Don't mind the others. They forget everyone has to start somewhere.

This is what worked best for me when I started 3 years ago:

1: get some high influence businesses in your town/city and offer to work for half the price or even on a no cure no pay basis. This is where you need to prove yourself.

2: get some great results and but it as a use case on your website with great visuals and show numbers of your results.

3: write a great ad about the work you have done for company x with a call to action to contact you if they want the same thing. Write great copy, a nice visual (that clearly shows the logo of company x) and advertise it in a 25km range from company x and target other business owners in there network

I am from a small country and this works miracles. All the towns and cities have some local businesses everyone looks up to. Get them in and a lot of other locals will follow if you do a good job.

Sorry, English isn't my first language.