When you only have three fans you need 100% of your fans to bring a friend just to have six people at the next show. And that’s a huge accomplishment but it’s still only six people in the room. It still doesn’t feel great and there’s no money in a six person draw.
That’s why building a fan base is hard. The law of small numbers.
The more fans you have there can be major growth even while it’s a smaller percentage telling their friends. (i.e. If you have five hundred fans and only twenty percent bring a friend next time, that’s six hundred people. That’s a jump.)
So yes. The beginning is the hardest part.