How much should I expect to spend before getting my first client after joining Maker School?

#298 · the one automation i'd sell right now (2026)

How much should I expect to spend before getting my first client after joining Maker School?

Industry averages suggest you’d spend around $200 to $300 before landing your first client. The Maker School fee is about $184, but you typically receive $2,000 to $3,000 in discounts and credits upon joining, which offsets the cost. You can use those credits on platforms like Upwork, cold email, LinkedIn DMs, or community outreach to acquire your first client. Upwork is often the simplest route because clients already have budget and are ready to hire. Cold email is high leverage but takes longer to master, especially for beginners who lack sales process understanding. Other methods include cold DMs on platforms, LinkedIn outreach, and engaging in communities like Reddit or LinkedIn groups to solve problems and get on calls. Overall, you should expect to spend at least a couple hundred dollars; if you’re not willing to invest that amount, joining paid products may not be worthwhile since you’ll need to recoup the investment after landing a client.

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How should I spend $1,000 to start getting clients? I considered buying a bulk of inboxes and a premium instantly plan to increase sending volume, but do you have other suggestions?

If you haven’t had a client yet, allocate part of the $1,000 to Upwork to buy your first job—it’s the simplest way to get started. Also invest in Maker School to learn the automation framework and get the curriculum. With the remaining budget, buy a modest number of mailboxes (around 20–21) and domains (about $50 for domains plus $70 for mailboxes, totaling ~$120). Use leftover funds to purchase leads. This approach lets you cover education, outreach tools, and lead acquisition while positioning you to land your first client through Upwork, provided you stay consistent and follow the program’s advice.

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When I joined Maker School, I saw I might need to spend around $600 for tools on top of the subscription. Is that true? I'm from India, so even $50 is a lot for me — what should I save up before joining?

That $600 figure depends on how you actually implement it — my recommended approach (e.g. sending 10 Upwork applications a day, roughly 270 by the end of the first month at about $25 in Connects each) is genuinely a lot of money, but in practice very few people actually do that much volume; most people send 2-4 a day, landing around 60-90 for the month. Doing more is still better — Upwork applications don't just help your closing rate, the practice of writing proposals and recording videos also builds real skill, so it's not purely about landing that first client, it's skill-stacking too. But at minimum, if you're doing Upwork, expect to spend something like $150 just on Connects — you will need to budget some money for the platform itself.

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youtube ↗Lead Generation

Nick, cold emails versus Upwork. Which one helps move the needle faster to get your first win? Say you got 1K. extremely good skills, unlimited time, 18, a little social proof, and you're starting from scratch. Which of the two would be your go-to method to make a little bit more capital and get the ball rolling?

With $1,000 to bootstrap, go with Upwork. You can submit roughly 200‑300 applications (maybe more thanks to the connects refund policy). In the Maker School community, the average number of proposals needed to land a client is about 40‑60, so you could realistically secure around six clients. If the average revenue per client is around $200, that puts you at $1,200, and you can rinse and repeat. In practice, the average revenue per client is often higher—many close $1,500‑$3,000 deals—so within the first 50 proposals you could reach roughly $6,800 (or about $1,600 after the correction). Consistently scaling up from there will grow your business.

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youtube ↗Client Acquisition

I've been on LinkedIn for months trying to get clients and failed — a mix of inconsistency and not knowing what to sell or how to do outreach properly. I've been considering starting on Upwork instead. Is that a good idea, or am I just coping? How much would it cost monthly to land a client within 3 months? I always thought I should stick to LinkedIn since I know the platform, but the deeper I get, the more I realize I don't know what I'm doing.

You won't know what you're doing until you've actually done it — it's unreasonable to expect polished outreach skills as an absolute beginner. Your results right now will be the worst they'll ever be; don't judge your future potential by your current 'chapter one' results, judge by 'chapter 100.' Yes, you should be doing more outreach broadly, including Upwork and other freelance platforms — ideally simultaneously. In Maker School, people spend 70-80% of their computer time on sales, marketing, and outreach, because that's what actually gets clients; without clients, you have a hobby, not a business. On cost: plenty of people land their first client within 10-20 Upwork applications, though the median is more like 40-50. If your average cost per application is $5-6, 40 applications is roughly $200 — which against a $500 first client is a high ~40% marketing cost, but your first deal is always your worst deal financially. As you build a track record and start upselling, your marketing cost as a percentage of revenue drops significantly — most people settle around 10-15% of gross spent on marketing via Upwork over time. Don't plan to stay on Upwork forever though — treat it as a crutch to get you to something more scalable, like cold email.

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