Getting your first client is an exhilarating experience, but it’s also an experience that far too many aspiring entrepreneurs never experience. Sometimes, the difference between an idea dying in the idea stage or going on to change the world is getting that first customer – the first tiny win that creates the momentum to make an idea real. So, we connected with some of the smartest folks we could and asked them to tell us the stories of how they got their initial clients.

Katherine Danesi

I began my career in sales, marketing, and management. For 12 years, I worked at a Fortune 500 company and then at a series of technology startups. During that time, I managed teams in sales, customer support, operations and marketing. I hired, fired, and project managed. I launched new initiatives within large organizations and new organizations outright. Read more>>

Ebbi Nicole

The time was February 2021. We were just one month shy of the one year anniversary of Corona Virus in the States and it was also the one year anniversary of being laid off from my job. People were still very nervous to be around one another but the mask mandate was beginning to lift in different states. Read more>>

Noushine Navabi

Technically, my first job following graduate school was at a crisis stabilization hospital. However I found it quite unfulfilling and left soon after. I promptly moved on to a nonprofit for women survivors of sex trafficking, which is when I like to think my career really began. I had been monitoring and applying to roles for this organization for months with little luck. Read more>>

Julie Lokun

It begins with a spark. All businesses begin with an idea that idealistically will change the world. Read more>>

Shayla Copas

Scaling up is a journey and a path. It meanders, and it never ever goes exactly how it was planned. The key to scaling up is to “listen” and to become really in tune with what your customers want while staying very flexible. Read more>>

Darica Tisdale

I started in financing at 22 with being a personal banker and worked my way up to financial advising and loan processing. After a few years in that field I had the luxury of being promoted in mortgage lending and partnering with 5 Wells Fargo branches in Virginia. Read more>>

Alexandria Taylor

I grew a real passion for choreography my last year of college. That also happened to have been the year the world stopped due to Covid-19. I left school right at the very end of my senior year and missed out on huge opportunities to showcase a roster of dance pieces that I choreographer for my dance team. Read more>>

Brooke Jones

At the beginning of any business, if you are truely a ‘hustler’ at heart, your main objective is to earn some money. Big money, little money, any money, doesn’t matter. The objective every morning is ‘how can I actually produce dollars from this ‘idea’? Read more>>

Tania S

A key factor that helped me scale my business was letting God in my finances and tithing! I also got a new website that allowed me to customize the contact form for potential customers. That has been very beneficial in helping me understand prospective clients’ needs before the phone consultation. Read more>>

Lauren Shimabukuro

When I was younger, my mom asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up? I said I wanted to be a dance teacher. I was already taking lots of dance lessons so she asked my dance teachers if I could assist them. I started assisting combo classes and eventually when I was older became a substitute at my local dance studio. Read more>>

Eric Neufeld

Following college, I had a number of jobs ranging from handyman to animal trainer. I was a little lost, but knew there were some things I was drawn to. Namely working with my hands and in some science/medical field. I was in my early 20s and my Mom, friendly by nature, randomly met a woman whose son was a “prosthetist” and they got to talking. Read more>>

Kim Moh

When I first started my business, I knew I had to build credibility in the field as a Fashion Stylist even though I had been doing it for other brands for years. I started looking for networking events, local and out of state. During these events I met other local creatives and made it known I was open to collaborate. This led to my work being published in 2 fashion magazines. Read more>>

Ruben Bermudez

Fresh into the retail market as a makeup artist and i finally got a job with MAC cosmetics in Florida. just a month into the job i got promoted from freelancer to part time, Shortly after my promotion i got my first big opportunity. I’m at work just cleaning up the makeup stations when a customer approached me after being snubbed by another employee. Read more>>

Shi Robinson

I started my nail business my senior year of college. I had just got back from studying abroad in London, where I first started practicing nails on myself. Over the summer I practiced even more on my close friends and family members and even took a course with a well-known nail tech from Hartford that moved to GA and flourished. Read more>>

Betsabe Apte Roman

I was still going to school for makeup and hair when I got my first paying client. The previous week, I had invited a random lady from a Facebook group to come and be my makeup model in class. She was super sweet and she was also pregnant; she loved her makeup and told me she wished she met me a week back to do her maternity photoshoot and that was that. Read more>>

Jessica Lopez

I started my small business with just a joke during covid and lucky I got blessed to keep it going! I started small with just family and friends! My very first client that wasn’t related in no way was from a client from Arkansas!! Read more>>

Tamela Greene

I did a major gut renovation to an apartment in NYC for myself. I had a party and a few people saw my house and were like Whoa. Who knew you could do this? I did not even know I could do it but I am so pleased with how my business has come together. Read more>>

Taylor Lianne Chandler

My first client, Constellation Brands, heard my radio show, Taylor Chandler Gives Good Radio Show, and reached out to me to be the keynote speaker for Transgender Day of Visibility. It was exciting and scary. I had to take my personal story and incorporate their vision and pillars. Read more>>

Brooke Dunlap

When I launched my fragrances, my first customer was a woman whose business I have supported more than once. She makes purses, clutches and wallets. She also knits. I have made posts about her products a few times. She was my first customer and left me a review. It genuinely made me happy. Read more>>

Alexander Catedral

I love telling this story! I was in my last semester of my junior year in college and I moved from Peoria, Arizona to Grove City, Pa to do an internship with a church my brother helped start. I was 20 years old at the time, and I came to help with audio and visuals to get my hours in for my internship in order to graduate that year. Read more>>

Ohitz O

Growing up I’ve always took a big interest into art and music. Drawing and learning how to record music became my hobbies that I really enjoyed. Practicing different techniques in both fields I became a better designer and artist but I’ve haven’t achieved my goal yet. Read more>>

David Abookire

When I was at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy, I dove deeply into the study of Sports Massage, Anatomy, Orthopedic Massage and Injury Rehab treatments. All I wanted to do was work with athletes. Read more>>

 

Natalie Zanoni

I started my career as a youth therapist in a residential center in Milwaukee. I worked with adolescents who experienced trauma, substance use and mental health challenges. Their mission and the Read more>>

Kevin Wilson

I got my first client from working at Bad Boy Entertainment, at the time I was the only engineer that would work with a rather difficult client. The client had some pretty big demands when it came to time and how efficient the person working with him should be. Read more>>