Too many women think the first goal in launching an online course is six figures. Even five figure launches are going to be a stretch for most people on their first attempt.
This advice will be very disappointing for some
The messaging around online courses is still “create a course and make millions sitting on your butt”. It isn’t going to happen that way. Women who think an online business is a fast track to instant money are in the wrong the business. In fact, there isn’t a business like that. If there was everyone (including me) would be doing it.
It breaks my heart to see amazing women with courses that really make an impact set the wrong goals for their first launch. When they don’t reach the goal they give up. Your first goal is not to make bucket loads of cash…
Your first goal should be break-even
Your first goal when you launch your course should be break even or a little better. That means if you spend $500 your goal should be to make $500 to $1500. Not $25,000!
If you can break even you have something to work with. You have numbers that you can look at to decide what you need to improve next time to work towards your goal.
Launching a course will most likely require you to invest some money in marketing. If you set your goal to spend $200 and make one sale at $197 you haven’t made a big profit but you haven’t wasted money either. When you make back your money you can then focus on spending $200 to make $394, now you have a profit!
Break-even is proof of concept
I have made losses on some of my launches and still celebrated like I had won the lotto. Yes, I might have spent more than I made but when you’re testing out a new idea making a sale should be a reason to celebrate. If one person wants your course (and it isn’t your mum) then there are most likely thousands of others just like them. Your challenge is now to find where they hang out online and get in front of them.
This is how you build a long term sustainable online business that grows each and every year. This is how you get known as the expert in your industry.
Launch results are relatively easy to predict
There should be no mystery when you launch as to how much you’re going to make. If you have 100 people to launch a $197 course to and you’re expecting $10K in sales it isn’t going to happen. You would need over 50% of people to buy. The real figure is closer to 2%. If you made 1 to 2 sales you should be popping the champagne and lighting the sparklers. You’re on to something!
But I need the money!
Urughhh….. If I had a dollar for every time I saw that comment written in Facebook Groups. Saying “I need to have a $10K launch because we need to move house/are going on holidays/have big bills coming in/want a new car… etc… has zero relevance to actual launch figures. As I said, launch results are predictable and are not tied to your financial needs.
And if you’re thinking right now “I will just manifest a successful launch” you’re really going to be disappointed. The numbers are the numbers. A positive mindset and manifesting will support your launch success when you’re also taking action, but it won’t magically take over and do all the work for you.
You can’t choose a sale figure and say “I want that” if you haven’t figured out what you need to do to get that. How many subscribers do you need? How much will you be able to pay per lead? What do you need your sales page to convert at? These are the question that will help you figure out what you’re going to be able to achieve.
Constant launching will burn you out
A big mistake I see women make is constantly launching instead of slowing down, correcting the mistakes, making improvements then relaunching. They throw out their first offering with crazy goals not based on numbers and when they don’t make a dump load of cash they move on to the launching the next idea.
That is an exhausting and wasteful way to run an online course business. *If you’re a member of Create Your First Online Course you will have tested your course idea first, and aligned your launch goals with real numbers!
Yeah… but this will take time won’t it?
Sure will! I tell clients all the time that this online business is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want long term success then expect it to take time.
An online business is like any other type of business, it takes time to learn and time to build. The people who do really well quickly often are not able to sustain their success because they haven’t learned the basics along the way.
What would you prefer? Slow to build with longevity or fast to make money and quick to implode?