One of the decisions you will need to make when deciding to create a planner is how and when to launch it.
There is a very big misperception that the best time to launch and sell planners is around the beginning of the year - November, December, January timeframe.
For a lot of reasons that is actually the most challenging time of the year to launch. Not only can you, and should you, sell your planner all year long, but it is often better to launch your product outside of the busy and highly competitive holiday rush.
Let me share a story with you to illustrate this.
There is an entrepreneur who recently launched a planner for her business and she did pretty much everything I advise people NOT to do when launching their very first planner.
I could see the train wreck coming because I've seen this with many others as well. So what did she do?
- She launched a DATED planner as her very first product
- She marketed and sold that product during the most competitive and costly time of the year - Black Friday/Cyber Monday
- She accepted pre-orders (which I DO recommend) and committed to shipping the product in December with delivery before the new year
Here's what I would have advised her to do if she had been part of my Planner Academy or one of my private clients:
- I would have advised her to go UNDATED for her very 1st product. There are times when dated make sense and I go into if you should create a dated or undated planner in this post, but in her specific case, I would have advised undated because her timeline was too tight and her risk was way too high that she wouldn't be able to deliver the product to her customers before the start of the new year.
- I would have advised her to work with a different printer. I know exactly which printer I would have recommended based on her product. And she would have gotten the product to her customer by the end of the year if she did (plus she could have gotten better pricing and been able to charge less for the planner).
While there were so many things she did right, and in the end she created a really beautiful and amazing planner, unfortunately what most people remember is that they got their product late.
So when is the right time to launch your planner?
The simple answer is as soon as possible.
Avoid the mistake of thinking you can only launch at the end of the year believing that you will sell more products or make higher profits. When launching a brand new product, I find it is usually the opposite because you are trying to market and sell your product during the most competitive, noisy, and costly time of the year.
Want to learn more about the do’s and don’ts of creating a planner?
There’s a lot more I can share with you about the process of creating a Planner, Workbook, or Journal in my free webinar where I cover:
- The top 3 mistakes people make when creating a Planner, Workbook or Journal for their business
- The critical first 3 action steps you need to take to get your Planner, Workbook or Journal created
- How to get it created in the next 90 days
You can sign up to join me here: leanoutmethod.com/webinar
When do you plan to launch your planner?
Comment below.
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
