Every time NASA sends up a ship, satellite, or probe, it’s a launch, not just their first launch back in 1958. Now sure, generally, the news only gets really excited when they are sending people up or headed way far out, but nevertheless, NASA is launching all the time. As business owners, we think of the very FIRST launch as our only launch but businesses are launching all the time.
We launch new products.
The most obvious routine launches happening are the ones surrounding our products. At the beginning of April, I launched Project Podcast. Back in 2019, I launched the Full Focus Entrepreneur membership program. These were big launches planned weeks in advance. I designed the program, sought a market for it, developed the funnels and sales mechanisms, directly invited people to the programs, drummed up media and guest opportunities in order to get the word out, enrolled new clients, and launched the product. New products should be launching regularly in your business, or relaunching to new markets.
We launch new verticals or income streams.
When our primary offering is doing well already, now is the time to create new income streams in our business. Maybe it’s a new way of offering or packaging existing products or services. Maybe it is an entirely new branch of the work you do. Regardless, this new income stream is going to need a launch. The launch allows you to step-by-step walk the process of taking an idea and making it a reality within your business.
We launch new content.
If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m a big fan of content marketing. It allows you to speak directly to your audience and showcases your personality, expertise, and perspective. Plus it does some lead gen and sales all by itself. Launching a new podcast, blog, or video series for your brand is a great way to increase the number of leads entering your business as well as the quality of nurturing that leads them to buy from you. The creation process for a new (or your first) content platform is definitely a launch.
We launch new funnels and new paths to your door.
Within my membership program, we focus less on “funnels” and more on paths to your door, the physical, digital, and emotional journey that a prospect walks starting with where and how they can learn I exist all the way to “sold or cold”. This journey should be a curated intentionally designed one. With the forethought and planning (like say when you launch), you can create a path that isn’t about you following leads but about creating a journey that they walk themselves which helps them identify if and why they should buy from you.
We launch new side hustles.
Once the entrepreneurial bug has bitten, it is rare that we ever recover. If you are at all like me, there is always the temptation to start side hustles in order to create additional income streams that are not even remotely related to what we do. Maybe that means you and your spouse want to branch out into having a rental property to diversify your portfolio. Maybe that means you want to make some money off your amazing eye for vintage clothes at the thrift store. Maybe you want to start making some affiliate money off all the books that you read (check out my new book club on Instagram). The mini launch that you do to get this side hustle started still needs the intentionality of the launch process. For those not ready to leave their day jobs, launching a side hustle is the training-wheels-on version of going out on their own that you need to prove concept, gain momentum, and create security before you do the whole “two weeks notice” thing.
We RE-launch.
When a disaster, natural, global, or personal, strikes or our own actions, inactions, or internal obstacles cause business to sputter, we have to relaunch. We aren’t starting from scratch. Often it is just restarting with renewed resources and renewed hope. Sometimes we relaunch because of a pivot we needed to make in order to meet new demands or new parameters. Either a pivot or a restart gives us the opportunity to relaunch, lay the proper groundwork, create the plan and align our resources, and tackle the launch with energy and enthusiasm.
Regardless of what you are launching in your business (or if you are launching a new business), the invaluable process follows the same clear outline. You begin with where you want to get to and what you want to accomplish. From there you build out a plan to walk you to that goal and put in place the structure and mechanisms that will allow you to get there. And then you launch. So what are you launching?