The Key to Hacking Your ‘Lollygagger’s Launch Syndrome’
Last week, at an event, I met a woman named Caroline. We started talking, and she told me that she had started her business four months ago.
She was starting to worry because she was quickly burning through the money she’d set aside to get her business off the ground – and she didn’t know what to do.
So I asked her, “Well, what have you been doing over the last four months?” And she said, “I’ve been getting ready to launch.”
When I asked her what kinds of activities she had been working on in preparation for her launch, she started to check items off on her fingers.
“Well,” she said, “I’ve been working on my website. I wrote a free gift. I got a logo. I got my colors figured out. I organized my files for new clients who were coming in, and I got a contract worked out.”
I said, “Caroline, that’s amazing. But what will happen if, after you get your first client, you decide that you want to change your niche or your target audience?”
And she said, “Well, I don’t know.”
This is what I mean by “Lollygagger’s Launch Syndrome.”
We tend to think about launching our businesses like opening a store. If you were preparing for the grand opening of your store, you’d want everything to look perfect, right down to the angle of every shelf.
But what’s important to realize is that a store is a product business – which means people judge the product (and therefore the business) by its appearance. But your business – if you’re doing coaching, healing, or any kind of service – is a service business.
A service business is very different from a product business because – especially when you’re launching – there’s what I call the experimental phase.
It’s the time when you’re just getting to know your clients, discovering their needs, and observing what you like talking about and what problems you’re solving.
It’s not going to serve you to spend four months beautifying your business without bringing in any clients. The first step to rolling out a multi-figure service business is getting your first client.
Your clients are going to be your greatest teachers.
Your clients will tell you what the wording on your website should be. What free gifts to offer. What needs to be in your contract, what handouts need to be created.
Your clients will help you build the airplane as you’re flying it. In fact, if you don’t get a client immediately, you’re going to end up with a fuel leak in your plane. You’ll lose time and you’ll lose energy – I guarantee it.
So if you’re preparing to launch a business, my invitation to you this week is to get your plane off the runway: start doing sales conversations, with the goal to start acquiring clients within the first 14 to 30 days of starting your business.
Sure – you could spend another hour poring over HTML color codes. Or, you could stop lollygagging and start ascending.
Overwhelmed? Join the club – almost every entrepreneur I meet talks about overwhelm. If you are wondering how to manage it and stop feeling like you are drowning – please join us!
