If I lost everything and had to make my first $10k again, I wouldn’t build an app or a store. I’d sell a service.
No inventory. No big upfront cost. The product is mostly your time and skill.
This is the full path I’d follow, from picking the offer to closing the sale and delivering the work, based on eight years and over $115M in sales.
Step 1: Choose an offer people already pay for
Stick to three markets: health, wealth and relationships. People act when they want more money, a better body or better relationships.
If you’re not sure what to sell, look at what’s popular on course marketplaces like Udemy and Alison, or ask an AI tool what’s in demand. Rare skills are worth more than the ones everyone learned in school.
Step 2: Write a tagline that creates curiosity
If you say “I’m a personal trainer,” you’re one of a million. You need a line that makes people want to know more.
Two simple formulas:
- I help people do X without Y.
- I help people do X using 1, 2, 3.
For fitness, instead of preaching calorie counting, frame it as eating whatever you want without sabotaging your results.
In my own DM ad business we branded the system “conversion conversations,” and naming it lifted application rates.
Step 3: Run the offer through the value equation
I use Alex Hormozi’s value equation from $100M Offers. It has four parts: the dream outcome, the perceived likelihood of success, the time to result and the effort required.
Most offers hit one or two. A “lose 20 pounds” offer only really hits the outcome. A day trading app I hold equity in hits all four: it makes money, has a 2 to 1 win ratio, works fast and needs no effort.
The more of the four your offer hits, the easier it sells.
Step 4: Get your first leads with no money
Warm outreach
Start by messaging your own followers. Skip fake accounts and people who clearly won’t buy.
Keep the conversation natural:
- Thank them for the follow.
- Ask about their goals and struggles.
- Ask what they’ve tried and whether they’ve had a coach.
- Offer a call with no pressure.
Use questions so they reach the conclusion themselves. Push a little, pull back a little.
Send about 20 messages an hour, 100 a day, to avoid spam blocks. Expect about 30% to reply and about 10% of replies to book. Assume you’ll close around 30% of calls.
Cold outreach
I avoid Facebook groups because they’re overworked. Instagram hashtags work better.
For fitness, look for people who clearly have a goal and aren’t already coaches or promoting a business. For B2B, open with a genuine compliment on something in their profile, then ask about their business.
Expect 15 to 20 messages an hour, 10% to 15% replies and about 10% of those booking. Cold needs roughly three times the volume of warm.
Step 5: Add boosted posts
Boost from desktop, not mobile, and use suggested or custom audiences. Spend at least $20 to $50 a day.
Targets I look for:
- $1 to $2 per follower
- 10 to 20 cents per profile view
- About 10% of profile visitors following
So $1,000 gets you around 500 followers. Message them like warm leads. Some of my clients make around $150k a month from boosted posts alone, though volume is limited and spam blocks eventually hit.
Step 6: Run paid ads
For creative I use AI tools like Zebracat and HeyGen. Some of the ads look rough. They convert anyway. I draft a 60 second script in ChatGPT with my credibility points built in.
Setup that works for me:
- Use the leads objective for DM ads. It gives the best cost per message.
- Use ad set budgets, not campaign budget optimization, split across about 10 small ad sets.
- Aim for audiences of 1 to 2 million, narrowed by interests like entrepreneurship and job titles.
You can run ads to DMs or straight to a page. DMs mean more touchpoints and more work. Straight to page means less work but more pressure on your marketing. I’d start with DMs.
Step 7: Build a simple funnel
The structure is an opt in page, a VSL, a booking page and a thank you page with prep material.
Automations send emails and texts and flag contacts for your team to message. I run all of this in Elite 360. Learn the tools yourself before you outsource them.
Step 8: Know your numbers
For B2C offers like fitness, I look for:
- About $10 per lead
- $100 to $150 per booked call
- About a 25% close rate
That means a $5,000 client should cost no more than about $1,250 to acquire. For B2B, roughly double those numbers. Aim for about 4x return, so $100k in spend should bring about $400k back.
Step 9: Close the sale
My calls follow a clear order.
- Pre frame. The goal is to understand their situation and help them make a good decision, with no pressure either way.
- Discovery. Goals, struggles, past attempts, coaching history, urgency and what’s at stake emotionally.
- Three pillars. How we create the offer and stand apart from competitors, how we generate leads with a full follow up system, and why to hire us. I explain it as getting Bill Gates’ team for five hours versus Bill Gates for five minutes.
- Program outline. Quick and clear.
- Certainty, then price. Confirm they’re certain before you reveal the price. If they can’t do full price, offer a lower minimum or a payment plan.
The four objections you’ll hear:
- Price. Isolate it, check what they have available and offer a payment plan.
- Spouse. Ask what the spouse would object to, and ask for their support rather than permission.
- Need to think. Go back to three questions: do they want the goal, do they believe we can deliver, and can they access the funds.
- Belief. Walk through the worst case. I use a performance guarantee rather than a money back guarantee, because service results depend on the client’s effort.
Step 10: Deliver like a real business
After the close, send a link to sign the agreement and join your groups. I use a WhatsApp group for mass messages.
Then:
- Collect an intake form so your coaches know each client’s situation.
- Send automated weekly check ins and color code each client’s status so you spot who’s struggling.
- Keep all client communication and documents in one workspace. I use Basecamp.
- Use tags to trigger automations and stop lead messages once someone becomes a client.
The takeaway
Your first $10k doesn’t need a big audience or a big budget. It needs a clear offer, enough conversations, a real sales process and delivery good enough to earn the next client.
Start with warm outreach today. Add boosted posts and ads once the numbers prove the offer works.
Want to know what’s capping your business right now? Take my free 90 Day Ceiling Plan. Answer 18 questions and get a written plan, built on your own numbers, that names the one thing holding you back and what to fix first.
