A saying that really hit a chord with me years ago was one from the Co-Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman. He said If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product you’ve launched too late!

Can you relate to this? Are you holding on to an idea that you just haven’t been able to give legs? Why? Let me guess … you are saying:

• I just have to fix this area up first
• I need to add some more content first
• I need my husband/wife/partner to review it first
• I should include something for free or download, so I’ll do that first
• I’ve changed my mind about this part, so I’m going to remove it/add it/move it

I’ve heard all of the reasons or excuses! I know, because I’ve come up with them too.

But that was in the past. I know now that I just have to get something out there. It’s like this News Article and the associated social post I will do with it. I could have come up with all sorts of excuses not to do this – time, spelling, layout, will people be interested, and so on. Yes, they will be interested! People, your customers relate to real people. People that have had their own challenges.

I was speaking to a lady at an event a couple of years ago and she had outsourced the build of her website. She hadn’t gone Live with it yet, because SHE was making changes to it – from what the experts had put together! She was spending hours, days, and weeks working on her website because she wanted it just right. I asked her ‘how do you know when it’s just right?’ ‘how do you know what your customers want?’ ‘how do you know whether your customers will be able to follow what’s on your website?’ She didn’t know! The only way to know is to let them use it. You will soon understand the REAL changes needed by:

• the questions your customers ask – this means they didn’t understand what was being communicated on the website OR
• by the feedback, our customers are providing during or after a sale

This is truly the GOLD that we are looking for to make our product that little bit better each time. Now, I used a website as an example here, which is really the gateway to your product. But the same goes for your products or services.

For example, I write training courses.

Am I embarrassed by the first ones we put out Live? Of course I am! But, the difference is that I just put them out there.

Did people buy them? Absolutely!

Did people love them? Absolutely!

Did they give feedback? Absolutely!

And now that feedback goes into that continual improvement loop.

Just get it out there! Another roadblock I’ve seen in my years of working with businesses is that they wait to build an entire program before launching. I always ask, can you build it in blocks or modules and then release it module by module? You then can sell individual modules as you go. Once you’ve got all of them developed (with the added bonus of IMPROVEMENT from feedback because you actually launched something), you can then sell the entire program with all the modules in it. The tested and improved program!

You not only managed to release a product and sell something along the way, but you created multiple products from one program. That is working smart.

So, if you need help to get your business, idea, product, or system off the ground, let me know because I’m really good at supporting you to get things done in small chunks. I can take the stress of the big picture away so you can focus step by step on getting YOU and your product out there.