Landing Your First Client: Share Your Story
If you are a successful entrepreneur, you probably remember the day you landed your first client with a smile. Not unlike the memory of your first reciprocated crush, you were likely bursting with joy and your heart was probably pumping like crazy.
Let’s share our stories to help inspire our colleagues who are just getting started. Tell me about the experience:
1. How long had you been marketing before it paid off?
2. What did the first client tell you about how they decided to work with you?
3. How did you celebrate?
4. Are you still working together?
Comment // August 2nd, 2007 // 10:44 am
My very first client was by accident. I didn’t even realize I wanted to work for myself so I hadn’t been marketing. It was for a former employer who had laid me off unofficially due to a conflict between me and another person. Unfortunately it was because I had uncovered that she was doing unethical things and she found out and played the corporate game. The new client came a couple years later when she had been fired for embezzling money (despite the fact that I’d warned the owner) and her replacement had been fired for similar reasons. They just needed me to come in a fix everything so they could hire someone else. They knew I could be trusted so they hired me on a temporary basis. That was five years ago — they’ve since found that after I did a bit of training for one of their in-house guys they didn’t have to hire someone new — I have been able to keep their books in-line better than either of their former full-time bookkeepers.
How did I celebrate that — well the celebration was two-fold. The fact that I got this client gave me the idea to start on my own — which I did. But, the big celebration for this particular client was having my name cleared and having the owner — who I highly respect, tell me that he’d made a mistake and that he wanted me to work for him again.
Comment // August 2nd, 2007 // 4:32 pm
Lanel,
I love when things come full circle like that. I think they always do if we wait (and pay attention) long enough. Great story. Thank you for sharing this.
Comment // August 3rd, 2007 // 1:17 am
My first client came through my church, before I’d even set up my business. I was asked if I could do some typing for a man and I told him I was planning to set up a business and he could be my first client. He was and referred others. That was over 13 years ago.
Comment // August 3rd, 2007 // 6:42 pm
Kathie, It’s terrific when an affiliation like church can help get you on your way.
Comment // August 6th, 2007 // 12:48 pm
My first client actually came as a referral from Erin Blaskie of The VA Coach and it happened while I was still working in the corporate world. The client sent me an e-mail and said she was very interested in working with my business and we set-up a phone call. Everything went from there! Since Erin Blaskie is also my coach, she always told me to get up and do the happy dance! It made me feel really good about my first client and whenever something good happens in my business, I still get up and put some feel good music and do my happy dance! We are still working together after three months of working together and we’re both really happy!
Sincerely,
Trina Lamarche
http://www.vaassistant.com
Comment // August 6th, 2007 // 3:00 pm
Trina, I would love to see a picture of you doing your happy dance. I suspect many entrepreneurs have their own version of the happy dance which has never been seen by anyone else! That’s an uplifting story; I appreciate you dropping by to tell it.
Comment // August 7th, 2007 // 6:43 am
My very first client came about one month after officially “opening shop.”
I was looking through the want ads and called a company looking for a part-time admin assistant. We arranged for an interview that very week.
He tested me by asking me to resolve an issue they’ve been having: How can they market their products without disclosing the names of their clients (confidentiality issues). Within seconds I said, “Why don’t you just say that you service the #1 and #2 largest wireless companies in the world?”
I passed the “test” and was hired on the spot. The only catch was that he needed me onsite for most of the time. Because I really needed the money and I wanted to start getting experience (in retrospect I see how those weren’t good enough reasons, but, oh well!), I agreed to his terms.
That was over 5 years ago. Even though I’m not an active VA anymore (I transitioned to coaching), he’s still a VA client. I go in about every quarter and he pays me above my fee (not just for going onsite, but to keep me). He has been my best client ever.
Comment // August 7th, 2007 // 9:00 am
One of our very first clients, certainly our first restaurant owner, hired us to redesign his menus and business cards. Being huge fans of his restaurant to begin with, we were excited to have him as a client. After redoing the menus he hired us to work with a printing company to print the new menus and business cards. The printing company was a national chain we had used for years without problems…until this job. To our utter embarrassment, the printing company botched the menus (even though the proofs they gave us were perfect). Just wait. It gets better. Not only did they botch the menus the first time, but they screwed up the reprint and therefore had to reprint the reprint. Then they messed up the business cards — twice, they lost the CD with the graphics files (fortunately we had a backup), they wrote my name down wrong as the contact (Jennifer instead of Heather), they wrote my phone number down wrong (no wonder I wasn’t receiving their messages), and they changed their promised completion date so many times I lost count. The entire project took 4 weeks and I had to explain to the restaurant owner why I recommended this company in the first place. Even worse, the final printing of the business cards was so pathetic that the restaurant owner requested a reprint of the business cards. I negotiated with the printing company to give us the cards for free and have now taken the reprint job to another company. Fortunately, our client is a stand up guy and has been very patient- though understandably annoyed – through the whole ordeal. I’m happy to say that we are still on great terms though neither of us will probably every use that printing company again!
Comment // August 7th, 2007 // 10:32 am
Cristina,
I remember doing some force-fitting when it came to accepting some assignments early on that, in retrospect, weren’t for the right reasons either. But, it’s about getting started and learning from our experiences, right??
So many former VA’s have gone into other related specialties that I am beginning to view it as a professional with a sort of career ladder. Do you agree?
Heather,
All I can say is Holy Cow! When things start to tank, everything goes wrong.
It sounds like you handled a bad situation with incredible grace and tenacity (where the printer was concerned). That’s a story many can learn from.
Comment // August 8th, 2007 // 9:21 pm
What a great idea for a post and such fun reading through all the comments above!
My first client was actually the first job I bid for on Elance before I really knew that this was something I would end up doing full-time (or more like time and a half).
It was a job for 10 hours of transcription (not my specialty at the time). He said that although I was not the lowest bid he thought my bid and some of the articles that I had included with my profile made him laugh, so he decided to give me the job.
That was about a year and a half ago, Mike and I are still working together all the time. Last I checked, I have done over 200 hours of transcription for him…still not my specialty, but I’m pretty dang fast now!