A Tip for Millennial Entrepreneurs – Launch and Learn

    When is the right time to launch a new product or service? How about tomorrow? How about today?It doesn’t matter how many great ideas we have if we don’t take action.

    Launch – Test Your Creation

    One of the major payoffs for not launching today is that you can’t lose face today. Untested, your idea can remain brilliant and a work of genius and you get to sleep like a baby for another night.

    Not launching comfortably avoids the possibility of the agonizing realization that what you’re trying to do isn’t going to work the way you thought it would and that nobody likes it, not even you.

    Thousands of innovative products and useful services fail every day, however, because they were never launched.

    By launching, however, you get to see how your product or service fares in the real world. In addition to a few embarrassing problems, you can discover opportunities that would have passed you by if you hadn’t had the courage to get out there.

    It can be helpful if you see your product or service launch as the first in a series of launches in which you alter, adapt, and otherwise improve your offering.

    Learn As You Go

    Treat your business as a journey, during which – step by successful step – you move towards your goals.

    You’ll probably find that your goals change as you progress. You might decide to achieve something different. You might realize that you set your goals to short.

    One of the best ways to do learn is by doing. You can learn a hell of a lot by getting your product, app, service, or whatever it is in front of people.

    But are you worried that the thing you’ve created isn’t quite right? Is your email list too small to do much good? Are you suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ and believe that you have no right to be doing this after all?

    These feelings are felt by entrepreneurs every day all over the world. The successful ones don’t let these feelings stop them.

    Don’t let fear of failure hold you back. If you’re going to fail, please let it be because something you did sucked, not because you were too afraid to launch. Sucking isn’t a tragedy; it’s an often overlooked part of the entrepreneurial learning process.

    Improve Your Offering

    “Congratulations! You’ve failed!”

    This is not something we hear often, but if you have launched and failed, you will have benefited in a way that many potential entrepreneurs never do.

    If your product or service doesn’t crash and burn, however, don’t worry. You can still learn from watching public reaction and monitoring the actual performance of your business idea. This real-life experience is golden. It’s the perfect time to make your product or service even better.

    The most successful companies innovate constantly. Keep looking for ways to improve what you are doing. The best way to do this is when your product or service is live, not sipping cocktails from the safety of a hammock carabiner, dreaming about a launch date.

    Do it Now

    Failure due to not showing up is a tragedy. It’s a tragedy with a shrug, which is perhaps the worst kind for anyone who would like to consider themselves an entrepreneur.

    When people start talking about your product or service’s unfulfilled potential, doesn’t it start to sound like the saddest part of an obituary?

    So, go ahead and write to your email list. Nurturing one connection is better than doing nothing.

    Publish your website. If you think that it’s not as good as it could be, you’re right – it never will be, which is why success is a journey, not a destination.

    According to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

    So launch.

    Launch, learn, and evolve like a true entrepreneur.

    This article is by guest author Chris Hornak, who has been developing digital marketing campaigns for over a decade. He is the CEO and Owner of Blog Hands a service that helps businesses and agencies develop content to tell their story. In his spare time, he loves to play video games and spend time with his friends and family.

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    • Tom La Vecchia

      Founder of New Theory & X Factor Media

      Founder and Publisher of New Theory Magazine and Podcast. Serial Entrepreneur who loves wine, cigars and anything that allows to people to connect and share experiences.

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