Who is our low hanging fruit? Looking for advice on how to get initial clients for a startup

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Hi, We have developed a platform and now we are trying to get it moving. I'd appreciate some input on how to get initial clients.

Our platform connects locals with language skills, expertise and local knowledge with businesses, tourists and expats. We are primarily focusing on businesses to initially to help us build traction. A business might connect with a local to get translation, then again to get a basic understanding of the market or suppliers, then if the business goes to visit a tradeshow or meet suppliers then they might use a local to help with day to day logistics of travelling or doing business abroad. It’s a way of connecting directly rather than going through agencies or consultants.

We’ve got a number of languages on our platform but we've focused mainly on China to give us some initial traction.

Our site is in beta and has emphasised functionality over design as we are on a budget and are wanting to validate the concept before investing more. Because of this, the sales process for a client at the moment is much more aligned to them meeting us first in person and doing a presentation about what we do and who we are. At this stage we haven’t focused on how to convert purely online traffic but I understand that as a platform we will need to do this in the future, I just thought it might be after some more investment.

We are ready to start taking clients for China so have been visiting government agencies, local chambers of commerce and asking for referrals. Unfortunately these seem to be a very slow process and one of the reasons they are reluctant to refer us is because we don’t have enough social proof. We’ve had one client who has been extremely happy with the result (even though she’s had to navigate through some bugs).

Does anyone have any advice on how we might be able to get our initial clients?

We need them to be ok working with a startup and so having the come through search might not be best as we want to manage their experience to ensure they are positive, which is especially crucial at this early stage.

Our thoughts so far: * Cold calling targeted companies in the local community * Trying adwords and seeing how the visits convert * Persevering with building relationships with referrers

This community has given me some great ideas over the last few years and so was wondering if you might have some thoughts on this. Thanks!

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