Your First Client Is Not Waiting For You To Be Ready

I have seen this many times. Somebody finishes the course, the skill is there, and then they never send the first message. Six months go by. A year goes by.

And when you ask why they stopped, the answer is always the same. "Just a little more preparation left."

The preparation never finishes

I did this myself, so I know how it feels from the inside. It feels responsible. One more course, one more certificate, the logo needs a small fix.

But here is the truth. Fixing the logo is easy. Messaging a stranger is hard. We always pick the easy one and tell ourselves it is also work.

Nobody pays you for preparation. They pay for work.

Your first client is not buying your skill

This took me a while to understand.

There are plenty of people better than you. Accept it, there is no harm in that. But somebody who replies quickly, delivers on time, and does not disappear after handing over the work, that person is rare.

We tell our clients we are expensive because we do not get rid of the client after the job. Message us a year later and you will still get a reply. That is worth more than skill.

Your first client is not checking how good you are. He is checking whether you can be relied on.

Twenty projects, even if nobody pays for them

A boy asked me once, sir, will I get a job if I learn AutoCAD?

I told him learning alone does not get you a job. You have to show that you can actually do it.

If you walk in and say "sir, I know AutoCAD", the conversation ends there. But if you have twenty drawings finished, even if you made all of them for practice, it is a different conversation. Now you have something to show.

Make those twenty drawings before you go asking for work. That is your degree.

What to say when you approach someone

This is what I teach the boys, and it works.

Do not say "sir, I need work". That is only about you. Instead, look at their work first, then say something like this:

"Sir, I make house plans. I noticed you have quite a few projects running. If I join your team you get somebody who can take the load off, and I get to work on more projects."

Look at the difference. In the first one you are asking. In the second one you are showing what both sides get. And the second one also proves you actually looked at their work.

Twenty messages, nineteen will not reply

Understand this in advance so it does not break your heart later.

You will message twenty people. Nineteen will not reply. One will.

That does not mean you failed nineteen times. It means that is what one client costs. And that one client, if you do his work properly, will send you two more.

When somebody does not reply, that is not a verdict on you. Most of the time they did not even open the message.

Two questions that keep coming up

I have no portfolio at all, what do I do?
Build one yourself. Make a website for a shop in your own street, design a poster for somebody you know, set up social media for a local academy. A client does not ask who paid for it. He only looks at what you can build.

What should I charge for the first job?
Enough that you are taken seriously, and low enough that saying yes is easy for him. In the beginning the money is not your real earning. Your real earning is the work you can now show the next person.

One last thing

That impressive portfolio you are waiting for does not get built before the first yes. It gets built after it.

That's it.