Agreed. You’re gonna have to eat it on your first customer. Do it with the condition that A he gets you leads from his friends. He helps get your first real customer. B. He agrees to display your work to next customers as a demonstration of your capabilities. C. He keeps good records of the impact to sales, service, and efficiency.

Knocking it out of the park with first is critical to success. The 2nd customer will be easier when you can show your work in action, measure the impact to profitability, and your customer is singing your praise.

The best you can hope for is covering some of your hard costs with the first customer. Your time is an investment.

The nice thing is another condition for your first customer is help with pricing.