How to get your first 5 customers

How I got here…

21: Graduated Vanderbilt in 3 years Magna Cum Laude, and took a fancy consulting job.
23 yrs old: Left my fancy consulting job to start a business (a gym).
24 yrs old: Opened 5 gym locations.
26 yrs old: Closed down 6th gym. Lost everything.
26 yrs old: Got back to launching gyms (launched 33). Then, lost everything for a 2nd time.
26 yrs old: In desperation, started licensing model as a hail mary. It worked.
27 yrs old: "Gym Launch" does $3M profit the next 6 months. Then $17M profit next 12 months.
28 yrs old: Started Prestige Labs. $20M the first year.
29 yrs old: Launched ALAN, a software company for agencies to work leads for customers. Scaled to $1.7mmo within 6 months.
31 yrs old: Sold 75% of UseAlan to a strategic buyer in an all stock deal.
31 yrs old: Sold 66% of Gym Launch & Prestige Labs at $46.2M valuation in all-cash deal to American Pacific Group. (you can google it)
32 yrs old: Started making free content showing how we grow companies to make real business education accessible to everyone (and) to attract business owners to invest or scale their businesses.

Today: Our portfolio now does $200M/yr between 10 companies. The largest doing $100M/yr the smallest doing $5M per year. Our ownership varies between 20% and 100% ownership of the companies. Many of them we invested in early and helped grow (which is how we make our money - not youtube videos).

To all the gladiators in the arena, we’re all in the middle of writing our own stories. The worse the monsters, the more epic the story.

You either get an epic outcome or an epic story. Both mean you win.

Keep crushing. May your desires be greater than your obstacles.

Never quit,

Alex

*FULL DISCLOSURE*
I make content to make money - just - on a longer time horizon than most. I want to build trust with business owners so we can find the best ones and help them scale. And if they’re awesome, write them a check and go all the way as partners.

[dylankearney]

Did this for my photography business. Ended up getting some big clients really early on because of it. Works incredibly well

[BrownyMiXer]

This is 100% gold and exactly what I did to start a SaaS biz.

[antwuntrademark]

*To get my first 5 clients:*

1.) Do free work for 5 clients (My time is not that valuable yet) But this gets people saying yes to me, early on.
2.) Ask for honest feedback and reviews
3.) If I do a really good job, ask for a referral
4.) Once I've proven I'm valuable, I can begin to charge

Note to self: PROVING my value is much more important than the money because money always follows value.

You don't have to try to find ants. Just be a piece of floor candy and they find you.

[owensanders]

This way I starting my landscape business. Began charging the money I should only after the foundation of referrals was established... constant flow of leads ever since.

[insanaadapeer]

o nice Man
i believe . . your advice is so good
.
i Tried this around 17 years ago in my country PAKISTAN
.
Realy i appriciate this formula
.
only Nice People will understand your advice
keep it up

[Leo_Youz]

Please do more intro/first step business stuff

[coltoncapps]

This works.. very well! I’ve tried it starting out. If they like they will praise you and tell everyone how good you are.

[blakeprout]

This came at the best time. Starting a buisness and have clients that are friends right now but need to branch out to “real” customers. Simple but makes sense.

[pilatesstudioandmore]

this is TRUTH. I built 5 start ups this way one at a time! common sense like Mozination, is not common.

[chandrabyjoo]

Totally agree.. it is good when the products.. can sell itself! ..they want to pay you for it!! longterm success and branding!!

[Thegardenbetweenus]

Yep. I have a mushroom coffee business. I got into my first 10 stores by offering to put my products on consignment. They are regular buyers to this day.

[HeresMo]

I think the flip side of the coin is people with lots of experience, who have worked in the industry and are venturing out. They will be able to put a high $ value to their work compared to fresh out of school. But still first few clients free build a portfolio of your own clients especially if it’s in the creative fields. It’s all good being part of a big company working with large brands but when you start you are on your own and need to build it up. It won’t take long to do a handful of free clients which you can use to sell your services to new paying clients. And if you did a good job with the free clients they in my experience will be loyal customers for many years

[BoorneKill]

This is how drug dealers operate. First they hook you on the goods for free, then you gotta pay.

[DLux]

Alex, the information you're sharing with the world is a gold mine. Better than anything I learned in my life.

[theduke]

You're kicking @## and taking down names!!! Keep in truck'n and enjoy the ride.

[RyanRaySr]

Exactly! As I’m launching my executive coaching program doing this very thing

[hasankhaled]

This helped me out to reach for a big youtuber and to be his editor, finally🎉

[joshuachaffin]

I utilized state contacts to open our state funded job coaching agency. The state is basically funding my start up it’s dope.

[The_Metal_Urge]

i recently realised ive been fucking this idea up hard because everytime somebody asks me what i make i just tell them im a blacksmith and that i can make literally anything that is made of steel, a better answer would have been for me to either find out what exactly they'd be interested in or simply suggest a few of the items i can make so i can begin to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown. if i had have said one of those two things im guessing i probably wouldn't have too much trouble selling the stuff i make.

[nathanielracine]

About to go into a housing bubble crash In Canada, I take care of my client and the builder who is their client, 41k sqft of contracts, and I fix a lot of stuff for free. Give take, learn when to take