How I Got My First Client

I had no clue how to get a client. Absolutely none.

I was just starting out on my journey as a creator. I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of creator I’m talking about because I was wondering the same thing in the beginning too. I had no idea what kind of creator I was, and I had no direction.

I knew I wanted to create something of value, just like all those videos and social media posts encouraged me to do. I would watch Dan Koe, who would inspire me to become a one-person business. So, I did exactly that. I became a one-person business.

So, what kind of creator was I?

• I was a graphics designer using Canva Pro.

• I was a video creator using Capcut and Filmora.

• I was a website designer using WordPress (which I still kind of suck at).

• I was a digital product creator selling Notion templates.

Mostly, I used Canva and Notion. Those were my two most used skills, and that’s what I capitalized on. Canva graphic designs.

I ran into a guy in the Target parking lot, who told me he owned his own soccer clothing brand. He was about 12 months into his business, and it was starting to scale fast now. He started out as a fitness instructor and quickly moved towards operating his own soccer camp. From there, he started his clothing brand CRKSOLY.

I told him I do graphic design and so I asked him if it was ok if I made some designs he can use for his Instagram - Instagram was the main platform he used for promoting his brand. He said sure.

Of course he would say ok. It was free anyways. I didn’t shoot a price, and I didn’t expect to get paid for this. I was still new to the game, and never had experience working with anyone before.

Why did I work for free?

I was still new to using Canva, and I never had any experience creating designs for anyone. I had no confidence in my work yet. To be honest, I was scared I would fuck things up. I was afraid of all the things he would say to me for a horrible job and demand his money back.

Offering my work for free eliminated so much of that fear. If it sucked, then he wouldn’t care much since it didn’t cost him anything.

If he didn’t care much, then he wouldn’t humiliate me or absolutely bash my work. It was free anyways.

So, I worked for free, and I had no worries. I didn’t expect money, and the pressure was essentially gone.

I’ll tell you right now that it felt so good to work on his project without expectations or deadlines. Working for free let me focus on the work instead of the worries.

This wasn’t even the best part.

He liked my work and asked for more

When I gave him a couple of Instagram reels he could share to help promote his brand, he was happy. He liked my work. He immediately told me he had a project for me.

When he told me about another project, I lost my hat. I had to read the message a few more times carefully. He liked my work and asked me for more? I was on cloud 10!

Here’s a little context of my experience with Canva designs at that time.

I had been using Canva Pro for about two months. I rarely ever used it, and I mostly did just for Notion covers and some school projects.

I would play with the creator tools, the fonts, and the colors, but I didn’t really design anything special. I was terribly new to it still.

Once again, this was the first person I did any kind of design for.

So, when the brand owner asked for a project, this is what happened.

My first client

After his first result from my social media post, he asked if I could make him a catalog for his clothing brand. He had over 100 different products and several shots of each piece.

He also had lots of photos of athletes modeling his clothing.

I knew this was going to be a massive project for me. I had never done anything close to this before, and I had zero experience with clothing catalogs. Shoot, I had zero experience with catalogs, period.

I knew this project was beyond me. So I told the owner straight up. I don’t have any experience with that kind of work at all. I've never done anything like this before. But I told him I can definitely figure it out.

I told the owner it would take me some time, but give me a day to look at other projects let you know how long it would take me.

I felt it was unprofessional of me to say something like that, but I bit the bullet and just kept it real with him. If he was going to be my first client, I wanted to make sure I could offer him something I could actually create.

I got back to him the next day, and I told him it would take me about one week to get it done. He said he was looking forward to it, and we went from there.

In the end, he was satisfied with the catalog I provided him. It was a 47-page project that taught me so much. He also asked me for more projects after that. He wanted a presentation he could send out to sports clothing shops.

How I got my first client was by shooting an offer with free work. I tested myself and built up some experience. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I was honest and apparent with my client. I let my work do all the talking, and I was ready for negative feedback so that I could learn from that too.

My suggestion to you, if you're looking to get clients, is to send out some free designs for potential clients and see how they respond to them. Worst case scenario, they don’t like it, and they don’t say anything.