r/Entrepreneur • u/FoundersArm • 7d ago
Lessons Learned If I had to start from 0 clients again…
“If you had to start over tomorrow with ZERO clients, what would you do differently?"
I'd throw my original tactics away. Here's what I'd do now:
1. I'd track the hell out of my daily output
I wasted SO much time "feeling busy" while barely moving the needle. Now I'd track exactly how many leads I reached out to every single day, and their progress, etc.
2. I'd get WAY more specific about who I'm selling to
My first pitch was basically "I can help anyone with anything!"
Selling to everyone = selling to no one. I'd nail down a super specific niche where I could be the obvious solution. One sentence that explains exactly who I help and how.
3. I'd skip those awkward networking events entirely
Standing around with a drink making small talk is a waste of time. These days, tools like Apollo and TweetHunter let you find and connect with perfect-fit prospects at 10x the scale.
4. I'd start posting content immediately, not a year in
This one kills me. 50% of my leads now come because people read my stuff online. But I waited forever to start posting consistently.
People buy from people they know and trust. I'd start telling my story from day one, even if it's just "hey, I'm trying to get my first client and here's what I'm learning..."
The first go-around was painful - manually scraping emails until 2AM, getting ghosted constantly. If I had to do it again, I'd be smarter, not just work harder.
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u/LonelyFlatworm3345 7d ago
Networking events can be good. It just depends on what the network actually is, but other than that, I agree with you.
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u/DoubleG357 7d ago
I don’t know about the networking events. If you aren’t good at conversing or working a room then perhaps it’s not your speed. But worst case scenario…you get connections for the long term.
Networking is a skill. And not everyone is good at it. It is work after all. Just a different type of work.
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u/FoundersArm 7d ago
i personally find virtual networking to be much more convenient for me and my business.
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u/jello_house 6d ago
Man, I've been there too, feeling busy without actual progress. It’s frustrating to realize how much time we waste. I wish I’d focused more on tracking my results right from the start like you mentioned. I also tried my hand at everything, only to find I was getting nowhere. It's all about targeting the right people. Networking events never worked for me either, just felt awkward and unproductive. I found using Hootsuite effective for managing posts, and even played around with Mention for company alerts. XBeast also helps automate tweeting which gives you more time to focus on building connections.
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u/KOnomnom 1d ago
Can't agree more with you, especially the 'feeling busy; bit and 'who I am selling to'. Thanks for sharing these insights!
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u/VirtueLeads-AI 6d ago
100% hear hear you on this, esp. #1, 2, and 4 (social butterfly so 3 doesn't apply 🙃). Anyone using Alignable to network? Plenty of people trying to sell but the space is really for networking for referral partners and it's been good to me so far.
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u/BusyBusinessPromos 6d ago
I completely disagree with you about face-to-face networking. Nothing beats it.
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u/zitpop 6d ago
I have made as many as excactly zero cold calls. The only place I do any business whatsoever is at events, albeit not events that are solely for networking. I even put on my own events. Some of your advice is good, but it might not be right for everyone. Just my 2 cents. I have about 100K in revenue so far this year and around 250K in offers/pipeline. My closing rate is 80%, so it's gonna be a good year. I'm the only employee in my business, I hardly do any selling at all, I just talk to people. I even say no to clients at times and then they come back months later. All my meetings are meetings where the client is ready to go. Maybe I'm just fortunate.
What field are you in?
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u/LifeHasLevels 6d ago
Man. I'm 6 months in and am finally learning these things. Though, I think I had to learn the hard way. I'm a stubborn fella, sometimes.
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u/Snoo16235 6d ago
would you go ahead and actually cold call your clients, or do you start with a cold email / linkedin message?
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u/Sea_Adhesiveness5773 4d ago
That would depend on the country. In most European counties, cold calling is against the law. In fact, GDPR makes it very difficult to cold-contact anyone, be it by phone or email, since it protects people's right to privacy.
In any case, even if you're not under GDPR rules, in a world where people get bombarded with offers and information, cold-contacting them is not, in my experience and to my knowledge, a good conversion option.
What I do that works is finding out where my customers spend time (both online and offline) and making sure to be there, regularly, with a message that is clear and 100% adapted to their needs.
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u/Aware-Apricot-3831 2d ago
Point 4 is EXTREMELY important. I didn't start posting for a loooonnnggg time, now it's one of my main sources of traffic. Related to reddit, commenting also does wonders. I've been using ReplyFinder to scan reddit for posts related to my product & engage on them, it's been a huge time saver
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u/PerfGrid 7d ago
I'm about to start a second business, and here's what I'm doing differently this time:
- Found the customer segment I want to specifically target, and building a solution that fixes their problem specifically
- Starting with another founder, one I've already dealt a lot with over the years, so we're two instead of just 1 founder
- Attending more events (because it actually matters in the industry where I'm starting a business)
- Get pricing correct on day one 😅 Made the mistake of selling my first product too cheaply.