How to Get Your First 10 Paying Customers

So this is a series where we come together as business owners, entrepreneurs, and we talk around our businesses. We talk around growth and what will make our business grow and sustainable. Thank you very much for joining me today. And today I just want to talk around getting your first customers. A lot of people are working, you're posting, you're trying, but we need to be clear around it that your first customers will not find you. You are the one who needs to go and find your first customers. So today, I want to walk you through how to get your first 10 paying customers. And I want to do this practically. This is not just theory. It's not a motivation. But this is about execution and how you can practically achieve it. Because there's nothing as scary as starting or being in the... beginning stages of your businesses so just want to walk you through this and i want to chat around the mindset shift that needs to happen for you as an entrepreneur around getting customers and the first one is the mentality i'm not sure who coined this phrase that says build it and they will come and That is one of the most harmful things. And it normally happens when people are building enterprises, building big buildings to say, hey, once you build a stadium, people will come. And this is business. So when you are building your business, that mindset needs to shift because customers don't just find you. Customers come When you are visible, you need to be visible to your customers for them to find you. So firstly, when you're searching for your first 10 customers, you need to work on your visibility. Just because you've launched, just because you've got a shop, just because you've got a website, just because you've got a social and posting on social doesn't mean that customers will come. And I remember being at a conference. chatting with a young man and he came to me for advice afterwards. And he was like, hey, thanks for the great chats. And he was just like, I like cooking and I've been posting videos around cooking, but it doesn't seem like I'm getting a lot of engagements on my meta suite. I'll point out meta, but it kind of works the same with all of them. And this is the misconception where people think that post it and people will just. come to you there are millions of people on social media i'll get views and likes and let me talk to you honestly as somebody who's working on building my brand and using socials it is not true you need to be consistent in your posting your posts need to be engaging sometimes your posts are just not engaging and the algorithm is not showing the people your posts so the myth i'm trying to deal with here is build it and they will come you need to work extensively on your visibility to your clients and not just trust that i've sent out a couple of flyers i'm posting on social media need to get into the space of your customer and another thing that i've seen people struggle with people struggle with perfection so perfection uh is is is the enemy of them so people are waiting for their perfect branding people are waiting for their website people are just they're waiting for for something to say hey my product product is not just right yeah my website is coming this my branding my banners are coming this of mine is coming and people are just waiting for perfection around the business perfection around the product And if you take something out of this conversation tonight, it's that perfection is the enemy of getting things done. Yes, I strongly and personally believe in a standard of excellence that whenever you do anything, you need to do it excellently. But sometimes we're too hard on ourselves and we end up not making progress because we are waiting to be perfect. misconception and i think i've touched on it is that posting on social media is not selling so get it inside your your mind think about it meditate and say posting is not selling and i i'm i'm jumping on social media here but also posting on whatsapp status and whatsapp statuses are the bomb diggity they do a lot of good work but also posting on status is not the equivalent of selling and let's talk around selling a lot of people in business or starting to starting their businesses love the idea of business but they are scared of selling and they dislike selling so this is what we need to uh get around to say if you've got a business selling is a part of business if you're not going to sell you're not going to stay in business and you're not going to get your customers and sometimes people fear selling because i would mention uh brand names but you've seen the brands or people who try push their service on you and people are just like no i don't want to be like that and you're pretty much right for not wanting that but you need to reframe selling in your own mind and say that selling is solving a customer's problem when you're selling you are looking to add value to somebody so you're not just selling for your own enrichment if you and i'll always speak around this that what problem are you solving how are you of value to your customer if you are thinking value If you are thinking problem solving, you know that you've got a solution that your customer needs. And it's a matter of finding your customer who needs your solution. And a lot of people don't like the thing of being a nuisance. And some people also fear rejection. And a lot of us fear rejection because when people say no to us, we feel like they're saying no to us personally as people. and not no to the solution we're providing so when we are reframing selling as entrepreneurs when we are selling we are providing solutions to our customers we are bringing values to our customers we are solving people's uh problems and when customers are like hey timby i got your codes i'm not going uh with you or many times customers just don't respond think of yourself as well how many people haven't you responded to who are trying to sell you something don't take it personally it is a part of life and as we say in sales we are chasing that one yes because that one yes when it happens it changes everything so let us get into the first part of how then do i get customers if i'm building my brand if i'm starting and the first one is start with people you know your first customers are closer than you think so these are your friends family colleagues former clients whatsapp contacts and it just starts by a simple outreach with a template to be like hey if you call them my name it it does it does help it makes it feel personal so if i'm if you're approaching me you're saying hey temby i'm helping customers with their events catering do you know someone who might need the service i appreciate uh the connection so think of your service think of the person and just have a warm reach out and when you reach out you there are various ways to reach out you can reach out via text whatsapp sms email phone call however you're reaching out and if you're reaching out via text i promote that you have a picture because what i've come to find over my many years of living is that humans don't read people when they read they read in a rush sometimes they don't read at all but if you've got something visual there's something to point someone to what you're doing so you say Back to our example, if you've got a catering company, hey, Tembi, I've started my catering company. I'd appreciate it if you could refer me to people who would need this service, looking forward to your response. And then it goes along with your picture. Picture, it's well-designed. Please make sure it is well-designed and attractive. It shows. so work that you've done before if you use pictures that you've used before great if it's if you if you don't have the pictures that you've done before you can use stock imagery but use stock imagery carefully because you don't want to make it seem unrealistic if you're in south africa and we can clearly tell that this looks too american or this looks too polished it must have a real feel to it so Whatever images you're using for your picture, ensure that you've got a picture. It kind of looks like it looks glorious, looks amazing. Because what I've seen people do, they normally look at pictures. They're like, oh, yeah, I also want this. Oh, how much is this? And sometimes customers fail to describe what they want. So you're reaching out to your close friends and family, your contacts. You've got your picture there, business name, email. contact whatsapp i find that customers really resonate with whatsapp so put your details there and what what this helps with is when your friend your family member your colleague has somebody in mind now they can just quickly forward this little poster that you've done don't put too much as i've said imagery business name contacts and also just a few line a few bullet points of your services this must be something quick that your contacts can pass around so contacts your your your contacts and you'd be surprised that when you're when you when you contact your contacts they'll be like many of them will be like hey congratulations i know someone and sometimes they'll be like hey i know someone who's doing a complimentary service to you then they'll start hooking you up they'll start seeing these pairs these matches that you can leverage in building your customer base and what's important here is sometimes you're scared and it's something that we need to deal with as entrepreneur especially the risk part to say hey if i tell the close people around me what if i fail what will they think of me and It's a part of life. It's something that you must get used to. Business is around putting yourself out there. So if you fail, work hard not to fail. But if you fail, it happens. Learn from what went wrong. Dust yourself off and keep it moving in the right direction. And if you hear a lot of entrepreneurs that you see that have made it big. A lot of us as entrepreneurs have our horror stories. We have our moments of failure. We have our moments of embarrassment where in Zulu, I just like saying, what was I even thinking around? Just thinking of my past business ventures, I've had a bad time vending machine, had to stop it because I had moved locations. and i left the team hey didn't work out i wasn't capable of managing a remote team uh that at that time i also had a remote internet cafe that thing drove me to the ground financially there were a lot of awesome mba lessons but personally that was failure failure in public but i've taken those lessons with me and i'm using those lessons in the current ventures that i'm running now so as you reach out to your network and the people you know think of it you are not begging you are offering them value and you're asking them to push your brand and your services to their contacts remember always have imagery people resonate with images and they'll can respond and apologies about that fan some technical issues that the team and i have fixed okay back to the Second point is to go to where your customers are. Don't build in isolation and let's go to where demand exists. I was chatting around advising people who say, hey, Tembi, I've got an app idea. Help me build my app. How do I build the software? I've got this idea. How do I get into the iStore, Android? My first thing always is, Who is your customer? Is your customer willing to pay for this? And what am I saying with this? I'm saying that you need to go to your customers and where there's a customer and where there's demand, you will find success there. And with customers and demand, sometimes we want to be extra original. It feels like, no, I don't want to copy other things. But a signal that people are going to buy and are willing to buy are already buying so what your what your service check because as solomon said there's nothing new under the sun even though you've got an original angle which you definitely have to have something that sets your service apart it's where are your customers so go to the local uh local local businesses go to the events go to the community groups facebook groups whatsapp groups but i actually like uh events or something uh physical or something tangible even in the digital space because when people are buying from you they it's a it's a trust game So when you are at an event, you shake someone's hands, you're like, hey, I'm 10B, I've got a production company. Hey, I'm 10B, I've got a coaching business. Then they kind of resonate with you. They've seen you, they've experienced you. There's an energy exchange, an aura where they're like, okay, I can do business with this person. So if there's a chance of actually meeting the people, physically or digitally sometimes uh people host uh live events or online events so via any digital platform many events are hosted via whatsapp zoom teams whatever where you get to experience someone's voice someone's face, all of those elements build trust. So where are your customers? If you are targeting local businesses, if you are targeting schools, if you are targeting models, whoever you're targeting, if you're targeting car fans, car lovers, let's say you're selling leather cleaners for seats. So you need to go find those people where they're at. and actually communicate with them and actually just chat with them. Practical script to say, hey, I work with leather cleaners to help clean your car seats and keep them shining and long lasting. I'd love to help you understand how I can help you with this product. So this is around just actually going to where your customers are and start the conversation. Start the conversation around how you can help them and not just push. uh the selling or sales because people actually feel your energy and they feel it when they're like ah this one you know you know you you know guys you know those people uh where you just feel like okay i'm not interested this people this person is just trying to push their products so when you are where your customers are starting that conversation and actually seeing how you can help them with their problem you will get a sale and i i i like highlighting this to say it's not easy sales is a numbers game if you think of it this way you need to talk to a lot of people to actually get the sale if you and and the and the margin normally is if you chat to 100 people 10 will be interested one will actually uh buy and that normally works on online with uh physical it's a bit better but it's a numbers game for whatever communication you put out so let's say if a thousand people see your post maybe a hundred even a hundred is a generous number but that's what the formula says will be interested interested and maybe 10 out of that hundred will will buy so now you see how much reach you need to have to actually make a sale and i've seen entrepreneurs do this like they chat to two or three people ten people at most a banner somewhere here a poster somewhere here and it's not a lot guys sales is a numbers game so even when you're going to where your customers are when you're approaching local businesses when you're approaching events whatsapp group facebook groups just know that it is a numbers game start the conversation and In your mind, when it comes to rejection, expect it. And as we spoke about earlier in the session, that when there is rejection, they are rejecting the offer and not you. So separate yourself, your self-esteem from your offer. And then thirdly is actually sell, sell directly. It's funny. It's funny how we don't we don't sell like sometimes, as I've said, like, we're busy, we're posting, we're saying we've got business, but we're not selling. And when you're selling, you need to be clear around what you offer. Make your offer and your offer and your pitch very clear to be like, hey, I'm Zambi. I help event goers. Sorry, I help. people build marvelous events providing technical equipment. And I need to get that pitch waxed. That wasn't cool. But you get the idea. But now I actually need to sell. I need to make my offer clear. And a lot of entrepreneurs, you see them mumble when it comes to your offer. And people mumble when it comes to their price. I know sometimes, right, if I'm selling a phone, I know if I'm selling this phone, it's 4,000 Rand. If I'm selling the other one, it's 7,000. And there's like some sets of framework around the pricing of products. So be clear around your pricing. Also with services. have a framework of pricing because that's when things fall apart where now you need to sell someone says hey i like i like what you bring to the table how do i buy how much you want and then it's like uh and you're not you're not actually uh selling so what i'm advising you is that when you're selling make your offer clear what actually are you asking uh to give the person that's of value in exchange for their money how does this thing help them and just be clear be clear be short be direct as an entrepreneur as an entrepreneur and if you don't ask for the sale you don't get it and this all boils down to being scared of selling and then uh the fourth step is uh to actually keep your your offer simple as complexity and confusion kills sales so as you're building your customer base one problem one solution actually one price maybe if there's a variety of prices it's simple and as you start out complex projects i've experienced this myself when a when i know that i've got i'll make a simple example i've got tvs i've got screens uh i've got sound i've got my packages it's an easy sell i know that this is the package okay this customer needs this package and then someone comes and says hey i want to host beyonce You see, now that complexity, you're just like, what package am I giving Beyonce? It's a lot of things like, okay, I'm going to need so many things, and it's now bigger. Beyonce was quite a big example, but it adds complexity. So what am I saying? I'm saying that when you're getting your first 10 customers, Keep your packages simple. It must be something that solves a problem that customers can relate with. And it's something that you can solve with in terms of quoting. Because once things get complex, you as an entrepreneur suffer decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is when you need to make a lot of decisions and then it ends up slowing you down and making you less productive and also factors in procrastination. Keep it simple. Keep your offer simple. Let's make sure that we are giving value to the customers. So when you create your Google My Business profile, like your products must be simple. Sometimes people ask me, should I put a price? Should I not put a price? It depends. Personally, especially with products, it's easier when you put a price. I like it. I like putting prices because it actually filters. it filters out those customers uh especially if you're going into like mid markets people can know like to say hey i'm selling lipstick it's two thousand some people are like two thousand or you you already know what the people are saying two thousand out and then the people are some people are like oh yeah cool i can deal with this then they start inquiring so now you know that you've filtered out people who can't afford your products with services It's different. It also depends on your target. And sometimes there is a disadvantage if you've got complex pricing. In the beginning, first 10 customers keep it simple. So with the pricing, have the pricing model in your mind. Have a pricing model to refer to. And don't just leave it to chance and don't wait until you're with the customer because that's what delays you taking out the quote that what what delays you sealing the deal so let's have our pricing framework basic standard and premium so you know that you can cater for your customer needs so an example is i'm selling a i'm saying i'm selling these uh candles these are our basic uh package of candles uh this basic uh package is uh 300 rand then you've got your standard package which is now 450 this one comes these are scented candles it comes with uh rose petals and then you've got your premium package for like 900 which has extra bells and whistles so this just helps you filter and keep your pricing and your complexity in your mind as simple and then i'm gonna move to the first thing is to actually ask for referrals actually ask the people that you've done business with and people that you're chatting with and and this uh i come to thinking of it uh telemarketers do it a lot like hey i'm selling insurance you're like not interested do you know someone who would be interested in this product and sometimes you'll give them someone in your family with a car sometimes you'll decline with the details but that's the referral thing and as what i've seen in my business is that When customers are referred, those are easier sales. If somebody is referring you, referring their friend, their family to you, that customer trust their friend would not do them harm. So it's easier for you to get the sales. So actually ask for referrals. And when you're asking for referrals, have a simple template like, hey, glad that I helped you with this. Is there anyone else I can help? And also just have pictures of your work. pictures of your work are high are very valuable especially in this referral uh referral uh asking when somebody is not asking for a quote a referral like hey i i saw that you did something for uh sandra i want something uh similar client describes what they want then you've got some sort of pictorial evidence if it's a product pictorial if it's a service pictorial because pictures imageries actually sell that's when customers are like that's the one that's i what i want so ask for referrals and when you actually deliver take pictures take evidence get to know your customers get feedback so you'll do something for customer number one uh you'll you'll work out oh this was amazing this didn't work and then when you're moving on to customer number two you are moving with the learnings and you're taking that portfolio of evidence off nice portfolio of evidence that you are creating so that's with every other customer you're selling with your portfolio of evidence so don't wait ask immediately after giving your customers value to be like hey is there anyone you know that might need the service and post what you've done so pitfalls Summarizing some of the pitfalls around getting your first 10 customers is waiting until things are perfect, waiting for perfect branding, waiting for perfect websites. Another pitfall is thinking that just by posting, you're selling. Selling is offering someone value for money and solving someone's problems. So don't fall into that pitfall of thinking, hey, I'm posting. It's tight on the social streets. algorithm is not showing in our content as to many people as you think and sometimes our content is not that engaging even for people to see and as we do more of it we grow other pitfall is the fear of rejection when We, when our offer is rejected, we feel that we are being rejected as people. So as entrepreneurs, let us work through our fear of rejection, separate ourselves and our offers to people. Another pitfall is having too many offers. Now people get confused. I'm like, are you a beauty company? Are you a therapy? Are you a psychologist? or what what what what are you what are you selling having too many offers causes confusion and when your customers are confused they end up not buying um like personally i experienced this uh especially with my daughter carry app it's a school app where now you can buy tech shop yo like guys gunini am i picking chips Am I picking hot dog versus burger? And hot dog versus burger is an easy choice. And then they're like 20 things that now I need to pick up. I'm like, guys, I'm willing to spend the money. But now if I need to pick around so many things, and it's funny, hey, it's like difference between buying from McDonald's, Burger Kings, and Rocco Mamas, right? Different customer bases. You know, McDonald's, you're like, big mac or spicy cajun chicken uh burger king you like double waffle with cheese or barbecue king kong it's like you see the picture you like that one hey roco mama's exam i'm like do you want the patty or not the patty like the bread no bread lettuce no lettuce it works for some customers for a lot of customers it's confusing and they end up just telling the waiter to be like hey i want that one in the picture Because now they have so many things to choose from with cheese or not cheese. So what I'm saying is if you're going for your first 10 customers, keep your offer simple because the more complexity your customer needs to deal with, the more chance that they have to actually drop the sale completely. And then lastly, it's restarting too early. And this takes time. Building your customer base takes time. It takes resilience. It takes learning, trying, failing, seeing what works, what doesn't work, refining your offer. And I think I read this in one book. I need to remember the author to say, when you're building a business, the first 18 months, your business is still taking shape. You're thinking that you're going in this direction. You're interacting with your customers. Then you refine your offer. You take a different direction. So it will take you. 18 months to two years to actually see full direction with your business. So you need to be patient with yourself. And sometimes we get too easily distracted. Today, I'm a makeup artist. Tomorrow, now I'm massaging. Next day, now I'm a psychologist. Next day, I'm a sound technician. And we're just like, what business are you running? And if you're not giving yourself Time to root into that business. Time to actually fight the challenges and win against those challenges. Do something, win, pivot. You're going to find yourself starting over again and again. And your growth is not going to go higher. So you've seen a lot of entrepreneurs live hand to mouth. And that thing of spreading yourself too thin around too many things is going to lead you. to uh living from hand to mouth so fam if you enjoy this type of content and this is beneficial for you please like subscribe and please share the content i'm looking forward to engagement and i'm asking myself to say what strategies have you used in your business to grow your business and to get your first 10 customers and i know i spoke about strategies but there are some things that you definitely need to do looking forward to what you guys will put on the chat and first thing you need to do visibility get on those socials get posting post your work let people know post on your whatsapp status Build a website. What I like about a website, it's not necessary, but what it adds, it adds visibility. It makes you feel demure, right? It's like eye levels. This company looks serious because it actually has a website. A lot of customers have that mentality. Also, directly contact people on your contact list, people on your emails, people on your WhatsApp, status, post, post, post, visibility. Be visible. And then actually sell. Hey, I'm Tembi. I've got this cell phone. I'm selling it for 10,000 Rand. This cell phone helps you solve this problem. How can I help you? So actually sell. Do not just mistake posting for selling. And the question I'm asking you is, as you're building your sales pipeline, how many people... have you spoken to this week? Remember the formula I shared to say it's a game of 10, 10, 10. For every 1,000 people who you engage, who see your posts, who see your adverts, who see your website, 10% will be interested. Out of 1,000, 100 are interested. Out of those hundreds, as you give them more information, only 10 will be possible customers. who will actually give you their money to actually take your products or your service. So what's your pipeline? Who are you talking to? Who are you engaging? And how many customers are you engaging within your pipeline? So how many customers do you have right now? So please put it on the chat. How many customers do you have right now? And what's stopping you from getting your next customer? thank you very much for joining us tonight it's always a pleasure to be on the live please drop your comments on the chat and also just dm is if there's any topic that you'd like us to cover in the coming weeks looking forward to it and if this content is a blessing to you please like please follow please share and let us help many entrepreneurs grow their businesses and get more customers love you see you next week

How to Get Your First 10 Paying Customers

A lot of people are waiting for customers to come to them.

But your first customers won’t find you.
You have to go find them.

In this session, we break down practical steps to get your first paying customers, including:
• Starting with people you already know
• Going where your customers already are
• Selling directly instead of waiting
• Keeping your offer simple and clear
• Turning one customer into more through referrals

This is a practical conversation for anyone starting out or struggling to get consistent business.

If you’re building, this is where it starts.

The Long Game is about building businesses that last.