This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Where do you find your first paying customer? A lot of side hustles stall at the phase where it's like, I've got this idea. I've talked to my friends about it. My friends love it, but how do you go from free samples or just showing off a website to your friends to the first stranger's dollars? It's not about social reach. It's about putting the product where the
buying already happens. We have this whole series first $1,000 where we're like, how does somebody go from idea to income? But for many of our side hustlers, many of our listeners out there, they really struggle with finding their first paying customer. And if you haven't had this experience of selling something to a stranger or finding your first customer that's not one of your friends or family, I promise it's such an empowering thing. It's so fun. And so we've
got a listener today who they don't need a global audience. They want a single sale. That's what they're trying to figure out. I mean, then they want more than one sale to be clear, but they want to start with finding their first paying customer. So let's kind of go through a low risk plan that can hopefully put money in this person's hands within a short period of time.
Let's say, I don't know, two weeks or something. So she is making gluten-free cookies. She'll share a little bit more about her idea. How can we go from idea to getting that product, those delicious, no doubt, gluten-free cookies into the hands of paying customers? Welcome to Side Hustle School, detailed question from our listener and my answer coming right up.
Hi, I'm Keisha in Atlanta. I've perfected a home-baked gluten-free cookie after months of testing, and everyone loves the samples. The problem is I have zero clue how to land an actual paying customer outside friends and family. Cold-calling coffee shops feels terrifying. Posting on social just gets likes from acquaintances. What's the very first concrete step? Market stall,
DMs, sample boxes, or something else that turns a hobby into real revenue when you have no network? Keisha, I think this is a great plan for a farmers market. There are lots of farmers markets in metro Atlanta, and farmers markets are very friendly to newcomers, at least a lot of them are. Sometimes like the super fancy farmers market requires that you exhibit elsewhere and kind of work your way up, but there are a lot of them there. Multiple Saturday markets that allow cottage food bakers, which is what Keisha is here in this scenario. You often have to pay an application fee of like 50
bucks, not too much more than that. A lot of these markets accept one-off guest vendor dates for newcomers, and this kind of like lets you see how you feel about it, make sure that they are comfortable, and so on. I encourage you to apply early because sometimes there is a waiting list, so you might get totally ready to go and then go to apply and realize it's three months from now before you can actually get that slot. I would encourage you to apply now. Then fast track that license for a cottage food industry. It looks like in Georgia there's a permit you have to apply for
maybe a $100 fee. I know we're talking about two fees here, but hopefully not any more than that. The approval usually arrives in under 10 days. Then once you're all good to go, you have a chance to be in front of customers. With a product like cookies, most likely you're going to be able to make some sales because at a farmers market you are presented with a number of customers who are walking by and in a buying mood. They go to the farmers market because they want to try
things and buy things. Then you start getting more confidence and experience and then you can think, "Okay, do I want to do this again? Do I want to apply for a regular slot? Is this the right market? Should I look at something else? What are my next steps?" There are lots of things you can do at
that point, but I do think Keisha asks, "What's the very first concrete step?" I really think it's important to get some initial sales just because that gives you information and the confidence again so that you can go on and get many more sales. One sale beats a hundred compliments. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you have a question, a comment, if you are selling cookies at the Georgia food market, let us know. Well, let us know anything. Anything's
welcome. sidehustleschool.com, notes pages for every episode there. Much more is coming out seven days a week, always completely free. Subscribe, follow wherever you listen. Thank you so much.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
