Hello, amazing entrepreneur.  It's Tash Corbin here and welcome to another episode of the Heart Centred Business Podcast. This is episode number 209, which means all the relevant links and show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/209.

In today's episode, we're going to answer the question ‘Can launching ruin your business?’  And the answer is actually yes.

But here's how to tell whether it's going to ruin your business specifically.  Let's jump on in!

It can be so alluring to leap into selling group programs, courses, memberships, and doing big launches…

We hear things like “stop trading dollars for hours,” and there's so much messaging out there that tells us the only way to scale your business is to do big launches, sell group programs, use high ticket sales amounts, or invest tens of thousands of dollars in Facebook ads to get really high numbers of people joining your programs.

The sad truth is that while it can be really fun and exciting - and launching is one of my favorite things to do - for many businesses, it can also be very derailing.

For some people it has actually marked the end of their business.

One failed launch has put them at the point where they need to go back and get a job or find other means of supporting themselves financially, because the launch wasn't successful enough to sustain their business.

We want to make sure that your business is ready for launching, to ensure that it's not going to ruin your business. And I know I'm using very specific and direct language here. But I have seen way too many women go from having a “sort of” sustainable business income to completely decimating themselves financially, all by leaping into launches way too soon.

I want you to make sure you are feeling very confident that launching is going to be the right decision for your business, and that your business will be able to survive the launch process as well.

Here are four key things I think you need in order to be ready to launch and if you don't have them specifically, some backups you might be able to have instead.

1. Your business needs to be financially viable, even if the launch flops.

One example I have is from a person who wasn't a client of mine, but I knew her in the online space. She was making 3 to $4,000 a month by selling her VIP services. And she really wanted to launch a $2,000 group program course, similar to what the “big names” are doing out there.

She had hired a launch specialist for four and a half thousand dollars, and they had come up with a launch budget of $15,000.  So they were going to spend $15,000 on Facebook ads management as well as the setup of the online course and all of the copywriting and editing for professional videos - a proper big launch.

Sadly, only three months later, that beautiful friend of mine had a $20,000 credit card debt and no income in her business. She no longer had any VIP clients because she had spent so long selling her group program.  After investing all of that money and time, even with a launch specialist working with her, she only made four sales of her program, which was $8,000 - not enough to recoop even the slightest part of her costs.

She then had to go back to working in her regular job while supporting those four clients through a group program that was designed to have 50 to 100 clients in it.

So you really want to make sure that your business will still be financially viable, even if that first launch doesn't go to plan.  I always recommend that you don't invest more than you can afford - I really don't recommend going into debt for launching.

I know so