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How to land your first client (Part 1 of 2)

With journal prompts and questions to guide you through the process

Author

Maggie Blackburn
February 24, 2025

I landed my first client since leaving my full-time job! Well, technically I landed my first two clients.

The first is a coaching client I met through a nonprofit organization I volunteer with.

The second is a consulting client who I was connected to through a former colleague after my LinkedIn post went semi-viral.

If you’re curious about how to land your first client, read on 👇️ 

1. Believe it’s possible 🌈

Sounds fluffy, right? Maybe a little, but a lot of us stay in the thinking phase. We might be interested in finding our first client, but we make excuses why it’ll be hard. These might sound like:

  • “I want to do consulting, but my work never would allow me to.”

  • “I want to find a client, but who would want to work with me if I've never done this before?”

  • “If I was in [X profession/role/industry], it would be way easier to find clients.”

You can follow the exact steps for finding a client, but if you believe that you’re not ready or not good enough, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

Once you take responsibility for these thoughts, you have the power to change them.

✍️ Your turn

Write down all of the reasons why it feels hard when it comes to finding your first client. For every reason, challenge yourself to think about ways to overcome these beliefs.

Example: “I want to do consulting, but my work never would allow me to.” —> “I need to read the outside work policy. Could I consult for another industry that doesn’t compete with my current job?”

2. Know your why 💖 

Now that you’ve mustered up some confidence that it is possible to land a client, figure out why you want one. Maybe it’s…

  • To gain new skills and experience

  • To earn money

  • To help them with specific challenges

  • To see if I like consulting

Now, dig a few layers deeper. Why do you REALLY want to [insert reason above]? Identifying our true ‘why’ will help us when we experience rejection later down the road.

✍️ Your turn

Why do you REALLY want your first client?

Example: My why isn’t just to earn money or help clients live up to their fullest potential. It’s to set an example to my future kids and live a life without regrets. When things get hard, I come back to the bigger picture.

3. Create a hypothesis 🧪 

When I had a full-time B2B Product Marketing job, I had a hypothesis: I might enjoy B2C marketing better, and it would be more meaningful to work directly with founders.

After my first client, I validated my hypothesis was true. I also discovered that I didn’t love editing social media videos but did enjoy the strategy, which helped inform future engagements.

What you start doesn’t need to be what you end up doing forever. Just pick a hypothesis, test it, and iterate.

✍️ Your turn

To develop your hypothesis, think about:

The type of work you want to do: What skills and experience do you have? What do you enjoy working on? What do you dread working on?

The type of people / companies who need this work: Think about their demographic information and the types of problems they’re facing today.

Example: Let’s say you’re a product designer, and you love the product research side of your job, but you don’t enjoy the tactical execution—designing the screens, thinking about every scenario, and presenting your designs in front of the team.

Your hypothesis might be: By working only on product research, I will be more excited about my work. Startups are often understaffed and by targeting Head of Product & Engineering at early-stage companies, I will help them fill a need.

⏩️ Up next

Work on coming up with your hypothesis this week and share it with me!

Then, check back next Monday for Part 2 where I talk about how to leverage your network and land your first client without feeling sales-y.

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✨ Weekly Feels

  • Feeling at home: Writing this newsletter from The Catskills Retreat. I’m here for a few days checking in on everything—fixing random stuff mostly and doing a deeper clean. My friends, Justine and Sashi, came to visit and ski! ⛷️ 

  • Feeling free: I’ve had a few busy weeks these past few weeks, so on Friday, I took it pretty easy. Got lunch by myself, worked a little, and met up with a friend for hot chocolate!

    My current obsession: Chloe on Bleeker

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