The question I get more than any other is this. Elvis, how do you get clients?

People know how to do the work. What they cannot find is the person who will pay them to do it. So let me answer the way I know best, with how I got my own first clients, and what I would do today.

I have also recorded a full masterclass of over 100 minutes on getting clients, which is free on YouTube. This article is the shorter, more personal version.

Watch the video

A client is not somebody with a job for you

Before anything else, understand this.

A client is not somebody who has a job to give you. A client is somebody with a problem they need solved.

It might be a problem in their business, their company, their brand or their personal life. What you have is a skill that solves that problem.

If you think getting a client is the same as looking for a job, you will keep waiting for somebody, somewhere, to hand clients out. Nobody is doing that.

How I started: Jiji

I studied purchasing and supplies management, and after I graduated in 2019 I went looking for a job like everybody else. The difference was that during university I had learned Adobe Photoshop.

Around then I discovered Jiji, the online marketplace that took over from OLX in Kenya. You posted what you were selling and people contacted you.

There was a problem, though. I was in Nyeri, and Nyeri is not a business town. Most people there are employed rather than running businesses. If you walk into a hardware shop and offer a website to an owner who is 70 years old, he will not understand why he needs one.

The advice that changed everything

Then somebody asked me a simple question. Your work does not need an office or a shop. You can deliver it from anywhere. So why are you only advertising to Nyeri?

That was brilliant. I changed my listing to target Nairobi, where the businesses were, and made it clear I worked with clients remotely.

My first client paid me double

My first client called from Nkubu. He ran a business called Nkubu Auto Spares and needed a logo.

I told him 500 shillings.

I designed it in Photoshop. Because he needed to pay before getting the final files, I put a big watermark across each design that said “sample”. I sent him 3 options. He liked one, we made a few changes, and within about an hour and a half it was done.

He asked what he owed me. I said 500 shillings.

He said, no, I am paying you 1,000.

From that day my logos cost 1,000 shillings.

Waking up to calls

After that, Jiji worked for me.

I would wake up to calls. I have seen your ad, I need a logo. I have seen that you design company profiles. I started packaging my services: a logo, business cards and a company profile together for 4,500 shillings.

There was a week when I made what a cyber cafe would have paid me in 2 or 3 months. I was making 15,000 to 30,000 shillings a week. A new shirt, a new phone, new everything.

Then Jiji introduced paid visibility. I started paying 3,000 shillings to have more people see my ads, and it brought back 10 or even 30 times that. Later I was spending around 7,000.

Clients asked for websites, so I learned websites

Then the calls changed. Elvis, we have seen that you do logos and company profiles. Do you also do websites?

I had heard of WordPress, so I learned it. I watched YouTube tutorials, and later I paid for evening classes from somebody who taught WordPress.

One day a client called and said he wanted a website, but he would only give me the job if we met in person.

I was in Nyeri. He was in Nairobi.

So I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and took an early shuttle. By 7 I was in Nairobi, sitting in a Java, nervous because I did not even know the menu properly.

He was happy. I got the job. 35,000 shillings.

Think about that. A year earlier I was charging 500 for a logo. Now I was building around 4 websites a month at 35,000 each. That is when I understood how far simple skills can take you.

Why I left

Over time Jiji changed for me. There were more scammers, so people trusted it less. Support was poor. Somebody insulted me on my account, I reported it, and nobody ever responded.

It can still work, and I still tell people to list their services there. But be careful, because it is not the platform it was for me in those years.

So I moved my energy to TikTok.

How to get clients today

Today, when somebody has a problem to solve, the first place they look is social media. That is where you need to be.

1. Post your work on TikTok

I started posting videos of websites I had built.

One was for a client who owned holiday villas at the coast. I was proud of it, so I recorded a short video walking through the site and explaining it.

Within 24 hours that video had about 70,000 views, and my phone would not stop ringing. Elvis, I want a website like that.

That is when I understood that I could turn free attention into clients. From then on, whenever I worked on a project, I recorded it. In between all my other content I would say, by the way, here is an e-commerce site I just finished for a client.

The website enquiries grew so much that I stopped doing logos, company profiles and letterheads altogether and focused only on websites.

This works for any skill. If you run Meta ads, post your results. Something like: “We set up this campaign for a client, it brought in 1,000 leads and 50 of them became customers.” Then somebody messages you: I saw your video about Meta ads, how much to set up my account? You say 15,000 shillings for a one time setup. Get 3 or 4 of those a month and you are doing well.

Visibility is the fastest way to get clients. When people can see your work, they can trust you.

2. Have a clear offer

Your offer is exactly what you do and for whom.

“Web designer” followed by your star sign in your bio confuses people. Say plainly what you do, who you do it for and what it costs. My masterclass goes deep on how to write an offer.

3. Run ads

Once you have been creating content, use ads to reach the right people faster.

Make a good poster or video with Canva, Adobe Express or Photoshop, and use AI tools to help with the copy. Then create an ad in Facebook Ads Manager. If you are a social media manager, state your offer, your price and why people should hire you.

You can also build a simple landing page with a tool like Lovable, so people who click the ad can see what you do, then message you on WhatsApp.

You do not need to spend 10,000 shillings a day. Take 30 to 40 percent of what your last client paid you and put it into ads. Even 300 to 500 shillings a day for 5 days can bring in another client. Then put part of that fee back into ads again.

Free reach on these platforms keeps shrinking. They want to be paid, and paying is how you get in front of exactly the people you want.

4. Walk into businesses

Most people are afraid to walk into a baby shop and say: hi, my name is this. I have been looking at your page and I noticed a gap here. I can help with your social media.

Do it anyway. Look at your own neighbourhood. A business may need somebody to make videos and have no idea you exist until you walk in. Leave a flyer, or at least your contact, and bring samples of your work.

Do not just collect numbers from TikTok and cold call business owners. Walking in works far better.

5. Build a personal brand

It is easy for me to get clients now because people see me online. Your personal brand is what people think of you when you are not in the room.

When I say I will build a business a website with a contact form, designed to bring in enquiries, for 60,000 shillings, I am far more likely to be trusted than somebody with no visible track record.

Get known for something specific. When people see you consistently posting about the same things, they decide to buy from you.

What I would not rely on

Networking events.

I do not think they bring many clients, because almost everybody in the room is there looking for clients too. Think differently from the crowd.

Two things that quietly lose you clients

How you write and speak. People may be interested in your services and then go quiet because your messages are unclear or careless. Work on your soft skills, not only your technical ones.

Having nothing to show. Build a portfolio, even if it is a website you made for your brother. It is something to present.

It takes time

You will not wake up tomorrow to clients. My first logo was 500 shillings, and it took years of steady work to get to where I am.

Make yourself visible, and keep doing it. That consistent repetition is what gets results.

Start your digital skills journey on Click2Skill

— Elvis W.