Finding customers can be one of the hardest parts of starting an online business, not because people aren’t buying, but because most people struggle with where to start.
Typical advice assumes you already have an audience, a sizeable budget, and experience. If you don’t, it can be easy to spend months wasting time building and posting without seeing any real results.
This guide is for solopreneurs, creators, first-time founders, and anyone struggling to learn how to find customers online from scratch.
You’ll learn practical strategies for getting customers, how customer acquisition really works, and how to approach finding your first customers in a way that’s realistic, repeatable, and sustainable.
When starting an online business, customer acquisition can feel difficult; there’s no clear feedback loop. You don’t know who will be interested, which messaging will work, or what people will part with their money for.
There are a few common myths that make this even harder than it needs to be.
One is the belief that you need a big audience before you can get customers. In reality, most businesses get their first customers before they start generating a loyal audience, with dedicated fans coming later in a business’s timeline.
Another myth is the idea that you need a big budget for ads. Paid acquisition is absolutely a strategy that can work later on, but starting it too early can often add extra confusion to the pot when you’ve got a lot on your plate already.
A third is the belief that success only comes from going viral. Viral content can be successful, but it’s unpredictable, unsustainable, and rarely teaches you why something worked so well.
What it Actually Means to “Get Customers”
Traffic is attention, with people browsing your site to see what you have to offer.
Leads are the same as interest, such as a potential customer leaving their contact details or signing up to your mailing list.
Customers are those who make a specific decision to make a purchase.
The Three Stages of Customer Acquisition
Customer acquisition tends to evolve over time. What works early on may not work later, so understanding the three main stages of customer acquisition can help you to avoid using the wrong tools at the wrong time.
There are three practical stages you should follow:
Stage 1: Getting Your First Customers
The first stage is manual, direct, and relationship-driven.
You’re not running big campaigns yet or optimizing funnels just yet. Instead, you’re actively talking to your audience, learning who they are and what they need, and the best way to solve their problems. In practice, this looks like:
The goal for this first stage isn’t growth, it’s proof of concept. The aim is to prove that someone with a real problem is willing to trust you enough to pay you to solve it for them.
Stage 2: Getting Customers Consistently
Once you’ve helped a handful of people directly, you’ll start seeing patterns in customer behavior.
You may begin to notice where customers are typically coming from, what messages land well (and which don’t), and what offers are leading to clear conversions.
You’re still not scaling at this stage, but you are developing repeatable channels and simple systems that allow you to validate customers early on in the journey. You’re developing a clear path from interest to action, and repeating what works.
Stage 3: Scaling What Works
When you’ve proven what works for your business and customers, you can start scaling what is working.
This is where ads, automation, and content engines can help you take this to the next level. They can help you to amplify what is already working, allowing you to grow and scale your business.
It’s important to note that this guide is mainly focused on Stages 1 and 2, as this is where most beginners are, and where most advice is failing the
So where do your first customers actually come from?
Early customers don’t tend to come from reach; they come from proximity.
The reliable early sources for first customer strategies include:
Early customer acquisition is created by effort, not exposure. You need to show up where relevant conversations are already happening among your audience, and remember to contribute before promoting.
Customer acquisition can be simplified by following a clear, reusable framework.
When you strip away the complex tools, platforms, and tactics, finding customers comes down to a few repeatable steps.
This framework is designed to help you find customers even if you have no audience, budget, or prior experience, and will work whether you’re a freelancer, online coach, founder, or creator.
1. Identify a Painful and Specific Problem
All customer journeys start with a real problem that someone is trying to solve.
Vague problems tend to attract vague interest. For example, “helping people grow” is hard to act on, while “helping freelance designers learn how to get clients online” is more specific, concrete, and relatable.
Be specific enough that someone can immediately recognize themselves in the problem you’re describing. If people don’t feel an urgency or frustration around the issue, it’s unlikely that they’ll become a customer.
2. Find Where People Already Talk About That Problem
Creating conversations from scratch can be unfruitful. Instead, you need to locate ones that already exist, that you can participate in to solve people’s problems.
People openly discuss their challenges in online forums, communities, comment sections, and professional groups. These spaces are likely to already contain the attention you’re looking for, so integrating yourself within these communities naturally can help you be in the right place at the right time.
3. Start Real Conversations
Customer acquisition begins with real conversations with real customers, not blanket promotion.
This stage is about asking potential customers thoughtful questions, listening carefully to the answers, and understanding how people experience the problem in their own words.
This isn’t about pitching; it’s about building trust and revealing objections early on, saving you time and misunderstandings later.
4. Offer a Simple, Relevant Solution
Once you fully understand someone’s problem, you can start thinking about a solution that will directly address their issue.
Early offers must be relevant and helpful. Keeping things simple here can be an advantage, as this will lower any friction between you and your customer.
You could offer a small service, a pilot program, or a sellable product. Whatever it is, make sure it’s easily accessible and highly relevant to your user for the best results.
5. Learn, Adjust, and Repeat
Every response you receive from a member of your audience will contain relevant information you can learn from.
A “no” will often tell you what’s missing from your offering, while a “yes” will tell you what’s working.
This final step turns customer acquisition into a loop, rather than being just a one-time effort.
A large social media following is optional, not mandatory.
Social media can be a very powerful channel, but it can also be a distraction that delays real progress. Many alternatives work without a large audience, including:
Email Outreach:
You can get customers from mailing lists that already match your ideal customer profile.
Community Participation:
Look for communities where trust already exists, in which you can involve yourself in to solve people’s problems.
Online Marketplaces:
Post on online marketplaces where buyers are actively searching for solutions.
Partnerships:
Connect with people who already have access to your audience, and collaborate to work towards a common goal.
Existing Demand:
Look for platforms where demand already exists, rather than trying to force demand from scratch.
Visibility isn’t the most important factor here; it’s relevance. If someone already has the problem that you can solve, you can help them decide what solution is best for them.
If money is limited, you can still get customers - you just need to bear in mind that effort will become the investment.
Zero-budget customer acquisition isn’t about doing nothing; it’s about doing the right kind of work that will connect you with the right audience.
You should focus on:
Researching your target audience
Reaching out to them personally
Learning through direct feedback
This strategy will give you the information you need to build a real customer base, without spending a penny. Some ways you can do this include:
The advantage of having no budget is focus. You’re forced into a position where you need to understand your customer deeply to succeed, because you can’t hide behind a large marketing spend.
Finding customers fast doesn’t necessarily mean instantly.
Channels that offer faster learning include and direct interactions include:
Conversations
Targeted outreach
Small group interactions
This is why paid ads are rarely a good shortcut early on. If you don’t know exactly who you’re targeting and why they should care, ads are just likely to accelerate confusion and lead to high levels of wasted spend.
Speed will come from talking to the right people, learning quickly from rejection, and adjusting to feedback.
You should never rush results, but you can reduce the time you’re spending between action and insight.
Many people find it difficult to get customers because they are spending their energy on the least effective parts of customer acquisition first.
These mistakes are very common, but fixable. Check out the sections below to understand these mistakes and save yourself months of frustration.
Posting Randomly on Social Media
Posting content on social media without really knowing who it’s for or what it’s meant to achieve is a common mistake. This often looks like:
You should focus on posting content that supports learning. If posting isn’t helping you talk to potential customers, it’s likely not the correct focus.
Building Before Talking to Real People
Another common error is building systems first and asking questions later.
Many beginners waste time creating products that they think will solve a problem, or designing websites and refining branding. This can lead to wasted effort, missed opportunities, and slower progress in general.
Talking early won’t slow you down. It will prevent you from going in the wrong direction, giving you more of a basis on which to build your channels and systems.
Waiting for Organic Traffic Too Early
Organic traffic from SEO efforts and content marketing can be extremely powerful, but they’re slow, especially in the early days.
Waiting for search traffic before validating demand can stall you entirely. Early customer acquisition benefits from speed and feedback, with direct conversations teaching you more in one week than months of passive traffic would.
SEO is important, but don’t expect high traffic levels for a while. Gradually build your organic presence in the background while you actively search for customers in the meantime.
Copying Big Brands
While it may be tempting to imitate big brands, influencers, or successful startups, this doesn’t always work.
Their strategies will often assume things that beginners just don’t have, such as brand recognition, big budgets, large teams, and existing demand.
Early-stage customer acquisition is more personal, manual, and less polished, giving you a strength for really connecting with your customer base.
Switching Channels Too Quickly
If results don’t come immediately, don’t panic. Many beginners want to jump to the next platform or tactic if they don’t see results instantly, but it can take time to develop an understanding of your audience and what works best for them.
Progress will come from sticking to one approach for long enough to learn what works, what doesn’t, and why.
It’s important to remember that interest is very fragile. People can change their minds, even if they were initially curious about what you offer.
Learning how to get leads online doesn’t require aggressive selling or complex funnels. It means giving people a clear, natural way to move forward, without coming across as pushy or pressurizing. This could be:
Having basic infrastructure becomes useful here, helping you stay organized in your sales process. Without it, interested people can slip through the cracks, or conversations could stall, and momentum is quickly lost.
Platforms like Nas.io can help centralize early interest, manage leads in one place, and sell online without relying on technical setup or multiple tools.
The specific tool you use is less important than the principle behind it. When someone raises their hand in interest, make it as easy as possible to follow up, stay connected with them, and continue the relationship while they’re still interested.
Once you’ve helped some people, you’ll notice your goal will start to shift.
Rather than asking “how to find clients from scratch?”, you’ll start asking “How do I make this repeatable?.
As a minimum, you’ll need the following simple building blocks:
One acquisition channel that you understand well
One clear conversion step that works for you
One follow-up loop that can be repeated again and again
Clear systems always beat tactics because they reduce decision fatigue. This is where simple tools like Nas.io can support a simple infrastructure and further simplify its execution.
When starting a customer acquisition strategy, beginners tend to ask similar questions.
They wonder how long it should take to get their first customer, and whether they’re behind on general timescales. They may also question whether social media is needed to get customers or if ads are a necessary part of the strategy.
Some wonder how many channels to focus on, and what it means when nothing seems to happen at first.
The answers to these types of questions are rarely absolute, as timelines vary, channels differ, and sometimes there is a bit of a waiting game when it comes to new enquiries.
What really matters is staying close to your customers, focusing on learning what works best for your business, and resisting the urge to jump ahead of the stage you’re currently at.
Customers that you find early on in the process are super important. They are more than just revenue; they also teach you insights like how people describe their problems, why they chose you over competitors, and what may have nearly stopped them from buying.
By this stage, you’ll know that customer acquisition doesn’t suddenly get easier, but it does become clearer.
If you take one thing away from this guide, it should be that finding customers isn’t about quick marketing tricks or talent. It’s about understanding your audience, showing up where your people already are, and learning faster than you quit.