One of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make for your online store is when to launch.
It’s human nature to want everything to be perfect. But is that your best strategy?
Guy Kawasaki – way back in his early Apple days – used to have this phrase – ready, fire, aim.
It’s stuck with me for years.
Some think a ready-fire-aim approach must be intrinsically wrong, launching before you know exactly where you are heading.
But once you’ve seen a lot of sites launch, the huge value of launching and then refining becomes apparent.
Unless you’ve done it before, you won’t understand how your online store works until you’ve launched it and lived with it. You need to get a feel for pricing your products, talking to customers, shipping to the world. And that feel only comes from doing.
One of the advantages of a fast launch strategy is getting to understand what running an online store is really about.
Launch with your minimum viable set of products, and make sure you include what you think will be some of your best sellers. Add more products after you’ve launched, and as you learn how it really works.
Start talking with the world, through your website and social media. You won’t understand how this will work for you until you do it.
Launching also creates a momentum of its own.
As Goethe says
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”