---
id: "prereq-ad-budget"
type: "prerequisite"
source_timestamps: ["00:02:50", "00:30:50"]
tags: ["finance", "client-acquisition"]
related: ["concept-inbound-ads-over-cold-outreach", "action-day-6-competitor-ads"]
reason: "The client acquisition strategy relies entirely on paid advertising."
---
# Capital for Paid Ads

## Prerequisite
Starting capital sufficient to fund Meta ad spend.

## Why It's Required
The strategy in [[concept-inbound-ads-over-cold-outreach]] explicitly **rejects free cold outreach** in favor of running inbound Meta ads to acquire agency clients. There is no free fallback in the playbook for Day 6 ([[action-day-6-competitor-ads]]).

## Practical Implication
A founder without ad budget must either:
- Delay Day 6 until they have capital from another source,
- Accept the unstated risk that targeted, low-volume manual outbound (which Middleton dismisses) may be necessary as a bootstrap channel, or
- Front-load revenue via service work before testing ads.

This prerequisite is one of the most important **caveats** the video does not deeply explore — it makes the "1-person business in 7 days" framing capital-dependent.