How do you get customers for a new business?
Get your first customers from people who already know and trust you, then offer a small, low-risk first purchase to a short list of strangers who have the problem, and ask every early customer for a referral and a review. A new business usually starts with few reviews, no track record and little search visibility, so trust has to come from relationships and from making the first purchase easy to say yes to.
Do it in that order, because each step makes the next one easier:
- Warm list. Former colleagues, past clients from a previous job, suppliers, friends who buy what you sell or know people who do.
- Founding offer. A paid pilot, a fixed-price first project or a founding-customer rate with a clear end date.
- Proof loop. A result, a testimonial and an introduction from each early customer, which you then show to the next prospect.
Paid ads and search can come later, once you know which customers buy and what they say about you. For how fast-growing software companies did this, see our summary of where B2B startups found their first ten customers.
Why is getting customers harder for a new business?
Because young firms report it more often than older ones, and because the clock is running. Four sets of official numbers, all checked 4 Nov 2026:
| Source | What it says | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Census Business Formation Statistics, released 14 Oct 2026 | 534,947 business applications in September 2026 (seasonally adjusted), and 29,022 projected business formations with payroll within 4 quarters from that month's applications | By our arithmetic, 29,022 / 534,947 is about 5.4%: Census projects that most applications won't become a business with payroll within four quarters |
| BLS Business Employment Dynamics, table 7 | Of 839,297 private establishments opened in the year to March 2021, 79.1% were still open a year later and 47.2% after five years (March 2026) | About one in five new establishments in that cohort closed within its first year |
| Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey chartbook by firm age (survey fielded Sept to Nov 2025, employer firms under 500 staff) | 65% of firms aged 0 to 2 years (N=392) named reaching customers or growing sales as an operational challenge in the prior 12 months, against 48% of firms aged 21 years or more (N=2,613) | It was the most cited challenge for the youngest firms in the chart, ahead of hiring at 43% |
| Same chartbook, optional customer module | For firms aged 0 to 2 years (N=267), 66% said individuals made up 10% or more of 2024 sales, and 38% said other businesses did | More than a third of the youngest firms got 10% or more of sales from other businesses, so your warm list should include business contacts as well as friends |
Note the bases: the survey covers employer firms only (at least one employee besides the owners), and the customer questions were an optional module that about 81% of respondents answered.
How many customers do you need before your money runs out?
Work out your break-even customer count and the cash you burn on the way there. Here is a worked example for a sample firm, Northwind Office Cleaning. Every figure is invented; use your own.
| Item | Example figure | Arithmetic |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed costs a month (rent, insurance, owner's draw, software) | $6,000 | Your number |
| Average customer pays a month | $300 | Your price |
| Gross margin after labour and supplies | 40%, or $120 a customer | 300 x 0.40 |
| Customers needed to break even | 50 | 6,000 / 120 |
Now the pace. If Northwind adds 5 customers a month and keeps them all, month n has 5n customers bringing in 600n dollars of margin. It breaks even in month 10 (600 x 10 = 6,000). The losses in months 1 to 9 add up to 54,000 minus 600 x 45, or $27,000.
At 4 customers a month it breaks even only in month 13 (480 x 12.5 = 6,000). Losses over months 1 to 12 add up to 72,000 minus 480 x 78, or $34,560. One fewer customer a month means three extra months and $7,560 more cash. If the founder has $30,000 in savings, the first pace works and the second runs out of money.
That is why the first 90 days should go on the channels most likely to bring customers soon; in the threads below, the first customers most often came from people the owner already knew. Real businesses also lose customers, so add churn to your own version.
Who should your first customers be?
Start from what you already have on day one. The deciding fact is how many people already trust you.
| What you have on day one | Deciding fact | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Clients or contacts from a previous job in the same field | They have seen your work | Tell each one personally what you now offer, if your old contract allows it |
| A wide personal network, few direct buyers in it | They can introduce you | Ask for one named introduction each, with a message they can forward |
| A local shopfront or service area | Neighbours can try you cheaply | A first-visit offer with an end date, and a review request after each job |
| No network in your market | Nobody owes you a reply | Find people who have just shown the problem in public, and offer a small paid pilot |
If you sell to other businesses and have no network at all, our plan for getting first B2B customers with no network covers that case step by step. If you aren't sure who the buyer is yet, run the two-week test in our guide to defining your ideal customer with no customers.
What should you send to announce a new business?
Send a short, personal message to each person on your warm list, one at a time, with a specific ask. A group announcement tends to get congratulations; a personal ask gives each person something specific to answer.
Keep the first offer small. One commenter in a January 2026 r/Entrepreneur thread on first B2B clients summed up their approach as "I sold a small pilot not a big promise." That is one person's experience, but a pilot with a clear scope is easier to approve than a long contract with an unknown firm.
When people reply, ask about the problem before you pitch. Our 40-minute client discovery meeting structure shows how.
Can friends and family review your new business?
They can, within limits, and the FTC's rule names exactly which relatives count. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465 (checked 4 Nov 2026), says:
- An officer or manager must not write a review of their own business without clearly disclosing their relationship to it.
- An officer or manager must not solicit reviews from immediate relatives, which the rule defines as a spouse, parent, child or sibling, or from employees, when the review then appears without disclosure and the manager encouraged them not to disclose, didn't tell them to disclose, or knew or should have known and didn't fix it.
- A business must not provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for reviews that express a particular sentiment, positive or negative.
- The relatives and employees rule does not apply to general requests asking purchasers to post reviews about their experiences.
In practice: ask real customers for honest reviews, ask relatives who are customers to say they're related, as the FTC's questions and answers on the rule advise, and never pay for a five-star review. This is a summary of the rule, not legal advice. For wording that gets customers to reply, see our guide on how to get customer testimonials and reviews.
What do new business owners say got their first customers?
We read two threads from January 2026 where owners described their first customers: What Helped You Get Your First Customers? in r/business and the r/Entrepreneur thread above. After removing jokes, one-word replies and bot notices, they had 21 top-level answers.
| What the answer credited | Answers, of 21 |
|---|---|
| People they already knew: friends, former colleagues, a former boss, family, existing connections | 10 |
| Cold or direct outreach to strangers | 6 |
| A free or heavily discounted first project or pilot | 3 |
| Networking events or communities | 4 |
An answer could mention several things, and two credited none of these, so the column doesn't add to 21. One owner said it took about 10 networking events in six weeks before someone was ready to buy. These are self-reports from a small, unverified sample, and some replies promoted the writer's own business, so read them as a pattern of what owners report.
Your first 30 days: a plan to get customers
Day 1: write your warm list
Everyone who has bought from you, worked with you or could introduce you. Aim for 50 names, each with one line on why you thought of them.
Day 2: do the break-even sum
Fixed costs divided by margin per customer, then the months it takes at 3, 5 and 8 new customers a month.
Days 3 to 10: send 5 personal messages a day
Use the templates above. Log who replied and what they said.
Days 11 to 20: run founding projects
Deliver well, on time, and write down the result in numbers the customer agrees with.
Days 21 to 30: ask for the review and the introduction
Ask each happy customer for an honest review and one named introduction.
Once the warm list runs dry and your buyers are businesses, you need a steady source of strangers with a reason to talk. Siela's Lead Finder suggests who to reach from your website, looks for a reason to reach out now, such as someone asking how to solve the problem you solve, and saves every lead to a built-in CRM with the reason it was picked. New accounts get $10 of free credit once, after onboarding.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my first customer for a new business?
Start with people who already trust you: former colleagues, past clients, suppliers and friends who buy what you sell. Send each a personal message with a specific, small offer and a deadline. In two January 2026 Reddit threads we read, 10 of 21 answers credited people the writer already knew for their first customers, though that is a small self-reported sample.
How long does it take a new business to get customers?
It depends on your warm list and price. Work out your break-even customer count first: fixed costs divided by margin per customer. In our sample example, a firm needing 50 customers breaks even in month 10 at 5 new customers a month and month 13 at 4. Use that to decide how fast you need to sell.
Can I ask family to leave reviews for my new business?
Under the FTC's reviews rule, a manager who asks an immediate relative (spouse, parent, child or sibling) for a review can be liable if the review appears without disclosing the relationship and the manager encouraged non-disclosure, failed to ask for disclosure, or knew and did nothing. Ask relatives who are real customers to say they are related. This is not legal advice.
Should I offer discounts to get my first customers?
A limited founding offer can help a buyer try an unknown firm, if it has an end date and a defined scope. Price it so the work still covers costs, or treat the gap as a known marketing cost. Never tie a discount to a positive review; the FTC rule bans incentives for reviews expressing a particular sentiment.
What percentage of new businesses fail in the first year?
In BLS Business Employment Dynamics data, 79.1% of private establishments opened in the year to March 2021 were still open a year later, so about 21% had closed. After five years, 47.2% were still open. Those figures count establishments, not firms, and cover all private industries.
Sources
- US Census Bureau: Business Formation Statistics, September 2026 (14 Oct 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Business Employment Dynamics, table 7, establishment survival (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Federal Reserve Banks: 2026 Firms in Focus, Chartbook on Firms by Age of Business (2025 SBCS) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- eCFR: 16 CFR Part 465, Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/business: What Helped You Get Your First Customers? (20 Jan 2026)
- r/Entrepreneur: How did you get your first clients? (11 Jan 2026)
- FTC: The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, Questions and Answers (November 2024, checked 4 Nov 2026)