How Does a New Business Get Its First Client?

Getting your first client is the milestone every entrepreneur remembers all his life.


Establishing your business from the scratch is a thrilling and overwhelming experience. Getting your product or service ready for the market is only half the battle. Finding clients or customers who are willing to give your product or service a try can sometimes be a real struggle. Even with the best of products and services, clients do not magically appear. Below are some ways a new business will be able to get its first client.

Four techniques to get your first client

Use your network to your advantage

The first place to look for to get your client is by tapping on your existing network. Be it the business community you are a part of or your friends or even friends of friends. Talk about your product or service and learn about their views on it. Don’t play too aggressive and try to make a sale in the initial stage of your business. Focus on learning rather than selling, you don’t want to seem too desperate. If your product or service naturally catches their attention, they are bound to be your first client in no time. Also, your circle is a great place to practice your pitch. Many times small business owners find inventors in their circle through effortless pitching.

Create an online presence

The Internet connects billions of people on various platforms. Look for the place on the Internet where your business belongs. Several online communities and platforms are supporting small businesses and looking for new products or services. In these online platforms, you will find business advice, clients, inventors and overall build a stronger network.

Also, another online strategy to get people in is blogging. Blogs provide significant results in the long run. Build your blog around your product/service and if possible launch it before you launch your product/service. A blog is a great way to tell the story of your product and generate demand. As your blog will create enough traffic beforehand and as it is related to what you are selling, you may find your first customer in that traffic itself. Also, crafting content is a great way to boost your Google ranking.

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The first place to look for to get your client is by tapping on your existing network.

Use affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool for getting more users. The best part of it is that this is a low-risk way but the rewards are often great. In affiliate marketing, you do not pay for the traffic driven to your website but only for the actual conversions. Dozens of times the products marketed by the affiliate are bought by the customers. An affiliate works on a commission that it gets for bringing in consumers.

Consider providing free product/service

Just started a business, and give out free stuff? It might seem a lot to ask for but people love free products or services. When the goal of your business is to be heard as much as possible and get your product out there, giving out free stuff is worth a try. If you are confident that after using your product or service, people will come back for more, giving free products or trials is worth a shot. Create a strategy on how you will provide free products/services to your targeted audience. If it seems financially too burdening you can offer a first-time discount to your customers. Psychologically free or discounted products appeal to the human brain and you might end up getting not only your first customer but many more along the way.

Be prepared and have faith in your business. As long as you put in the work, you will get your first client. Embrace and learn from the failures that come along the way. Giving up is not an option here, experiment with the above techniques and see which one works the best for your business.

Tanisha Achrekar
Tanisha Achrekar
Tanisha is a Business Writer at Dutch Uncles, she writes on personal finance, management and financial concepts. Her stint includes JP Morgan and Media.net

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