Concept
The launch
The launch is opening as an event rather than leaving a door quietly ajar: a date, a limited first batch and a reason to act now, sent to the people you have already talked to. It ends with the first paying customer, which is when an idea becomes a business.
A business that opens quietly and waits is asking every customer to be the first, and almost nobody wants to be. Guillebeau's founders announced, took pre-orders, delivered and asked for the referral within the same week. The launch does not need an audience; it needs the ten people from the customer conversations and a message that says this is real, this is the price, this is when. The limit is not a trick: a first batch of five documents or twelve loaves is genuinely all a new business can deliver well, and saying so gives the customer permission to act. The milestone is a payment, not an agreement; until money has moved it is a plan.
A real-life example
A translator sends her ten former clients a message: legal documents under twenty pages, back in 48 hours, fixed fee, five slots in the first week, starting Monday. Four book. The first pays on the Tuesday, and the service is a business.
How to use it
- 1Set a date and a limit for the first batch that you can genuinely deliver well.
- 2Send the launch message to the people you have already talked to, not to strangers.
- 3Deliver, then ask for the referral in the same week.