How to Find Your First Customers
Finding your first customers takes a clear plan. Learn how to define who you're looking for, tap your network, show up where buyers are, and build the trust that turns strangers into paying customers.
Bizee Editorial Staff
Editorial Team
Introduction
Finding your first customers is one of the hardest parts of starting a business — not because the tactics are complicated, but because most people don't know where to start. The good news: the work you put in early builds on itself. Your first 10 customers make the next 100 easier to find.
Define who your ideal customer is
Before you can find customers, you need a clear picture of who you're looking for. An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a structured description of the type of person or business most likely to get real value from what you offer — and to keep coming back.
For B2C businesses, your ICP typically covers demographics, location, values, and buying habits. For B2B businesses, it focuses on firmographic details: industry, company size, revenue, and how decisions get made. The more specific you get, the easier it is to find the right people and stop wasting time on the wrong ones.
Ashley Griffin, founder of vintage brand The Nouvou, built personas for her luxury handbag customers and identified the hashtags her ideal buyers used on social media. She then searched those hashtags and engaged with relevant posts — a low-cost way to put her brand in front of exactly the right people. Most founders skip this step and end up marketing to everyone, which means reaching no one.
Start with your existing network
Your first customers are probably closer than you think. Start with the people already in your contacts — former colleagues, friends, family, and professional connections. They already know you, which means the trust barrier is lower.
When you ask for referrals, be specific. Instead of saying "let me know if you know anyone," ask for an introduction to a particular type of person or business. Vague requests get vague results. Specific requests get names.
Timing matters too. Ask for a referral right after a positive result — a completed project, a good review, a milestone. That's when the person you're asking has the clearest reason to say yes. You can also reduce friction by adding a simple referral prompt to your follow-up emails or thank-you messages so the ask feels natural, not transactional.
One founder approach that works: offer a finder's fee or commission to anyone who sends a paying customer your way. If that's not standard in your industry, a discount on a future order or a small gift can work just as well.
Build an online presence
A clear, professional website is the foundation. It doesn't need to be elaborate — it needs to answer three questions fast: what you offer, who it's for, and how to get in touch. If a visitor can't figure that out in 10 seconds, they're gone.
If you serve local customers, set up a Google Business profile. It's free and puts your business in front of people searching for services like yours in your area — one of the most direct paths to early local customers.
Pick 1 or 2 social platforms where your target customers actually spend time and show up there consistently. Griffin started with homemade Instagram and TikTok content — friends modeling products, behind-the-scenes clips — and tracked which posts drove traffic to her site. You don't need a big budget to start. You need content that feels real to the people you're trying to reach.
Keep your branding consistent across your website and social profiles — same logo, same colors, same tone. When a potential customer sees your business in multiple places, consistency is what makes it feel trustworthy.
Show up in person
Industry events, trade shows, and local networking gatherings put you in the same room as people who are already thinking about the problem you solve. For B2B businesses especially, in-person conversations can move faster than any digital channel.
You don't need a booth to benefit from an event. Attend as a participant, introduce yourself, and follow up by email within 24 hours. Eran Mizrahi, CEO of Source86, made in-person events a priority when co-founding his food ingredient supply business. His take: sitting behind a computer feels safe, but the most valuable conversations often happen when you're out in the world having the uncomfortable ones.
Before you go, do a little prep: find out who's attending, schedule a few meetings in advance, and ask your existing contacts if they'll be there. Arriving with a short list of people you want to meet is more productive than showing up and hoping for the best.
Griffin took this further by hosting her own vendor events once she realized customers wanted more real-world interaction with her brand. You don't have to go that far early on — but showing up consistently at the places your customers already gather is one of the most direct ways to build relationships that turn into sales.
Run targeted ads to a landing page
Paid ads can accelerate early customer acquisition when you have a clear picture of who you're targeting. The key is pairing the ad with a focused landing page — a single page built around one action, like signing up or requesting a quote.
There are 2 basic models. Search ads (Google, Bing) work in a pull model — they show up when someone actively searches for a term related to their problem. Social ads (Facebook, Instagram) work in a push model — you define an audience by interests and demographics and put your offer in front of them. Both can work for early-stage businesses. The right choice depends on whether your customers are actively searching for a solution or need to be introduced to one.
Before you build the ad, define who you want to reach, what problem you're solving for them, and where they spend time online. A well-targeted ad to a weak landing page won't convert. Get the landing page right first — clear value proposition, one call to action, no distractions.
Offer incentives and build trust
People are hesitant to buy from a business they've never heard of. That's not a problem to solve with better marketing — it's a trust gap to close with evidence. The fastest way to do that is social proof.
Ask your first customers to leave a Google review. Ask whether they're happy or not — a mix of honest reviews looks more credible than a perfect 5-star record, which can read as manufactured. One founder approach: ask each early customer directly, right after the work is done, while the experience is fresh.
Incentives can also move early fence-sitters. A finder's fee for referrals, a discount on a first order, or a revenue-share arrangement gives people a concrete reason to send business your way. If a financial incentive doesn't fit your industry, consider early access, exclusive perks, or a simple thank-you that makes the referrer feel like a partner in your success.
The numbers game is real. Mizrahi puts it plainly: you may need to reach out to 1,000 people to have 20 conversations, and those 20 conversations might produce 2 customers. Track your outreach in a spreadsheet so you can see what's working and where the drop-off is happening.
Validate demand before you scale
Before you invest heavily in any one channel, check that people will actually pay for what you're offering. Verbal interest is not the same as willingness to pay. The clearest signal is someone handing over money — or at least a credit card number — before the product is fully built.
Talk directly to 10 to 20 potential customers. Describe the problem you solve. Then ask: would you pay $X for this right now if it existed? If the answer is consistently yes — and they're willing to put something on the line to prove it — you have real validation. If the answer is "maybe" or "sounds interesting," keep digging.
This approach works best when you're solving a high-priority problem — something in the top 3 things your target customer is actively trying to fix. If the problem is a nice-to-have, paid validation is harder to get and less meaningful when you do.
FAQ
Start with the people you already know. Your existing network — former colleagues, friends, professional contacts — is the fastest path to early customers because the trust is already there. From there, expand through referrals, in-person events, and a clear online presence that explains what you offer and who it's for.
The key is to be specific about who you're targeting before you start outreach. A clear ideal customer profile makes every channel — referrals, ads, events — more effective because you know exactly who you're looking for.
The fastest path to early customers is direct outreach to people who already know you or who have a clear, urgent need for what you offer. Referrals from your network, targeted outreach to high-need prospects, and in-person events where your buyers already gather tend to move faster than building an audience from scratch.
Paid ads can also accelerate early acquisition when paired with a focused landing page — but they work best after you've validated that people will pay for what you're offering.
Getting your first 10 customers usually requires more direct effort than most people expect. Start by defining your ideal customer, then work through your network for referrals, show up at events where your buyers gather, and build a basic online presence. Expect to contact far more people than you think — reaching out to 100 people to land 10 customers is not unusual.
Track every outreach interaction in a spreadsheet so you can see where conversations are stalling and adjust your approach. The first 10 are the hardest. Each one after that gets easier because you have proof, reviews, and referrals working for you.
An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the type of customer most likely to get real value from your product or service and to keep coming back. For B2B businesses, it focuses on firmographic details like industry and company size. For B2C businesses, it covers demographics, location, and buying habits.
It matters because without one, you end up marketing to everyone and converting no one. A clear ICP makes your outreach, ads, and referral asks more targeted — and more likely to produce paying customers instead of polite interest.
It depends. Discounts can reduce friction for early buyers who are on the fence, but they can also set a price expectation that's hard to walk back. A better approach for many businesses is to offer early access, a finder's fee for referrals, or a small bonus — something that rewards the relationship without permanently anchoring your price lower.
If you do offer a discount, frame it as a limited early-adopter rate rather than your standard price. That way, early customers feel like they got something special, and you preserve room to charge full price as your reputation builds.
Start with a clear website that answers what you offer, who it's for, and how to get in touch. If you serve local customers, set up a Google Business profile — it's free and puts you in front of people searching for services like yours. Then pick 1 or 2 social platforms where your target customers spend time and show up there consistently.
Paid ads can accelerate online customer acquisition once you have a clear audience and a focused landing page. Search ads work well when customers are actively looking for a solution. Social ads work well when you need to introduce your offer to people who don't know they need it yet.
