How do you find the first customer?

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Posted by ilknur
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“How I Started My Own Business” After I shared my article named “How Can I Find Customers?“, “How Do You Find Your Customers“, I started to receive some questions. On top of that, I wanted to elaborate a little more on this article. As I see it this is a problem for many people. The most difficult subject. That’s why I decided to talk a little about how I found my first customer and talk about my own experiences. Maybe it will be useful for you

Happy Reading…

Honestly, this was the hardest part for me. I decided to work as a freelancer, but how will I find my clients?

We settled in a small town like Ayvalık and it was much more difficult to find new customers from here. When I was living in Istanbul, I thought there would be no difficulties because of where I live. But it’s happening. They want to meet you face to face, but you can’t go and see you all at once. If you don’t live in Istanbul, your job is twice as difficult if you live in a small city like me.

Based on my own experience, I would like to talk about how to find your first customer.

  1. First and foremost, open social media accounts related to the work you want to do and constantly prepare and share content. Keep doing this for 1 year without giving up. At the end of 1 year, you will see what you gain 🙂
  2. Prepare yourself in a mail format. Make a list of companies you want to reach. And start emailing them. It would be much better if you could reach the founders, owners, or directors of the companies. I will talk about two applications on how to find e-mail addresses.
    • You can access their e-mail addresses by typing the company name on the website Hunter.io. Free up to 50 calls. Charged after 50 calls.
    • Another one is the Clearbit Connect – Supercharge Gmail addon that you can install as a Chrome extension. It’s easy to use, if I’m not mistaken, it’s free for either up to 100 calls or up to 1000 calls.
  3. Use a catchy title in your emails and write a short description without going into too much detail. If you have a portfolio and a site of your own in the content of the mail, be sure to include its link.
  4. If you are fluent in English, do not settle for only Turkish companies. Be sure to contact companies abroad as well. Send emails, send messages on LinkedIn.
  5. Make sure you have a LinkedIn account. Edit your profile. Be as active as possible by sharing content on LinkedIn and staying in touch.
  6. You can also reach the companies you have listed on LinkedIn. Tell us about your business by sending messages to the founders. You will be able to see the incredible opportunity of LinkedIn. I found most of my clients on LinkedIn. It’s a huge blessing. Be sure to consider this.
  7. Direct Call management is not a method I use. Because; may not be able to reach the founder, and may not be available for an interview. You can try it if you want.
  8. If you don’t have any portfolio, you can start out at very affordable prices or do a few jobs for free. This will add experience and portfolio to you. Many companies will ask you for your portfolio. This is how you can fix this problem.
  9. Fiverr, Bionluk, and Upwork are not platforms that I highly recommend. Because; It will take a long time for you to get a job through these platforms. You need to have comments and points in order for you to get a job. This extends your return from these platforms. But to start with, you can create your account and try it.

If you have any questions, you can leave your comments below or contact me directly ?