Find your first customers: from your own network to a steady flow of clients

How to find your first customers as a new business

The first assignments usually come from people who already trust you: a former employer, a neighbour, a friend who runs a company. That is a good start and a poor plan. A network runs dry after a few months, and it rarely brings the customers you want most. Founders who still have a full order book after year one made an early shift from waiting for the phone to a small system: a sharp target group, a few chosen channels, written agreements and a routine for unpaid invoices.

Below you build that system step by step, with a worked example in euros. The logic works in any currency.

From network to system

1. 01

   Sharpen your target group

   Describe your three best early customers: what kind of business or household, what problem they had and why they chose you. That profile is your target group. Test your offer with more people like them before you widen it, as in test your idea.

2. 02

   Choose two or three channels

   Pick channels your target group already uses and give each a few months. Ask every new customer how they found you and write it down; without that question you cannot tell which channel works.

3. 03

   Work out what a customer may cost

   Divide what a channel costs by the customers it brought and compare that with the margin a customer brings in the first year, repeat work included. Set a ceiling, for example one fifth of first-year margin.

4. 04

   Turn happy customers into a channel

   Ask satisfied customers for a review, a reference or an introduction, and offer follow-up work. Reviews must be real: the US Federal Trade Commission's rule bans fake reviews and incentives for reviews with a set sentiment, with civil penalties for knowing violators (source: US Federal Trade Commission, August 2024).

Channels for business customers and consumers

Platform commission and lead fees come straight off your margin, so count them as acquisition costs.

Example: a landscaper counts after six months

Marco worked eleven years for a landscaping firm before starting on his own in March, mainly for homeowners. He notes how each customer found him and adds it up at the end of August. His rule: winning a customer may cost at most one fifth of the margin that customer brings in the first year.

Fictitious Firmfocus example. Margin is revenue minus plants, materials and subcontracted work, excluding VAT and Marco's own hours.

Overall Marco spent 12.8% of first-job margin on winning customers, well under his ceiling. The total hides large differences.

• The network is drying up: six of the eight network customers came in March and April.
• The garden centre works best: €250 per customer on €2,500 margin is 10%. Marco now looks for a second partner, a garden designer.
• Search ads pay off through maintenance: €300 per customer on €1,000 margin is 30%, but five of the seven signed a €900-a-year maintenance contract. That lifts their first-year margin to €11,500 and the acquisition share to 18.3%.
• Platform and leaflets cost too much: €150 per customer on €500 margin (30%) and €300 on €400 (75%). The leaflets stop; the platform is for quiet weeks only.
• Subcontracting needs a ceiling: one client brings 22% of the margin in the table, at a lower hourly rate.

Partnering, subcontracting and public tenders

Working with other businesses reaches customers who already trust someone. A complementary specialist sends work your way and you return the favour; agree in writing whether a referral fee applies. Subcontracting fills the calendar fast, usually at a lower rate, and the end customer remains theirs. Treat it as a bridge, not a foundation.

The government as a customer

Above set thresholds, public bodies must advertise contracts openly. From 1 January 2026 the EU thresholds are €140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government, €216,000 for supplies and services bought by other public buyers and €5,404,000 for works (source: European Commission, October 2025).

Start below the thresholds, where procedures are lighter, or as a subcontractor to a firm that already wins public work.

Record the first assignment properly

• Quote: scope, exclusions, price with and without VAT, schedule, validity and payment term.
• Confirmation: get the order confirmed in writing, and do the same for every extra.
• Terms and conditions: rarely compulsory, but they settle payment, liability and cancellation in advance. Send them with the quote.
• Payment term: in the EU, a payment period agreed between businesses should not exceed 60 calendar days unless expressly agreed and not grossly unfair, and public authorities pay within 30 days (source: EUR-Lex, February 2011). In the UK, without an agreed date, payment is late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice or the goods, whichever is later (source: GOV.UK, October 2026).
• Invoice: send it on the day of delivery; ask for a deposit on large jobs.

When a client does not pay

The European Commission links one in four bankruptcies in the EU to invoices not paid on time (source: European Commission, September 2023). Act early and in steps.

1. 01

   Reminder

   A friendly reminder a few days after the due date, with the invoice attached.

2. 02

   Formal demand

   A final notice with a deadline, stating the interest and costs you will charge after it. For consumers, some countries require a free formal reminder before collection costs.

3. 03

   Statutory interest and compensation

   In the EU, statutory interest is the reference rate plus at least eight percentage points, with a fixed €40 for recovery costs between businesses (source: EUR-Lex, February 2011). In the UK you can claim 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, plus £40, £70 or £100 depending on the debt (source: GOV.UK, October 2026). Elsewhere, check the statutory rate and add a late-payment clause to your terms.

4. 04

   Get help and stop new work

   Use a collection agency, a lawyer or the small claims procedure, and take no new work without payment upfront.

Customer data and privacy

A customer list with names, email addresses or phone numbers of individuals is personal data. In the EU the GDPR applies from the first customer, and the UK has its own version.

• Privacy notice: say what you collect, why and for how long.
• Record of processing: the GDPR's record-keeping derogation for organisations with fewer than 250 employees (source: EUR-Lex, April 2016) is narrow, and a one-page register takes an hour.
• Processor agreements: when an email tool, booking system or bookkeeper handles customer data for you, that processing must be governed by a contract (source: EUR-Lex, April 2016).
• Data breaches: notify the supervisory authority where feasible within 72 hours (source: EUR-Lex, April 2016), and log every incident.

Outside Europe, privacy rules differ per country and, in the US, per state.

Small start vs larger start

Pitfalls

• Waiting too long: starting a second channel only when the network has run dry.
• No written agreement: a dispute becomes your word against theirs.
• Not asking how customers found you: you keep paying for channels that bring nothing.
• One client too large: a single customer above half of your revenue.

Finding customers is one of the three choices in the first year, part of Start a business. For channels and messaging, see marketing; for the price you quote, set your price; and to see what late payers do to your bank balance, build a cash flow forecast.