5 Steps to Find Your 1st Customer(while still employed)

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. I am on a mission to help 10,000 GenX corporate professionals escape the box of the 9-5 grind. Each week I will share news, strategies and tactics to help you take control, find balance and NOT sacrifice your income.?

Free Resources:

?? ?The Corporate Escapee Podcast: Click Here

??? The Escapee Collective: A Free Slack community: The Escapee Collective ?

?? ? Fractional Job Board:? https://www.fractionaljobs.io/#jobs ??

?? ? Free 1:1 Strategy Session: https://calendly.com/bttrainor/quick-intro-call-20-minutes-clone ????????????????????????

News and Notes:

• Mentioned in a new article of fractional work in Forbes: https://bit.ly/4aijdEy ?
• New Programs being launched this week- stay tuned!

5 Steps to Find Your 1st Customer

Plan for the worst, hope for the best. It is an old adage but perfect for GenXers still stuck in the 9-5 grind. Don’t make the same mistake I made and not have a plan (or a customer) when I escaped corporate.?

In this issue of the newsletter I will outline a 5 step plan that you can start today. Best case you have the momentum to exit corporate or worst case you have a second revenue stream outside of your salary

Step1 : Check Your Employment Agreement

Before you? begin, review your employment agreement/contract for any non-compete or confidentially agreements. Verify that you are not violating any terms by starting a side gig. Better safe than sorry

Step 2 : Identify the Problem You Will be Solving?

This is a better way to start than focusing on the services or solutions that you will provide. If you start with the problem, you can have focused conversations on how you will be solving the problem and who will solve the problem for (more on that in Step 3). This will ideally be the same problem or one of the problems you solve in your corporate job.?

For me, it was helping companies grow by leveraging my two decades of experience doing that in corporate.

Step 3 : Identify Your Initial Target Market

The mistake many folks make is taking too broad of an approach. Yes, you can probably help many different types of businesses solve their problems but the key early is to focus on one. It will help people in your network remember you and where you are focused.?

My initial target market was B2B business owners with flat or declining sales with annual revenue between $2 -$10 million in annual revenue.?

Step 4: Review and Prioritize Your Network

This step is critical if you are still in corporate since you can’t broadcast you have started your own business. A member of the Escapee Collective shared a technique where she reviewed her network and used the 2x2 matrix below to identify her highest value network connections.

The keys are connections that either have access to your ideal customer or they are potential customers themselves. The holy grail is if they have both access to your prospects and they are also a prospect.??

I focused on 2 paths:

1. Contacts that were in the same or complimentary space- sales training for SMBs or marketing services to SMBs.?
2. My former colleagues that were in businesses that were in my target market.?

Step 5: Messaging, Positioning & an Initial Offer

Don’t over complicate this step. The objective is to ultimately land your first customer but the priority is to learn and add value. It is an easier conversation to have vs. selling. My messaging is simple:

• Hi XX I am thinking about starting my own business. I would love your advice.?
• You can share what you are thinking about (problems you will be solving) and ask for their advice. Ideally they have this problem, if not, maybe they know folks that have this problem
• Ask if they know 2 people they could recommend
• I like to offer a FREE 20 minute strategy session to potential clients. My only ask is? 10 minutes to ask a few questions to learn more about their challenges and business

The Bottom Line

You will be surprised how receptive your network is. You will also learn quite a bit.

My mistake was I didn’t leverage this process while I was in corporate. I had to figure it out on the fly.

Good Luck!!

Free Resources

The Corporate Escapee Podcast : Helping GenXers find their “What’s Next”!

Brett Trainor TikTok

Brett Trainor Blog