How to Get Your First 10 Customers, Beat Burnout & Build a Business Worth Selling | ft. Alex Booth

How do you get your first 10 paying customers? What does it actually take 
to recover from burnout without quitting? And when you're ready to sell — 
what do buyers really look for?

In Episode 74 of Start It or Scrap It, we sit down with Alex Booth — 
owner of Get CSM, a customer success manager staffing firm, and 
Huckleberry Consulting — to break down the real answers to the questions 
founders face at every stage of business.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro & cold open highlights
2:00 – Meet Alex Booth: Get CSM, Huckleberry Consulting & the Rich and Remote podcast
5:37 – Golf as a networking tool: closing deals on the course (and walking away from bad ones)
13:53 – How to get your first 10 paying customers
20:37 – Marketing & sales tools we're actually using: Go High Level, Claude, Zoho & more
21:36 – AI in business: how to use it lean without losing the human element
26:14 – How Claude manages his LinkedIn 100% — and reach went UP
28:24 – The #1 marketing mistake brick-and-mortar businesses make
30:39 – Brand marketing vs. performance marketing (40–60% should be brand)
36:37 – Burnout: how to recognize it, fight it, and plan through it
43:41 – Delegating and stepping away: why your team gets stronger when you get out of the way
47:21 – Personal branding in 2026: quality vs. quantity, and what's actually working
55:22 – Why copywriters are making MORE money in the AI era, not less
56:45 – The AI power user gap: only 2% of users actually know what they're doing
59:47 – Building a business with an exit in mind: what acquirers look for in 2026
1:01:24 – The 3-year growth rule: why buyers look back three years (and why one good year doesn't count)
1:02:10 – Recurring revenue, churn rate, and long-term contracts as exit multipliers
1:03:19 – The pest control business model: build to sell, repeat
1:05:43 – When should YOU sell? Why founders hold on too long

In this episode:
- How to land your first 10 customers (the exact approach Alex used 
  to build from zero)
- Why networking remains the single most important factor in business 
  growth — no matter how big you get
- How to fight burnout as a solo operator or small team founder
- How AI is being used to run lean operations — from LinkedIn management 
  to voice agents to quality control audits
- The AI power user gap: why only 2% of AI users actually know what 
  they're doing (and how to be one of them)
- The #1 marketing mistake brick-and-mortar businesses make
- Why brand marketing should be 40–60% of your marketing budget
- What acquirers actually look for when buying a business: EBITDA, 
  3-year growth, churn rate, recurring revenue, and long-term contracts
- When to sell vs. keep growing — and why founders almost always 
  hold on too long
- Why customer retention directly increases your business valuation 
  and exit multiplier

🎙️ Alex Booth Links:
Websites:
GetCSM - https://getcsm.com/
Huckleberry Consulting - https://consulthuckleberry.com/
Rich and Remote - https://richandremote.com/

Social Media:
LinkedIn - https://mx.linkedin.com/in/alexander-booth-huckleberry
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alex.booth.965
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@huckleberryconsulting?_r=1&_t=ZS-93yPOvQXVhs

🎙️ Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson 
(marketing expert)

🔔 Subscribe for weekly live business breakdowns — every Thursday 
~11:30 AM EST.

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#entrepreneur #smallbusiness #businesspodcast #customersuccess 
#startitorscrapit #networking #burnout #exitstrategy #ai #founders 
#businessgrowth #customeracquisition #recurringrevenue #businessstrategy