"I have no portfolio" is the most common reason people give for not reaching out. A small demo fixes that, and you can build one in a week. Day 1: Choose one type of business and one painful, repeated problem. Example: dental clinics that lose patients because nobody follows up after a missed appointment. Day 2: Write a five-part spec for the smallest useful fix. One trigger, one output. Skip everything else. Day 3 and 4: Build it with sample data. Never use a real business's private data in a demo. Day 5: Record a 60 to 90 second screen demo. Show the problem first, then the result. Narrate in plain language, no jargon. Day 6: Make a list of 10 businesses that have that problem. Spend two minutes on each so you can say one specific, true thing about them. Day 7: Send 10 personal messages. Here's a made-up example: "Hi Priya, I noticed your clinic lets people book online, but I couldn't find any follow-up for missed appointments. I built a small demo that sends a friendly reschedule message within an hour of a no-show. It takes 60 seconds to watch. Want me to send it over?" What makes that message work: it names one specific observation, it's short, and the ask is tiny. Watching a 60-second video is easy to say yes to, a call is not. Be realistic about the outcome. Most people won't reply, and that's normal. You're not looking for ten clients, you're looking for two or three real conversations. Every conversation also gives you practice with the discovery questions. Two mistakes to avoid. A demo that does five things looks like a tool, while one that does a single thing well looks like a result. And never send the same message to everyone, because personalization is the whole point. What kind of business would you build your demo for?