How long did it take to build up a customer base for your business?

[tranguyen]

Hey everyone 👋

When you are starting a new venture, it can take a while before you get your first customer and build up a community of customers around your business. And the work doesn’t stop after those early days either. 

Inspired by @Committed's question on how to attract more clients to their business, we’d love to know:

How long did it take to build up a customer base for your business?

What did you do to source them and how did you feel when you got your first yes or that first sale? Share with us below!

[maxpete]

What a journey it has been!

[Stacelyn24]

Building up our customer base has been quite a journey. When I first started out, I went all-in and managed to get fully booked within just 6 months. However, as we've expanded and brought on more nail technicians to meet demand, our approach has evolved. Now, on average, it takes about 3 months to get them to around 50% booked, and typically around 8 months to reach full capacity. Of course, the timeline can vary depending on when they start, with seasons playing a significant role in our industry.

[maxpete]

Cool to hear! During these 3 months do you have specific plans you follow to get to the 50% bookings for new employees?

[mksavage]

It's so interesting to see different timelines for different industries. We're a brick-and-mortar cafe, but we first started as a home bakery/Farmer's Market stand. It wasn't necessarily our intention, but we sold from home/at the Farmer's Market for 4 years before opening the brick-and-mortar. And I think that has been a huge part of our success. From the day we opened, we had a committed clientele, people who were eagerly awaiting our opening day. Since there was already some momentum/word of mouth, it didn't take as long to get the train moving, if that makes sense. From there, we've of course had to continue finding ways to reach new customers, which we primarily do through word of mouth, social media, and "experiential marketing" (basically, getting our food to as many people as possible through donations, spontaneous drop-offs, catering, etc.). The brick-and-mortar has been open 6 years now and just last year I felt like we had hit a critical mass where enough people know about us that we're consistently bringing in new customers. The food industry is funny though -- people have their favorites and it takes a lot for them to try a new place. So, it takes time and consistently providing a great product/experience.

[maxpete]

This was cool to see more of your journey! Also you touched upon something very important, which is time! It definitely takes time for things to hit critical mass or the hockey stick where things start to pick up and move on their own. Glad to hear that things are that way for you!

[Fairestcape]

A quick look at your website shows you're doing most things very well Michelle. The catering industry is extremely competitive and often very fickle - and the pandemic shut-down had a massive negative impact worldwide. Here in the UK, countless small eateries went bust. Those which failed to leverage online (click 'n collect) were quick to go under. My company is assisting several local catering establishments in determining their future business strategies and we are currently looking at the "Dark Kitchen" business model. Fundamentally, the "Dark Kitchen" model relies solely on take-away and food delivery. It can make sense for some catering businesses - particularly those experiencing growth in take-away and a corresponding decline in eat-in diners. The costs of running an eat-in are rising (fast), and some of our clients are now looking at renting far cheaper premises from which to operate a "Dark Kitchen" - ie: a place where food is prepared, and then either collected by a customer, or delivered through a service like "Uber-Eats / JustEat, etc). Rental for a basic premises is often 75% cheaper than a kitted-out restaurant.

The pandemic forced many consumers to change their preferences from "eat-in" to "click n collect" (takeaway), and research shows that many who previously avoided ordering online, now prefer to do so - and the rate of change is increasing.

Also, we are looking at leveraging the kitchen facilities in some clients' establishments to create products that can be packed and sold online (cookies, cupcakes, confectionery) expanding the TAM (total addressible market) to basically anyone with an internet connection. Such products need a reasonably high shelf-life, but a quick scan on Google reveals MANY catering companies now selling long-shelflife products via ecommerce sites.

Best wishes for your business... as I said, you're doing most things very well.

[CareyJo]

We definitely have a large 'carry-out' culture here in the US, especially since Covid.  But it used to be primarily fast food at heavy meal times or pizza.  Now it's everything.  But I also wonder how much of what you're speaking to has to do with the difference in our cultures?  Not sure how differently the millennials and Gen Z act in the UK vs the US.  I think a large part of our carry-out problem here in the US comes from two things - 1.  Those generations being so 'everything is disposable and I don't have time for this' and 2.  A force of habit now created by being lazy 'oh, I can just pick it up' kind of attitude.

Is that how it is there too?  I live in Montana, US and we do have some carry-out volume but it has dropped drastically since the world opened.  It is now mostly lazy people or those few and far between 'I'm in a hurry' moments.  We are not densely populated.  We only have one 'big city' and that is only 200k people.  We don't live the way big cities live in other parts of the world.  So I just wonder how much of these things are impacting the way that restaurants are running in different parts of the world.  El Paso, TX, where Michelle is from, is huge by comparison to us.  Michelle, can you tell us how much these things have impacted your corner of the world and what your local culture is like there?  I'm just thinking that it may be a good thought provoker for someone else who's following the thread and in a similar business.

@mksavage 

[Fairestcape]

The UK has one of the most active eCommerce communites on the planet (No. 5, after China, USA, Japan, Germany) but is ranked No. 1 in terms of online spend per-capita (where that capita is economically active adults).

Part of the reason why the UK's online commerce is so strong is the general reliability of the fulfillment and logistics network (packers, couriers, postal services). In most cases, orders placed before 3PM are likely to be delivered a day later - irrespective of where the customer is in the country.

USA-based Amazon has "forced" this efficiency on the rest of the online selling community, but even so, most online sellers have access to logistics and fulfillment that is very reliable and fast. It helps that the UK is such a small country... (there is no part of the UK than is futher than 50 miles from an ocean!)

In terms of demographics, bear in mind that there is no-body on the planet under the age of 30 who was not born into the internet era... and that everyone under the age of 18 was born in the smartphone era. These agegroups are not only totally tech-savvy, but PREFER to do everything online (mostly smartphone if a private consumer) so any business targeting consumers aged 30 and under, HAS TO be online and operating some form of ecommerce facility.

One of my business ventures (tagmakers.co.uk) is de-facto a highstreet retail shop - you can "drive past" our shop on Google Maps if you like...

However... since July 2023 the shop has had just SEVEN walk-in customers...
And yet the financial results for FY 2023/24 are one of the most profitable we've had.
99.999% of what we sell is online - and our cutomers prefer to buy that way.

[CareyJo]

Our youngest turns 23 today and he is the last age group in his generation to be alive before 9/11.  We are always talking about how his age group doesn't know life without technology.  Our oldest kids are 34 and 33 and they still don't know very much about life without tech.  They were too young to remember when tech didn't exist.  I vividly remember creating our email accounts after our youngest was born because we just got our first computer.  A couple years later my husband had his first cell phone.  We not only didn't need a computer back then but couldn't really afford one.  We came from the era of landlines and beepers.  I think that one of the reasons that Montana is still so heavily in person is because our population is so small for the size of the state, the volume of people within 10 years younger than me and many years older than me and we have very few 'big city' conveniences, even in our 'big cities'.  We have a joke in MT that is oh-so-true.... MT is 10 years behind the rest of the country.  Could not be more accurate.

Great perspective!  Thanks for sharing!

[mksavage]

@CareyJo That's definitely an interesting question. The convenience of takeout is appealing to many, and sometimes an advantage to restaurants. We have limited seating, for example, so the ability to be able to feed everyone in the cafe, but also serve people who take it home/to their office is beneficial. I think part of it depends on the style/culture of your specific restaurant. We're built on a value of creating community, of hosting our customers well within the space, so they feel a sense of welcoming and belonging. So, our  focus is always going to be primarily on the in-cafe experience. So, while we offer takeout (and online ordering) as an option for convenience, we don't do 3rd party ordering apps or delivery, because that's not where we want our focus to be. 

[CareyJo]

I agree Michelle.  I really think it depends on the demographics of the business itself, not just the demographics of the community it's in.  Your location, your layout, your clientele, your offerings, etc. all play a part in how well it works to be carry-out or non or both.  Thank you for answering me!

[MudFire_Dex]

We stepped into a turnkey business with clients with MudFire which was very different that my first business Atlanta Clay - we were fresh baby new business owners - through a grand opening party and made our first $800 🙂 - the customers built quickly through word of mouth and aggressive internet SEO and I sent cold emails out nearly every day that first year - but sadly topped out in year 3 and we just never were able to jump the hurdle of having everything in stock all of the time and more internet clay business competition and price matching were happening and I wasn't able to pivot enough to continue to build customers happy with what we had in year 6 we gave it up.

At MudFire - I changed the offering - from just membership to date nights * singular clay experiences * and we used to have 1-5 of them a month and now have over 200 a week. Adding tools to make booking easy made all of the difference. 

I remember so fondly all of the milestones - this year we might break $1M 🤞 but last year was my proudest moment. In addition to paying artists in the gallery - and supporting our membership - we were able to payout over $220K to artists teaching clay classes. That feels really good. 

Keep track of business milestones and celebrate them!!!

[CareyJo]

Way to go @MudFire_Dex!!!!

[CareyJo]

We're a unique situation and live in a unique place, in that service companies are in high-demand and so is my husband's skill set.  So I don't know how helpful this will be to people who don't have that same situation.

We live in MT and went into the HVAC business for the second time seven years ago.... after he'd already been in the field for 18 years and having already owned one HVAC business prior.

See, MT is very spread out.  We're the fourth largest state in the nation land wise, but have one of the smallest populations.  We just hit one million people a few years ago.  Unless you're inside a city, you don't live close to anything or anyone.  We have six major cities in the whole state.  All of the surrounding towns must receive services from those communities, so all service companies are required to travel.  But that also means that it gives you a leg up because you can say we travel to Butte or West Yellowstone or Cascade, etc.

Word travels fast in small towns and people will find you.  Like hunt you down and find you, when you're good at what you do.  We've had to change his phone number three times for people to 'lose' him and it doesn't last very long.  Now we just leave it forwarded to the business.

When we started both businesses, we did one simple thing.  We went door to door.  We knocked on doors and handed out flyers and told people we were in business.  When you specialize in mobile homes or live in a town the size of a postage stamp, that's not hard to do.  We tried radio for several years.  Spent THOUSANDS.  Got nothing.  Put a 2" square ad in our local paper for $30 a month that more than pays for itself.  We also did the smart thing and went back to previous clients and said "hey, we're back in business" and then reached out to new clients that we knew were not from his previous employer.  We don't need to poach clients to get business.  Once people found out that he'd left his employer, our phone started ringing because they wanted HIM not that company.

We've built both of our businesses on offering his skills and taking care of customers correctly.  We've always been a boutique business and operated as such.  With the first business, we could never afford advertising and we soon realized why - we were selling to a poor market.  So with our second business, we did things differently.  Completely changed our business model, our target market and went to work.  We joined chambers, volunteered, got involved and offered the community something for free with each anniversary we celebrated.  We put up large posters on bulletin boards through the neighboring communities.  We did the radio because of a peer who recommended it.  It didn't work.  Everything that we did to be in the community and set our brand is what worked.  Getting out there, face to face, is what built our business.

[maxpete]

Appreciate you sharing this @CareyJo! It's cool to see how at the end of the day, getting out there and building with your customers directly is what worked the best through the years!

[Bronze_Palms]

It took us about 3 years to establish a solid clientele. We now have more capital to work with so investing in marketing resources to grow our exposure quicker for the next location, however. I think it is important to be scrappy at the beginning. We got our first sale by sending out 200 emails to local beauticians educating them on our services! 

[maxpete]

The "getting your hands dirty" mentality is so beneficial when starting out. Glad to hear that things are picking up more now and big kudos to you for being scrappy and making it happen!

[smgexpress]

It took me years of a dedicated amount of hard work and commitment only and believing in myself.

[maxpete]

The power of self belief is real!

[eatunicookies]

We got our first sales from word of mouth, however, our community started growing after we joined our first pop-up market. This is when people actually begin following our Facebook and Instagram waiting for us to post our next event. The time from inception to our first fan was three weeks.

[maxpete]

That's a great turnaround! Are you still doing pop-ups?