10 Steps to Securing Your First 150 Customers

Starting out in business is tough! Securing your first loyal customers is probably one of the most challenging aspects of venturing out on your own. Getting those first customers through the door and keeping them is vital to the growth and survival of your business.

1. Sort the basics

It’s important to know who your customers are. When you start a business, it’s important to think more broadly than say; “I want to open a salon”, or “I want to open a massage therapy practice.” You need to get down to specifics!

Who are you going to open it for?

How do you know that those people want your services?

Have you done any market research to test your theories?

Does your brand align with your potential customers?

Are your prices right? Make sure you’re charging for the value you’re giving, and treat your customers to an incredible experience.

2. Get online

Once you’re confident that your basics have substance, you can start getting your business online.

• Create a Facebook page. Everyone has a Facebook account, so it’s going to be a useful marketing tool for you. If you want to have an element of surprise, open your Facebook page quietly and invite your friends to like it. You can start getting others to like it later.
• Create a website and put a splash page up. Most web designers can do this in minutes. Make your splash page interesting and intriguing – it’ll need to be for the next two steps to work.
• Collect email addresses on the splash page for those who might be interested in hearing from you, and send them to your MailChimp account.
• Add your social media links to your splash page.

3. Spread the word everywhere you go

You’re going to want to be fairly committed at this stage, since if you have to pull out after you’ve let everyone know, it’ll injure your reputation.

Be tactful about this. If you know of someone who has a lot of influence in your target market, it’s worth winning their advocacy over so that, when it comes time to launch your business, they’ll help you get the word out.

Also keep in mind that everyone knows someone who needs what you have, so don’t be shy about talking about it. The people you talk to will appreciate being “in the know.”

4. Reach out to the niches and be creative

Reach out to the niches and little pockets of customers, and be creative with your advertising. If you have services that younger people may want, then the one place where you can reach a lot of younger people is at your local Polytechnic or university.

Once you know who your customers are, find out what they like to do and where they’re likely to be, and reach out to them there. Get creative with your advertising, and you’ll save a lot of money!

5. Recruit ambassadors

An ambassador is simply someone who you trust to advocate for your business. It doesn’t have to be official – in fact it’s probably better if it’s not official – but if you have some friends who are good at talking to people, ask them to let others know about the services you have.

Throughout their conversations, they’ll be able to vouch for you. You can even give them flyers or a business card to give out to people, which can point them to your website or advertise your location and launch date.

6. Get your new hires to bring in people

If you’ve already made hires, ask them to help spread the word too. Make them feel as if they’re a part of something, and your success is their success. Everyone wants to belong, and no one wants to be a part of a sinking ship. Get them excited about working with at your new business and showing their friends where they work. If they bring in new clients, that’s a bonus.

7. Start running an online campaign 1 week before launch

You’ve been spreading the word. You’ve gotten creative with how you’re telling people about your business. Your ambassadors have been talking to people.

Now it’s time to go big. Make the announcement, and promote it. Get people excited about the fact that a new business is opening in town. You can do this and reach a lot of people locally through social media.

For more details on how to run a social media campaign to get more bookings, check out this article.

3 days before you launch, send an email blast out to the list that you collected in step 2 letting people know about your opening party.

8. Make a big deal of the opening

Now that you’ve put in all of your hard work, make a big deal of the opening. Have wine and nibbles at your new location, and invite people to attend your big party.

If it’s at all possible, have your opening party at the location. This will let people see what your new place is like, and they’ll remember where it is if they’ve been there once. Allow everyone to indulge in your moment; after all, a little party never killed no body.

9. Give each customer an incredible, next level experience

By now you should have gotten a few bookings in your appointment calendar. Let’s assume you have 10. It’s not a big number, but it’s reasonable to assume you will have at least 10 bookings.

Make sure your customers get a next level experience. Don’t do what everyone else does and give out an average service. Go the extra mile for each customer and make them feel right at home in your new business. This is especially important for the next step.

Don’t let your standards slip as time goes on either! The quality of your service will justify the prices on your pricing list.

10. Ask each customer to refer at least 2 people to you

Businesses thrive on referrals and word of mouth, especially smaller businesses who have clients that are likely to know others in need of their services. It is imperative that you give your customers an incredible experience so that you hardly need to ask them to refer people; they’ll want to. Having said that, don’t be shy about asking either, as it might not be in your customers’ instincts to refer their friends when they get a good service. After all, your business is on the line!

If you can get each of your new customers to get to of their friends into your new business, it’ll start to grow exponentially and it won’t be long before you have 150 customers. Here’s some math to explain this theory.

10 customers x 2 referrals each: 10 + 20 = 30 customers

10 customers + 20 new customers x 2 referrals each = 10 + 20 + 40 = 70 customers

30 customers + 40 new customers x 2 referrals each = 30 + 40 + 80 = 150 customers

Summary

After you first decide to start your business, you need to get people in your targeted market excited about and emotionally invested in your business. If you can get them to WANT to see your business succeed, you’ll be doing well.

After they’ve come into your business, you need to give them the best service they’ve ever had that makes them want to come back. Ask them to refer 2 people to your business, and you’ll soon have 150 paying customers in your business. How you get them to make sure they bring their friends in is up to you and your creativity. Good luck!