Read Time: 4min / Work Time: a weekend
Written the old-fashion way, no AI, so expect some mistakes :)

Reader I haven't sent you a note in over a year!

Shamelessly sliding back into your inbox with heartfelt apologies and bunch of fresh new ideas - I hope you stick around.

and in case you are curious, I accepted a Chief Product Officer role in a tech startup last year and my side business 2hr workday got reduced to pretty much none (hence the long hiatus).

But now that we launched the product 🎉 and the job got a little easier, I'm jumping back to help launch, evergreen or build your 'thing'.

The 'Demo-Beta-Full Launch' Strategy

I spent most of last year launching a very complex gaming/trading software and while it is different than any digital product I ever touched, the overall strategy was a home-run I am using for any new business idea.

Launch in phases: Demo, Beta and Full Launch

You can't put on autopilot something that doesn't exist right?! And while launching something new is scary for personal businesses like yours, companies struggle with it the same way.
When I came in, my one mission was to launch it on time. Development was delayed for over an year and they were struggling with the same old launch villains:

• Too many features being added
• Specs changing constantly
• No hard deadlines
• No money constraints (that was nice for a change)

The team worked extra hard but without a 'finish line', the launch was just being postponed over and over again. Sound familiar?

Fix real problems

First thing I did was to spin off a 'demo' site. A super basic version of the main product that we could start marketing and testing.

It took the developers one week to clean up an old version and set it live.

Now we had real, concrete data to work with. Real customers that were using the 'idea' and were going to seed our beta launch even before was ready.

With real users, the dev and marketing teams could laser-focus on real issues to solve. We also got super excited to see thousands of people join the 'crappy' version and couldn't wait to put the real thing out.

The takeaway: Share the main thing you are doing with your ideal people before you get too deep into the bells and whistles. Perfectionism coupled with fear of failure is going to keep you 'busy' and 'launchless' 🙂

Get a way out before you are too deep

The next step was to set a beta launch date. In Launch Plan in a Day I tell you to set the launch date first and then 'fit' in all the tasks that need to be completed in the time between now and launch.
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No surprise the team was not ready to commit to a full blown launch date, so I made it a beta launch. We could stay in 'beta' for as long as it took to finesse the system, but the main offer needed to be out by a certain date.

If you have a beta running, you don't even need to announce a launch date. Keep your cards close to your chest so you can pivot or abandon the project if needed. Despite your best efforts, some ideas are just not worth the trouble...get a way out before you even come in.

Full launch when you are ready to scale

We officially launched when 90% done and had worked through all the major issues, not a day before and used the launch to make a big marketing 'splash'.
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Launching to 'scale' the business deserve its own post so I'll save it for next time (hopefully not an year from now).

and for my skimmers...
Launch a DEMO as soon as possible to gather customer feedback and market fit.
Go into BETA when you have the main features ready.
Only LAUNCH when you are 90% done and ready to scale.

I used this process for courses, agency offers, tech startups and I'm using for my next business investment so give it a try on your next idea.
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and with that my first note to you in over an year is done! I've missed this.

Roberta West
Launch Executive & Investor

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PS: This year I'm using my '2hr/day' to invest in other businesses and real estate here in sunny Florida. I'll share on this newsletter and socials. But if you need a hand with evergreen just reply back...happy to help.
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