Your Helping Business

LAUNCHING YOUR BUSINESS

Once you have everything ‘in place’ it’s time to ‘launch’ your business fully – to ‘open for business’ at the level you intend to operate initially, full time or part time.

There are two ways to launch – you can do it quietly and build up the level of business over a defined period of time, or you can adopt the ‘big bang’ approach with some sort of launch event.

It depends on the nature of your business which is the best way. Observe what other businesses who are offering similar benefits do – find out how it was for them, and act accordingly.

‘Launch’ is one of the highest ‘risk points’ for your business. I’ve seen businesses who have ‘messed up’ the launch process in some way go on to ‘fail’ very quickly. You should take advice from a business mentor or coach or just ask fellow business owners at a networking group before planning and taking ‘the plunge’!

However you decide to launch your business you must first make sure you have sufficient capacity for the influx of clients. You don’t really want to have to put people on a ‘waiting list’ so this should influence how you launch.

Think everything through and take advice and this will significantly reduce your startup risk. Above all make sure you have enough ‘time’ and ‘space’ to take on this new venture efficiently alongside everything else that you do – including family life!

Pre-Launch

It may be a good idea, especially if you are new to operating on your own, to conduct some ‘pre-launch’ activities.
These could include some ‘early bird’ or ‘test drive’ offers to not only test the market but also to test the service you are offering so that you can ‘tweak’ it a bit if necessary.

This may lead to a purchase decision at the end or, depending what it is and how its delivered, an understanding that they will pay for the benefit received, or an up-front nominal payment for the experience.

You should take this ‘test drive’ approach for anything that involves your personal time in delivering it.

You can also offer a ‘try out’ of this nature in return for a testimonial about your service but be aware that not everyone to whom you provide a ‘freebie’ will actually come up with a good recommendation for you.

Understanding pre-launch activities usually leads to some sort of modification or improvement in how your offering is delivered and also often has the benefit of you discovering other needs and wants that your client may be looking to fulfil – allowing you to perhaps create an augmented or ‘premium’ service so that as time goes on after launch you can add different or extended benefits to your portfolio and further develop your relationship with your clients.