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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
To start your solo agency, you need a clear ideal client profile<\/a> (ICP) and a transformative ideal client journey<\/a> (ICJ). These two, when combined, define your agency\u2019s niche. But knowing your niche is not enough. To sustain your agency, you need to have real paying customers. And as with all good things that last, your success all starts with your first.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve defined a valuable niche, attracting your first client will not be a result of market buoyancy. It will be a direct result of who you know and who knows you. That is to say, your first client will almost always come from your existing network<\/a>.<\/p>\n In fact, I\u2019m willing to bet that if you don\u2019t already know your first client (perhaps even your first few clients), your prospects for long-term success as an independent expert are grim. You\u2019re not yet ready.<\/p>\n So, before you even start thinking about quitting your full-time job<\/a> to build the next big agency, make sure you have at least 20 individuals in your niche who you can ask for feedback. Notice that I say, \u201cask for feedback\u201d and not \u201cpitch to.\u201d That distinction is important, and I\u2019ll come back to it shortly.<\/p>\n Before we dive into what you should do to find your first client, I want to share a mistake I made that almost cost me my agency before it even started. This is an important lesson that you can learn from.<\/p>\n I had spent the year between 2019 and 2020 deep in thought about how I believed I could enter the Salesforce CRM ecosystem as an independent advisor. I was confident in my strategies and had defined a clear client journey. In the fall of 2020, I officially founded my agency, MVRK<\/a>.<\/p>\n In early 2021, my first potential client reached out through a referral. At the time, I still had a full-time job. After a couple of fantastic conversations that included most of the company\u2019s senior leadership team, they asked me for a quote.<\/p>\n I eagerly prepared it and sent it off. After some back and forth, we reached a verbal agreement to start at the beginning of the following month. Full of eagerness following that verbal agreement, I handed in my three weeks\u2019 notice with my employer.<\/p>\n Can you guess what happened next? That\u2019s right. My potential client ghosted me<\/a>! There was no signed paperwork. No deposit was paid. I made an amateurish decision that left me with nothing.<\/p>\n The lesson is simple: You don\u2019t have a client until they\u2019ve paid you.<\/p>\n For most people, that would have been the end of the journey before it even started. But for me, it turned out to be a stumble before a fantastic sprint. That sprint has turned into a marathon that I\u2019m still running<\/a>. Today, I have a small team and over a dozen fantastic clients.<\/p>\n But that journey had to start with a first. So, how did I go about finding my first paying client after being ghosted? I did what all great entrepreneurs do. I turned my focus towards getting feedback on my strategy from people I trusted.<\/p>\n Instead of becoming desperate and begging my former boss to take me back, I asked former clients and business acquaintances for 20 minutes of their time. When I met with them, I did not try to pitch myself to them or position some form of partnership. Instead, I asked for their feedback<\/a> on my designed client journey.<\/p>\n The question that worked the best for getting that feedback, especially from former clients, was this: \u201cIf you\u2019d had the option to choose what I\u2019m offering now when you originally made the decision to work with my team, how would that have influenced your thinking?\u201d Feel free to use it yourself!<\/p>\n No matter what questions you ask, there are two signals that you need to tune into:<\/p>\n These feedback conversations will be the most important time investment you make at the start of your solo journey. And unlike me, you should have those conversations before you quit your job!<\/p>\n So, how did these conversations turn into my first client? It\u2019s quite simple. A CFO I met with from a former client told his VP of Sales about my consulting firm. That VP reached out, asking for my help. After a conversation about what I offered, they signed a contract<\/a>, paid the deposit, and we got to work.<\/p>\n They are still my client to this day, over five years later! You will almost certainly find your first client or clients in a similar way.<\/p>\n This is why I recommend that before you start working solo, you should be in a position where you can ask as many relevant people as possible for feedback; 20 is the minimum, closer to 50 is more ideal. If you are saying to yourself, \u201cI don\u2019t think I have 20 people I can ask for feedback,\u201d then you\u2019re not yet ready. Instead of rushing in, work hard to strengthen your network<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even if it means you need to work for someone else for longer, it is worth the wait because the strength of your network will have a proportional impact on your early agency success.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n To start your solo agency, you need a clear ideal client profile<\/a> (ICP) and a transformative ideal client journey<\/a> (ICJ). These two, when combined, define your agency\u2019s niche. But knowing your niche is not enough. To sustain your agency, you need to have real paying customers. And as with all good things that last, your success all starts with your first.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve defined a valuable niche, attracting your first client will not be a result of market buoyancy. It will be a direct result of who you know and who knows you. That is to say, your first client will almost always come from your existing network<\/a>.<\/p>\n In fact, I\u2019m willing to bet that if you don\u2019t already know your first client (perhaps even your first few clients), your prospects for long-term success as an independent expert are grim. You\u2019re not yet ready.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nLearn from my mistake<\/h2>\n
Instead of pitching, ask for feedback<\/h2>\n
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Start to strengthen your network today<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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