Written by: Leyla Razeghi, Ind Eng, MBA Strategy, Strategy Consultant and Coach, Toronto, ON 

As a product entrepreneur, you might have several ideas of offerings for your launch. The biggest mistake that I see small, product-based businesses do is to over launch. I may be making up this word right now, so I will explain what I mean:

I’m sure you have 100 ideas for new items to launch in your head. There are so many amazing things that you can make and people will love them all, right?

I have seen companies launch 15 different products in year one, not because they have carefully planned them, but because it sounds like a “good idea” or they want to appear big right away. Doing too much on your business right away might become overwhelming and will make corrections a lot harder to make.

Maybe you haven’t launched yet, and you’re wondering if you should make a whole line of product, or maybe you’ve been in business for a few years and you have heard many customers give you suggestions on what new products you can come up with. I mean, it can be very tempting to expand your line when a customer gives you an idea and promises that they’ll buy it.

When you launch a business, you might also fear that by starting small (with not that many products or that many clients) you might look unprofessional or people won’t trust you.

I am here to tell you that neither of these reasons are good enough to expand your product line. The reality is that your clients can wait until you are ready to properly launch that new item, and that as long as you offer high quality products and a great customer service, your business being small shouldn’t be a factor that would make potential customers decide against buying from you.

In theory, you might have interest from people, but over launching is the same as trying to run before you learn to walk.

Here are three things to consider before launching a ton of things at the same time:

  1. Your capacity: Are you able to properly research customer’s needs in order to design a new item? Will you be able to properly manage and launch many items at the same time?
  2. Overwhelming people: A confused mind doesn’t buy, and when you are trying to make a name for yourself and increase brand awareness, it’s better to be known for one thing that you do really well. Are you giving them too many choices, when they may not even know you yet?
  3. Testing: Each new product requires testing and revisions. Mistakes are truly a part of business, you are meant to plan, launch and test, over and over again. You might be committing to testing too many things at the same time, and in this process, you might need to do corrections. It is easier to figure out what went wrong or what can improve when you launch fewer items at a time.

Remember that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, as a small business you have the ability to properly serve a small niche in the market that really needs what you have and offer products that are limited and exclusive, and that’s your power.

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