How to Get Your First 10 Customers (In Under 10 Minutes)

We share proven strategies to acquire your first 10 customers quickly when launching a new service business, based on our experience growing a seven-figure cleaning company without cleaning any houses ourselves.

• Get prepared with clear service offerings, a simple payment collection system, and an efficient booking platform
• Tap into your existing network—friends, family, and service providers in your life can become your first clients or referral sources
• Share your entrepreneurial journey on social media platforms where you have the most followers
• Utilize community-based platforms like Nextdoor to connect with local customers actively seeking services
• Leverage partnerships with complementary businesses such as realtors, property managers, and local service providers 
• Offer limited-time introductory deals in exchange for feedback and testimonials to create social proof
• Build a foundation of positive reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook to attract future customers

Visit tidytrack.io to learn more about our automation systems for growing your cleaning business, or check out our Cleaning Business Masterclass for a comprehensive guide to scaling from your first client to your ten-thousandth.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, guys, let me show you how you get your first 10
customers in the next 10 minutesand I know this sounds crazy,
right, but if you're juststarting your business, one of
the biggest challenges when youfirst launch is getting those
first initial clients.
It can seem like an uphillbattle, and I'm going to give
you a game plan to make ithappen fast.
So I got some notes here.
We'll be going over this, andwhen we launched our cleaning

(00:21):
business back in 2017, we gotour first client within 24 hours
of launching that's right, 24hours and what we did was we
went to a neighborhood appcalled Nextdoor.
We advertised that we justlaunched our cleaning service
and wasn't anyone in theneighborhood that needed
cleanings, and within 24 hours,we got our first booking.
Guys, and I'm going to give yousome actionable steps that you

(00:42):
can use over these next 10minutes so that you could do the
same Step number one, beforeyou do anything.
We got to get ready, so we wantto have a clear service
offering.
So for us, we had a localservice business, which is a
cleaning service, right, andthat's exactly what we were
selling.
You need a simple way tocollect payments.
So once you get that firstcustomer.
How are you going to becollecting payments?

(01:02):
Is it cash, is it Stripe, is itVenmo, is it PayPal?
You want to make it fast andeasy for your clients to pay you
, so we recommend using anonline payment platform, just
like a Stripecom, as an example,and they process everything
Visa, discover, mastercard, etcetera making it fast and easy
for your clients to pay you.
Right.
And you also need a bookingform.
So, whether using Launch27,booking Koala, if you want to

(01:24):
use our system, tinytrack, youneed a booking platform so that
clients can find, book and payyou all online.
Let's not overcomplicate it.
We want to keep it simple andthe purpose is to get started,
so we want to tap into our stepnumber two you want to tap into
your network.
I think the easiest way to getyour first client is going to be
the friends and family route,right.
Any friends, any family thatyou have in the area and you

(01:46):
want to let them know.
Hey, you can send out a message, you can call them.
I just launched this thing.
I just launched this cleaningservice and I'm wondering if you
can lend me a hand or if youknow anybody who might need a
cleaning service Most of yourfriends and family.
They'd be more than willing tosupport you, right?
If they say, yes, great, yougot them.
Go out and do the service.
If they say no, you want to askthem this question.
You want to find out if there'sanyone that they know who might

(02:08):
need this service.
Most of the time they may ormay not know, but worst case
scenario, they send you areferral, so that gets you at
least your first two clients,right.
Another thing you could do usingyour network, you can even let
your lawn guy know One of ourstudents who launched his
cleaning business.
Now he's doing 10K a month.

(02:29):
His first client came from areferral from his lawn guy.
He literally told his lawn guyhey, I'm launching this cleaning
service.
Do you know anybody who needsit?
He said oh yeah, I got two orthree clients for you Done.
Right, he was able to get twoor three clients just from
letting his lawn guy know yourbarber, who you sit in that
chair for hours, your hairstylist, your babysitter,
someone you might know.
Leverage them for referrals.
But then also feedback Simplemessage hey, I love it.

(02:49):
You can support me in exchangefor honest feedback, right?
Share your journey on socialmedia.
Do not build in silence.
Guys, start posting content onwhat you're doing.
Share your journey on launchingyour cleaning business, and you
would love to get support.
One thing people love is thecome up journey.
They love you when you come up.
Once you up there, they may notlove you anymore, but they

(03:13):
always love that come up story.
Right?
Choose the platform that youhave the most followers on,
whether it's TikTok, whetherit's X, whether it's threads,
instagram, youtube, whatever itis.
Just start sharing your journeyon what you're doing.
Share your first clients, yourfirst wins, your testimonies and
feedback, so that people inyour area can start to migrate
towards you.
Right, and these people aren'tgoing to be in your direct
context, but they've beenwatching you from a distance and
they would love to startsupporting you on something

(03:34):
you're doing right.
So that's another way you coulddo it.
You could use community-basedplatforms.
Remember, I said we got ourfirst client from nextdoorcom.
That's a simple neighborhoodapp.
If you guys don't know, go tonextdoorcom and type in the word
cleaner.
You'll start seeing peopleadvertising their services day
in and day out.
Who they're looking for, whatthey're looking for a local
neighborhood app right, andyou'll find your ideal customers

(03:56):
hanging out there.
They might not be talking aboutcleaning, they might be talking
about the lawn guy or somegossip that happened in your
neighborhood, right.
But these are people locallywho are looking for your
services, right, and just startanswering questions, start
engaging with them, providevalue and even mention that you
have a service.
Church you guys, especially mycommunity, we go to church every

(04:16):
single Sunday.
Tell someone at church that youhave a service.
Your community centers, yourschools if your kids go to a
neighborhood school, starthanding out business cards that
they might have a bulletin board.
Ask if you could advertise yourlocal cleaning service in your
neighborhood, right, and theymight just put that in the
student's newsletters.
So another one step.
Five leveraging partnershipsand networks.

(04:37):
So we recently bought a home.
We've been here three years now, but they're always emailing,
they're always texting, they'realways checking in.
So why not partner with them?
Hey, we just started thiscleaning business.
Would you mind advertising it?
Do you know any people whomight need a cleaning service?
One of the things about realtorsis that they give out cleanings
as a gift that's included intheir onboarding.

(04:59):
Once you buy a home, it comesclean.
I know a referral for a company.
It's one of my previous clients.
People would love to refer yourservices.
They just don't know about you.
So now you got realtors, youmight have property managers If
you have an Airbnb, daycarecenters the local gym we go to
has a neighborhood full ofpeople and I see business cards
everywhere.
You ever thought about justputting those on the front desk

(05:20):
asking if they could justadvertise your services?
They all have clients who mightneed your service, right?
And the crazy thing is thatreferrals for realtors you can
say, hey, if you bring me three,four clients, I will clean your
home for free.
So every four clients they giveyou, you can now give away one
free clean to the realtor andthat's their incentive to get
you more clients.
Right, and you can offer adiscount or go for a free

(05:42):
service in exchange for thosereferrals.
Chamber of Commerce I've heardabout that one being a good
place attending local networkingevents.
Also, step number six you couldoffer an introductory level deal
for anyone who wants to tryyour service.
You could call it a betatesting.
Hey guys, I just launched thiscleaning service.
I'm looking to get it.
I'm looking to get some clientsin exchange for feedback and

(06:04):
testimonials, only offering thisto the first five 10 people.
You know how many people aregoing to flood you for that.
You're going to get more thanfive to 10 people to flood you.
And then, once you use thosefirst few testimonials, let's
say you got 30, 40 peoplereaching out.
Hey, the first five to 10 werecomplete.
You know they get.
They left us five star reviews,which is now step number seven,

(06:25):
getting reviews and buildingsocial proof.
So let's say, those first five10 people, those slots fill
quickly.
You got now 20, 30, 40 peoplewho are looking for a cleaning,
so you can let them know.
Hey, we finished those firstfew slots.
Those people left us great,glowing reviews.
We can now still offer you thatintroductory level pricing.
It won't be free in exchangefor a review, but it might be,

(06:46):
let's say, 10% of a, 50% ofwhatever you decide to be fit
for your business.
And now you can start emailingthose people.
Now those are leads, some ofyour first leads for your actual
business, right.
And then now, as you're offering, let's say you got the first
five to 10 people to do theservices for free.
Maybe those next five get adiscount.

(07:06):
But then also, you get moresocial proof, you get more
reviews for building yourbusiness, right?
So now you're getting reviews,you're getting social proof and
you're building your business atthe same time.
And the more social proof andmore reviews you got, the more
people are going to see you as ahigher level service and they'd

(07:29):
be more than willing to bookyou at that point, right?
You get reviews on googlecom,yelp, facebook, anywhere your
audience hangs out, right, andwe have a system called
TidyTrack that actually canautomate this process for you,
and we've gotten over 500 4.8star reviews using automations
in our business, right?
Those are some of the steps.
So, step number one you want toget ready.
You want to be able to have apayment platform and a booking
platform.
Step number two tapping intoyour local network.

(07:49):
Step number three make sure youare posting your journey on
social media.
Step number four using localcommunity platforms.
Number five partnering withlocal businesses like realtors.
Step number six offering alaunch deal for anyone who uses
your services at the verybeginning.
Step number seven asking forreviews, because the more social

(08:10):
proof you have, the more peoplewill be looking for you, right?
I want you to take these actionsteps.
Pick one of these action stepsand take your first steps right,
if you guys wanna learn moreabout the automations that we
use to help us run our business,you go to tidytrackio and if
you've got any questions on howto land your first customer,
shoot us a message.

(08:30):
And we also have a fullplatform where we call Cleaning
Business Masterclass, where youcan learn more about how we
scaled a seven-figure cleaningbusiness without cleaning any
houses and we talk about some ofthese steps in a lot more
detail in order to go from yourfirst client to your 10,000th
client.
All right, hopefully you guystake action and we'll see you
next time.