The first customers are not a funnel. They are people you can already message. If your plan starts with ads, you do not have a first customer. You have a hope.
#Start with a list of ten
Write ten names you can reach this week: a former colleague, a supplier, someone who already asked you to “just send an invoice.” If you cannot get to ten, your wedge is still too wide or you are not in the market yet.
Do not wait for a website. A clear quote and a VAT invoice, when they need one, beats a landing page.
#Ask for the job they already have
Offer to do the painful step they already pay for — faster, or with an invoice they can actually use. “I built an app” is not an offer. “I will issue the VAT invoice the day the project ends so you can collect” is.
If they say yes, do the work by hand. Software comes after the third repeat, not before the first.
#Price so you can invoice
Company buyers often cannot pay until they have a Hóa đơn GTGT. Tell them that up front. If you are still a person without a company, you cannot be that vendor yet — start the company or partner with someone who can invoice.
#Three is a pattern. One is a favour.
One paying customer is luck or a friend. Three who were not doing you a favour is a business. Until then, keep the plan to one page and keep talking to the rest of the list of ten.
#Next
- Wedge market — shrink who you will talk to
- Getting paid as a new company — invoice when the work is done