Suppose you’re almost ready to launch your creative course or creative-focused business, well, congratulations! It’s a huge milestone that should absolutely be celebrated.  Before you launch, though, make sure that you are genuinely prepared from start to finish, from the most significant to the tiniest details. It’s going to make sure that it goes as positively as possible and helps launch you — see what we did there? — into a professional pattern with nothing but good times.

           It is an exciting moment when you are getting ready to launch your creative business, so revel in that! However, you’ll also want to take a bit of time to make sure that you are ready to go with everything prepared for a course launch, program launch, or podcast launch — or whatever else you are launching!. 

But, before your business launch…

A lot of times, you can feel ready but accidentally forget something. Here’s your guide to help you get to the bottom of your to-do list as effectively as possible.

• Have you gotten all of your tech ready to go?: Tech might be your least favorite thing, but it’s crucial to your program.  From microphones to screen sharing and so on, make sure that your tech for every part of your creative business or course is ready to go. Also, ensure that you know how to use it and troubleshoot the main problems without calling in reinforcements.
• Test your tech: Like everything. From the different features to the different ways you can activate or deactivate mics and cameras, and more. Make sure you understand everything about the technology you use. Also, have back-ups of those crucial pieces of hardware—for example, spare cords, spare mics, spare headphones, etc. Get spares so that you’ve got backup solutions ready to go if you need them!
• Prepare all of your logistics. Efficient logistics for systems and processes are all in the planning. There are several ways to automate the logistics process, including marketing, onboarding, program delivery, and offboarding. These systems eliminate the guesswork involved in organizing your client’s experience. Using software and tools to ensure your business is more informed will allow you to refine your processes around the most significant factors impacting your bottom line.
• Have your social media posts and email newsletters are ready to go ahead of time: Since most will rely on social media and its chatter to help get the hype going about your launch, don’t forget to schedule those and have them ready to publish automatically when you want them to. So many people get so focused on the launch date that they forget the need to precede it with some advertising! Make sure you have all your email copies ready to go out to your subscribers too!

If you think you’re ready…

• Test, practice, test some more: In this case, we’re talking, trying, and practicing with everything you have set up. Before you get excited to launch your business, you’ll need to keep the transaction process smooth and the client experience as smooth as possible. Do several dry runs with a friend or family member to help stand in as the customer so that you’ve got all of the glitches worked out. 

Once you work out one round, please do it again and keep doing it until it is consistently problem-free and ready for business launch day!

• Be prepared for last-minute oopsies: Maybe you forgot to do something. Maybe you did something wrong. Maybe there’s one last thing you want to add in. It all happens at the last minute, of course. So, work that in! Be prepared for last-minute problems and mistakes by building in extra time. 

If you want to launch your business by, say, October 15th, plan to be READY to launch by October 10th. That gives you five whole days of “Oh no, I forgot to…”. It helps with the jitters, too!

Bonus tip: take care of yourself.

           Many creative thinkers tend to go into too much detail. Make sure you take some time for yourself that is not related to your business and enjoy it. Make sure that you do self-care so that you feel refreshed and invigorated. Promise, it’s going to make a positive difference in your business’ first few weeks being online!

           The other thing, too, is that this distinction separates small business people from professional people. 

When you want to make sure that you can scale your business to whatever heigh you want, taking care of yourself will be a number one priority to handle its ups and downs confidently. Self-care seriously separates you from your competition. Whether or not that’s a good or terrible thing is entirely up to you.

           So now that you’ve nailed down all of the major and minor details, are you ready to go? If not, get to work and enjoy knowing that you are giving yourself the best possible chances at enjoying success without feeling as though you’re always missing something! That’s a horrible feeling, after all, and it tends to stay with you!