New business - how soon to expect clients?

[Pyjamabarmy]

For those of you that have a business offering a service e.g. cleaning, dog walking, etc how long did it take you to build up your clients? For those starting from scratch, how many clients did you have in the first month or two and how did you get more clients?

It will depend on your marketing. If you do little, i.e. just the odd flyer through doors or the odd shop window poster or facebook post, then it could take many months if not years to build up.

However, if you "go for it" with some serious marketing, i.e. paid for facebook advs, flyers through hundreds of doors, signed vehicle driving around, posters in all shop windows, etc etc., then you could have "full books" within a few weeks.

Yep - entirely up to how much effort you put into drumming up business, I'm afraid.

Once you know what service you have to offer, you need to identify where your most likely clients are, and target them specifically. This will obviously depend on what the service is. So if it's something like cleaning or decorating, a local leaflet drop is likely to be your best bet (but please make sure that your leaflet looks professional!).

If it's something more specialist, then consider advertising in your local paper or free magazine (if you have one).