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Key Takeaways If you’ve invested in building the right relationships before launching your solo agency, you almost certainly already know your first client.
By asking for feedback from those in your network, instead of pitching and pushing to strangers, you will build exposure and find your first client.
Understand that your first client is not truly yours until they’ve paid you.
To start your solo agency, you need a clear ideal client profile (ICP) and a transformative ideal client journey (ICJ). These two, when combined, define your agency’s niche. But knowing your niche is not enough. To sustain your agency, you need to have real paying customers. And as with all good things that last, your success all starts with your first.
If you’ve defined a valuable niche, attracting your first client will not be a result of market buoyancy. It will be a direct result of who you know and who knows you. That is to say, your first client will almost always come from your existing network.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that if you don’t already know your first client (perhaps even your first few clients), your prospects for long-term success as an independent expert are grim. You’re not yet ready.
So, before you even start thinking about quitting your full-time job to build the next big agency, make sure you have at least 20 individuals in your niche who you can ask for feedback. Notice that I say, “ask for feedback” and not “pitch to.” That distinction is important, and I’ll come back to it shortly.
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