How to Launch a New Business, Product, or Service
I’ve been doing a lot of presentations and mastermind events lately, and I’ve been getting tons of questions on launching a business.
Many of you want to know what you should first do.
There’s a huge list of to-dos, right? You might be building a website, or making lists of potential projects, prototypes, and problems before even starting the website.
I see this all the time… and they’re fatal flaws for business launching. Then…
What are the things that need to happen when launching a business?
I’ve started numerous ventures myself, helped on several others, and have developed everything from financial vehicles to business lines.
In truth, there are really only a few things you need to think about when launching a business.
First, do you have proof of concept?
In other words, has anyone done this before? If it’s completely different and absolutely no one has ever done this before, it worries me to a degree.
Why? Because there are a lot of smart people in the world – many of them trying wild and outlandish things everyday.
If there was a financially feasible way to do this, there would probably be people doing it, right?
Finding proof of concept is important before you start to delve in and invest time, energy, and money into developing a potential product or service.
We need to understand whether or not it will actually sell or if there’s a market for it.
And if there isn’t proof of concept, have you talked to the people who have a similar business, and have you asked why they haven’t taken this innovative approach or innovated the product in this way?
If no one is doing it, there’s probably a reason for that.
So… you need to dive into the market research to determine the reason.
Second, you want to know whether the idea is a viable concept. Figure out your target client for the product. Many people skip this phase and think it’ll come into fruition eventually.
While that may be the case – that it comes into place later – you ideally want to start with this in mind already.
Before you figure out all the other small details, you need to be able to get this message out to people so that you can actually sell it and bring in revenue.
Don’t go chasing details like whether you need a bookkeeper or an accountant, what the operations and delivery systems are going to look like, and so forth.
You need clarity on the target for the product or service line before launch, especially so that you can create buzz for it beforehand.
This is what will help you create all of the messaging around your upcoming product or service, and is the most important part of the process.
Ideal client
Who do you want to sell to so that you can put the pieces in place for that audience and to really start getting people to lean in so that you have an effective launch?
People who are interested in that type of product or service will already know about it and will be looking forward to it (hopefully).
In the end, if you’re not selling, it’s more of a hobby or an idea – and what you want is an eventual successful business or branch of a business.
The key to that is knowing your key target audience.
This also covers the messaging of your product, from the tagline on your site to the pitch you send out.
Many business owners work through this backwards: they think they need a business plan first, along with projections and other pieces..
But, again, the most important part is understanding your target client and how you will be approaching and speaking to them.
Everything else can fall into place after you’ve established these two key things.
Those are the two things I always ask of my clients when they come to me with a new idea for a product, a service, a store, etc.
Essentially, is there a proof of concept out there already? And, who is your target prospect for this?
So, does this resonate with you? Is it something you see yourself using with a new idea of yours?
Drop me a comment below and let me know where you’re getting stuck with your launches – I’m always happy to help you.
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