I Asked 5 Business Owners How They Got Their First Client

During a team offsite, Ali Abdaal asks five business owners how they found their first clients. The question is deliberately concrete: what turned an idea for a service into someone paying for it?

The people interviewed had experience in coaching and marketing before joining his team. Their stories repeatedly involve existing relationships or communities, but the routes are not identical. One person had just moved to a new town; another found early clients on Upwork. These are personal accounts, not a representative survey of how every business begins.

Carol had worked in corporate marketing before building a leadership and team-coaching business. She did free trial sessions while still employed, including one for a peer who liked the work.

When Carol said she was starting a company and would charge for the service, that peer connected her to her husband, who connected her to his manager. The manager became the first paying business client.

The relationship then spread to other teams through referrals. Carol also stayed in touch with people she had helped; when they moved companies and inherited new teams, the same need could reappear. Her understanding became more specific: the client was a leader trying to work out how to help a team function.

Nathan was new to a town in Australia and attended a local chamber of commerce event to meet business owners. In conversation, he learned about problems that overlapped with his marketing skills.

A discussion continued over coffee. He offered to examine the business through an audit so they could understand what was needed before discussing a price.

That first client later referred him to other business owners in the same church community. The story is not about arriving with a large local network already in place. A shared setting created the initial conversation, and useful delivery helped the relationship travel further.

Katherine belonged to a women's professional Slack community. She posted that she was going through coaching certification because members shared updates, not because she had designed a client-acquisition campaign.

Someone she did not personally know asked whether she could speak with her adult son. Katherine tested a workshop with him for $75, and he became a longer-term client.

A later conference conversation led to work with a five-person team. Another client came from a small mastermind she had hosted. She says content work brought little return and she did not use ads, which makes the particular conversations and groups important to her account.

Andrea's first marketing client came through a friend in sales who knew a business needing advertising help. She describes the transferred trust making the first call, proposal and start of work straightforward.

Her next route was different: during the pandemic she regularly applied for work on Upwork and found clients there. Other work came from a previous agency that could pass along smaller clients it could not handle.

She had kept relationships with former colleagues and employers active, so asking for help did not arrive after years of complete silence. Her story includes both warm introductions and a marketplace, rather than supporting a rule that every first client must already be a friend.

Owen contacted people he knew when moving from employment toward freelancing and an agency. One was a former employer from a sports-coaching job during university breaks.

He showed marketing results from his current work and offered a quick audit. After reviewing the existing ads and giving feedback, he met the owner for coffee and was asked what it would cost to help further.

Later clients came through word of mouth. Other owners saw the advertising work, asked who was doing it and received his name. In the story, the free audit is a bounded demonstration of useful work, not an obligation to keep providing an open-ended service without payment.

Abdaal adds examples from his own businesses. As a teenager, he made a website for a school friend's stepfather after emailing his contacts, earning £30 and a first testimonial.

His medical admissions-exam course began with a post in a school-related Facebook group, friends and friends of friends in a small class. He later asked past students for referrals. He says his YouTube channel began years after those first customers, rather than being a prerequisite for the business.

Another design opportunity came at a medical hackathon. He made the team's presentation, other participants saw his design work and two people asked about help for their companies. The setting let them see a relevant ability while working together.

14:09View full image

At 14:09, the video displays the historical Facebook post. It shows an early offer to a small community, not a later large-audience launch.

The pattern Abdaal draws is to ask people in a reachable network whether they know someone who needs the service, ideally with a useful initial interaction such as an audit or consultation. A community can provide that connection even when the individual buyer is initially unfamiliar.

That does not make the action emotionally easy. He discusses fears of appearing spammy, telling colleagues or having a boss notice a new venture. The practical step can be simple while the social discomfort remains real.

The common thread is specific usefulness becoming visible, followed by a conversation and reliable delivery. Referrals may follow, as they did for these interviewees, but their experiences do not guarantee a first customer or a particular revenue level for everyone who repeats the steps.

Adapted from Ali Abdaal's “I Asked 5 Business Owners How They Got Their First Client.” The five interviewees are Carol, Nathan, Katherine, Andrea and Owen; Abdaal also contributes his own examples. Sponsor material is omitted.