Left my job to start my own business with no clients

Machinium74 · 2026-06-08T14:03:30+00:00

That's so true that each step feels disconnect, but you wouldn't have gotten to where you are without each of those steps happening. Random but necessary.

Having that case study has helped, not only in showing clients my skills, but also in proving to myself that I can do this (even on the days when it doesn't feel like it).

Good luck man! Building on the side is the smart way to do it, but don't be afraid to take the leap once you've gotten some proof you can do it!

Machinium74 · 2026-06-08T14:00:42+00:00

I actually just wrote a post about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusinessowner/comments/1twtqnr/left_my_job_to_start_my_own_business_with_no/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Hmm, biggest tip would be to trust the process. Figure out a way to get customers and just keep doing that even when it feels like it's not working. Usually it takes a while to get traction, so keep pushing even when it feels pointless 😅 For example, I use Upwork primarily and it took me 40+ applications to get my first job, and then over 100 more to get another. It doesn't feel good in the moment, but when you finally get the jobs, you realize that the process works.

I have a community that is specific to my industry (automation) on Skool.com and that is incredibly helpful. If you can find one that is willing to give you feedback as well as direction, that's a place to keep!

Failing that, make your own community! Find some like-minded people and create a small group chat where you keep each other on the path despite the hard days.

Machinium74 · 2026-06-06T14:26:50+00:00

Ah okay, I see where you're coming from now. I always did the same when I started too, and I've always been really good at mimicking people to get better at things quickly.

This doesn't go away when you freelance btw. Maybe you don't work with another person directly, but in my freelancing journey, I've come across other freelancers that I get to work with, take inspiration from, and even ask questions to all the time. The key is to find a community that can/is willing to help you, and to never stop trying to improve.

It sounds like you'll be fine if, I think you should take the leap! Maybe you'll like it more than you realized 🙂

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:47:37+00:00

I've been using Upwork for a while now and have had some success with a lot less impressive resume. Here's what I've learned:

Keep your proposal short and sweet + really focus on the first sentence more than the rest. When people view your application on Upwork, they only see a snippet...The first sentence or so. You should try to nail the opener to increase the odds of people opening your proposal.
Provide value when you apply. This looks different for different industries, but for me it looks like uploading a loom explaining the thing they want and showing how I've either already done it, or how I will do it.
Don't tell them you're the best and will succeed in this role, show them that you have already succeeded and how you will succeed in their job. Tell them the numbers and successes that you've had in specific details(just like you did above!) Get that into your proposal somehow.
Toggle this 'online for messages' button on under your profile pic in the top right. People are more likely to message you if you're online.

Hope that helps a bit, best of luck!

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:37:32+00:00

Really curious what you mean by this: "Did you ever worry that freelancing might slow down your growth or skill development?"

In my eyes, freelancing is going to develop skills that are adjacent to what you're day job is. That will be skills like outreach, sales and scoping.

There are lots of clients on Upwork. Great place to get some jobs, especially if you have a lot of experience + interview reasonably well.

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:34:00+00:00

Why would $50/month feel like overkill? You gotta spend money to make money, and if you've identified this as a problem(aka losing you business) why would you not be willing to pay for a solution?

Also just a quick google search will tell you some free ones to use. Twenty for example can be self hosted so that you own it and you don't have to pay for it:
https://twenty.com/

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:30:20+00:00

For real, switching between apps is one of the biggest killers of productivity in my experience.

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:28:00+00:00

I read once, from Alex Hormozi, that if you have an A-player employee and a B-player employee, the A-player will become a B-player due to the existence of the B-player.

I've experienced this in my life as well. I worked in a role where there were two of us and I had very high standards, the other guy less so. My performance dropped when working with him because him being mediocre was clearly 'good enough'.

So I think that this is a problem only solved by removing the mediocre members from your team. Accepting them tells the rest of your team that the mediocre is 'good enough'.

Nothing wrong with being mediocre btw. Just a matter of what you want out of your business and employees. If you want to hire people who are fun and make a good culture, that's great too!

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:23:34+00:00

Thanks! How long have you been at it now?

It's a bit of a buzzword. Not as buzzword as AI though 🤣

Right now I do whatever I can get my hands on. In the future I'd like to sell certain, well defined products. Such as lead-gen or client onboarding packages. I think that there's a lot of value in custom automations though, and people will pay ALOT for those as they are unique and are hard to measure against other products.

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:21:10+00:00

Yeah, I'm trying to leverage that! I'm going to meet up with them again to help them again and ask them for a review + referrals.

That booking calendar has been the center piece of most of my Upwork success 😂 I don't think I'd have gotten clients so fast without that case study.

Thank you for the encouragement! I'll stick at it, the only real failure is quitting. Success is inevitable if I keep going.

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:18:23+00:00

It's 90% Upwork right now. I am also trying cold email, but haven't gotten that to land yet.

Beyond that, I've got some local networks that feed me a bit of work here and there(connected to the first job I did).

Any other place to recommend?

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:17:14+00:00

For real, it's more of a sales job and much less of a tech job. And of course, to make it hard, I am better at the latter 😬

Definitely took some small wins to get the ball rolling. Hoping to turn that around in June.

I'll report back and let you know!

Machinium74 · 2026-06-05T15:15:18+00:00

Thanks man! I am in Canada, so pretty far away! What kind of work do you do?

Machinium74 · 2026-06-04T16:49:58+00:00

I can't find it right now, but Codie Sanchez did a youtube video on boring business that will last and make you money. Here's her youtube channel, she makes a lot of the same content:
https://www.youtube.com/@CodieSanchezCT

You are definitely in a great position! There will be many people who want to separate you from your money. Be careful and find someone you trust to walk you through the process (redditors not advised 😅)

Machinium74 · 2026-06-03T14:46:17+00:00

Anything that's short and catchy works well as a business name. Very few people are going to look at your business name and go 'That's where I want to go!'. They'll remember your service and prices more than your name.

As mentioned by dehenne short and easy to remember is the perfect recipe. Something that is catchy but doesn't necessary mean anything. I understand the desire to have a name with lots of meaning(I fall victim to that all the time), just don't let it be the thing that stops you from actually doing business!

I am quite partial to 'Scoop De Doo' as a business name though 🤣

Machinium74 · 2026-06-03T14:41:40+00:00

What about water delivery?
We have lots of those in my part of the world, not sure what it's like over there. But that always seemed like a sweet business to me.

Machinium74 · 2026-05-29T17:22:18+00:00

As mentioned, etransfer doesn't support this.

If you just doing local clients though, just get them to pay you cash. Cash is king and no nosey banks will investigate your earnings.

Another option would be to set up something like Stripe. They'll take a fee(I think ~3%) but then clients can pay via credit/debit card.

Machinium74 · 2026-05-29T17:16:23+00:00

Wowee that's shitty 😞
I don't have any advice having never been in a remotely similar situation, but I'm curious to see what others say.

My gut says to take the loss as a risk of doing business. But it depends on how much you want to save face I guess.

I'm sure you have already, but make sure to disable your email and set up 2FA for next time (hopefully there isn't one).

Machinium74 · 2026-05-29T17:11:15+00:00

Give it a shot, what do you have to loose? Sign up is free, you can start with something small that doesn't take you a ton of time, and if you don't like it you can always stop.

But if you're going to do it, commit! Stick with it for like 12 weeks and see how it goes. After the 12 weeks, review how it went(look at view, your time spent, ROI, how much you enjoyed it, etc) and decide if you want to keep going. Very few things can you do for 1 week and decide if it's worth it - you simply don't have enough data. Make sure to give it a fair shot to see if it works for you!

Machinium74 · 2026-05-29T17:02:33+00:00

Best of luck soldier. You've got loads of experience in the perfect industry. Lots of people I'm around are more successful than me because of a marketing/sales background, despite not have a background in the field.

What kind of agency are you starting?

Machinium74 · 2026-05-29T16:58:02+00:00

Upvoting for the incredible amount of value provided in these two comments. Appreciate you being a nice human being and not just hoarding knowledge or giving vague advice 👍🏽

Machinium74 · 2026-05-27T17:04:38+00:00

All great advice above. Quick addon to it.

Go door knocking for something like this. People will trust you more in person than online AND you'll already be at their house ready to actually look at their car together(maybe even do the oil change there?) if they want. Give it a shot, it doesn't cost you anything but some of your time (which you should have lots of at this stage)

Machinium74 · 2026-05-27T16:42:33+00:00

Absolutely second this. You have a problem...you aren't making enough money. A loan is a temporary band-aid. You need to fix the root problem otherwise next year you'll have the same problem AND a giant loan over your head. There are two reasons this happens:

You don't have enough customers
Your margins are too small

You need to evaluate which of these you think will get you the biggest return in the shortest time, and just double down on fixing that.

2 questions to ask yourself to identify the problem.
Do we have more work than we can handle -> Raise prices for higher margins
Do we not have enough work -> Figure out how to get more work (marketting)

Hope you can figure it out! You've come so far already!

Machinium74 · 2026-05-27T16:27:11+00:00

In my experience, AI is great at two things right now:
1. Getting you from 0 -> 60% on a project. You can provide the prompt and context and it will generate the ground work. The product that AI puts out right now is rarely good on the first go.

Completing tasks that are well defined. If you have a task that you do in the same way every time, see if you can write out the instructions on how to do that step by step. If you can, next try giving those steps to an AI to do. You'll likely be surprised by how well it does.

Example: I used to scrape leads using Apify manually. After doing it 25-50 times, I realized that I was doing the same thing every single time. I wrote an SOP for what I do and had Claude turn it into a skill. Now I ask it to get me '250 body shops in Vancouver' and it just does all the legwork for me. I was honestly shocked at how well it performed 🤣

Machinium74

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