If you've ever started a business, you understand how stressful it is to get that first customer. You have everything ready in the back office. You have your sales material and your delivery ready. However, you need to get the first customer through the door.
It is a lonely feeling. Looking through your phone contacts, LinkedIn, former colleagues, former customers, friends, etc. Reviewing all of these resources to leverage these personal relationships for this new business can be very stressful.
Starting MTS was no different. The calls of people that thought we were crazy, trying to secure talent that could help us deliver our services in today's financial environment, were loud and clear. However, we were fortunate enough to get a customer. We were juggling the basic smiling and dialing and email campaigns to our personal networks to try to get a customer, and one day, everything came together.
We actually had two former colleagues that were both needing services. It was also important to both of them that they be our first customer. We were in a very fortunate position.
Ed Kroschinski (left photo) and Frank Avignone (right photo) were both former colleagues. Both were in need of some IT services. During the same month (March 2018 - month three of our existence), we were able to secure work and deliver services for both of these individuals and their respective companies. It took us a quarter of a year to finally get a customer despite endless phone calls, endless sales pitches, and seemingly endless rejections. Breaking into the market for the first time isn’t easy. But we kept trying, kept seeking, and these two customers helped lay the foundation for what MTS is today.
You have probably had former colleagues and friends 'hitting you up’ in a new venture, job or startup. I'm always empathetic and understanding to these calls as they strike out on their own to try and create something of their own. As someone told me a long time ago:
“Nothing happens until somebody sells something”.