. Start to get the word out there and build relationships.

Don't focus on trying to sell something in a pushy way, focus on building relationships, having conversations, testing your ideas in real time, and inviting people to try it out with you. This is a much more natural way, and it's going to invite the right type of people to help you build and refine your programs.

The key thing to remember is that business comes from trust and connection, not from random content. There is absolutely a space for that, but that is a more long-term strategy that needs to be built for compounding effect. But for your first few paying clients, you are going to be much better off speaking to people that you already know or going to spaces where your potential clients could be hanging out.

Remember, your existing network shouldn't be underestimated. A lot of people try to go out and find new clients in places where they have never set foot before, and that's fine, but rewind and make sure that you have. Spoken to and reached out to your network as much as possible and continue to have those conversations with the people that are already in your life.

You will be surprised at how effective this can be, and even if they don't necessarily need or want to work with you, they may be able to refer you to other people that will be interested in your services.

Gradually Increase Your Pricing

Okay, so let's say that you've tried out your program, your service, whatever it is that you're offering, and you've tried it out with a couple of people for free. You've then had a pilot program where you have tried it with maybe three to five clients at a discounted rate, and you've gathered some feedback.

Make sure that you always gather testimonials so that you can then build that authority and that credibility with future clients as well. That is really key. Once you've done this, then you can take the next step, which is to offer the service again at perhaps a slightly reduced rate, but not so reduced.

So it can be closer to the price point that you're hoping to sell it for. But not quite there because you're still refining your offer. So let's say the first three clients are free, the next three clients or three to five clients, you've reduced it by 50%.

Then the next time you offer it, you can have it with maybe 20% off, and then by this point, you would've worked with a good, maybe eight to 12 clients. You would've built a lot of confidence in your delivery. You would've refined your offer. You would've built a healthy amount of testimonials, and you would have already built that proof.

That's going to help you to more confidently go out there and charge what it is that you actually want to charge.

Will Discounting Damage Your Brand?

One common question from business owners when I give them this advice is, is it a problem that I go into the market with something for free or heavily discounted? Is it going to signal the wrong thing to the market? And the answer is. no if we're doing it in this way. So if you're launching a new product, it's very common and it's very healthy to go into the market with an introductory price, that's absolutely fine.

But the way to be able to signal the value is to let people know what the actual value is, and then you can explain that you have reduced it because it is an introductory offer.

Please make sure that when you start promoting your service, you let people know what the true value of it is, and you explain clearly why it is that you're offering a discount. This way you can grow yourself and your confidence and your business into the price point that you want it to be at without putting so much pressure on the first iterations of your program or service.

Final Thoughts

Okay, so please remember, your first few clients are all about building that momentum, building that confidence, and building that ability to be able to deliver your services effectively. They're not about perfection at all, so ensure that you find a way where you can build that momentum, start gathering testimonials and start getting some evidence and proof that what you deliver is valuable.

Remember to start with the people that you already know. Let them know what it is that you're offering and ask them to also help you spread the word. You'll be surprised how effective this can be.

Remember to also not overcomplicate what it is that you're offering. Keep your offer as simple as you can with just one specific outcome that you're promising your clients, and this way you can start to see how it is that you can provide your services and the value that you're able to deliver.

Remember to have lots of conversations. Talk to people, let people know what it is that you're doing, get excited about it, and invite people to join you. So get them energised and get people to find out more about the sort of services that you offer and invite them to have more conversations with you.

Finally remember to offer something of value. Offer free discovery calls, offer consultations, pay for a coffee. of these things will help. You become known in the thing that you're selling, to be able to build that know, like, and trust factor and to be able to get the word out there so that you can start getting your first clients.