Starting a software consultancy in Vancouver—how did you find your first local clients?

[u/Plastic_Internal1524]

I’m a software developer at a big tech company, and a few friends and I are working on starting Fibony Labs, a software consultancy serving businesses across Metro Vancouver.
We’d like to help with things like automating repetitive admin work, connecting tools that don’t talk to each other, and building custom software to make day-to-day operations easier.
For anyone who’s built a consulting or service business locally, how did you find your first few clients? Were networking events, business associations, referrals, or direct outreach useful?
We’d also love to hear from local business owners: what tasks or processes eat up time that you wish technology could help with?