First 10 Customers

The Warm-100 List

Companion to "The warm list."

Set a timer for ten minutes. Write every person who knows your name. Do not evaluate while you write; evaluation is a separate step and doing it early shrinks the list. Mark C on lines that could hire you (customer line) and R on lines that know twenty of your customers (referral line). Both count.

Name-source prompts

Phone contacts	Email history	Former coworkers, old bosses
Neighbors	The poker group, the gym	The church or group roster
Parents from your kid's teams	The friend who owns a shop	Anyone else who knows your name

The list (C = customer line, R = referral line)

#	Name	Who they are / how you know them	C / R
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Continue on a second sheet to 50 or 100. The pen stalls around name twelve; keep going. Most of this list will never buy from you. Nearly all of it can refer you.

Copy these skeletons

The announcement (one post, sent once, everywhere your people already see you)

I left my job to start a [what the business is, in plain words]. I do [the service or product] for [who it is for]. If you know anyone in [your area or market] who needs this, send them my way. Not asking anyone to buy anything. Just want the people I know to know what I do now.

The individual message (one at a time, personal, referencing the actual relationship)

Hey [name], we haven't talked since [the real thing you share]. I started a [business type] this year. One sentence on what it is. I'm trying to reach [specific kind of customer]. You know a lot of [that kind of person]. Could you forward this to anyone who fits, or tell me one person I should talk to?

The last line asks for one person, not a favor. One person is easy to produce. If someone ignores the message, that is the system working: they were informed, the seed is planted.

☐ Timer set for ten minutes; no evaluating while writing
☐ Announcement sent once, everywhere your people already see you
☐ First ten individual messages sent, each asking for one specific referral

First-week count

Announcement sent (date, channels)
Individual warm messages sent (first ten)	of 10