I didn’t have a 5 figure product launch and I’m bragging anyway

Published in

portable biz

6 min readMar 3, 2017

I’m a bit tired of the posts I see in Facebook about huge launch success stories (I have been, for a very long time), and I know I’m not alone.

Every time I see a 5 figure product launch post, part of me shrinks back a little more. Not because I don’t admire them for doing such a great job (I do)

Not because I don’t think it’s possible for me to do the same thing (I know I can)

But, because I don’t want to. Yet, reading their stories somehow makes me think I “should” want a 5–6 figure launch, because it’s what everyone else is doing.

Here’s the deal… I’ve seen the behind the scenes of many of those launches. I’ve even had launches with 170 plus sales in a week… And, filled a program with 25 people in 72 hours. I know all of that’s “do-able”.

Besides, a lot of “big brag launches” don’t really add up….

This post looks better on my blog… there’s graphs and images that didn’t convert to medium.. feel free to click through

Originally published at http://loraleehutton.com/i-didnt-have-5-figure-product-launch/2017/03/03/ on March 3, 2017.

Not all 5 or 6 figure product launches are profitable

Big launches are stressful. They require a lot of moving parts, a team (upfront costs) and a lot of faith that your product is going to make to market at the right time. You’d be surprised how many product launches (even the ones with “big brags”) didn’t do much but break even. Certainly not compensating the creator for the 3 months they weren’t taking on client work prior to the launch, or the 3 months after, when she’ll be delivering live course content, or coaching VIP clients.

I’d much rather create a passive (or semi-passive) income stream, with a low profile launch… I prefer a regular income stream… And, I guess I just don’t enjoy the big launch approach.

I’ll give you a few of the behind the scenes numbers later, without naming names, or shaming anyone. Just to give you some awareness about what can be happening. And, maybe to challenge some of the entrepreneurs out there who are contributing to the “number shaming”. (even if they don’t realize it) But first, let me tell you about my launch.

My launch, was so small, no one out side of my current sphere of influence would have heard about it.
My launch didn’t need a support team and launch manager.
My launch didn’t need an advanced marketing strategy with 6 blog posts, guest posts, and interviews.
My launch didn’t take 6–12 weeks to execute.
My launch didn’t cost a fortune.
My launch, was profitable (95%)

And I’m completely okay with it… absolutely cool about it.

I earn income from other sources (Portable Biz Club membership, affiliate revenue, etc) so this extra bump is a welcome bonus.

side note: I had a weird glitch the day after the sale (really, not deliberate). I stayed up until 12:30 to make sure I was available to answer questions for last minute visitors, and then set the sale to end.

The coupon codes had clear instruction that said they would expire at 12:01 date I chose (in this case, the 22nd) and I assumed the sale settings would work the same — I was wrong …. so more sales trickled in the next morning… of which I’m grateful.

If you’re curious, here’s a link to the digital product.

And I rounded off the sale with $517.50

That’s 15 Customer Sales in Total

13% came from my main list
87% came from subscriberes who are on one of my smaller email lists (440 people)
20% came directly after answering questions in live website chat
3 people signed up for the free portable biz club, who weren’t on my list before, but clicked through from social media to the bundle, and then clicked through to my free stuff
1 person remembered that she had free course coupons, and ordered a course (that’s why it says 16 orders, instead of 15 — one was for $0.00)
One person figured out a way to use coupon codes she’d saved up, and purchased the bundle, plus one other course, for $2.98 (very clever — I admire her in a way)…

Remember my promise to look at big launches?

I promised to share with you some examples of launches I’ve seen behind the scenes, where they were “bragging” in social media, but behind the scenes, things didn’t add up….

Let’s get started with our first example, “Janet Launcher”

(this obviously isn’t her real name, and she didn’t really launch this past week — it’s just an example, like a fictional character inspired by stories)

I had a 6 Figure Launch this past week…. Here’s what you don’t know… ~Janet Launcher

“My profit, after paying advertising costs, my product launch manager, customer support team, affiliates commission, and money set aside for taxes, was $53,100. I have a 20,000 loan to pay off as well”

The math: $53,100 -20,000 = 33,100 ÷ 9 months (6 before, 3 after) = $3678/month
Although this might be a good income for many people, it’s far less than she was earning when she left her corporate job. And not at all what she was hoping to earn in her business.

Now, onto to Maggie Smart… (also made up…she’s a fictional character, inspired by real life behind the scenes stories

Yesterday my 5 figure launch closed it’s door. I’m so proud. ~Maggie Smart

“My profit, after paying advertising costs, my product launch manager, web designer, and money set aside for taxes, was $11,200”

The math: $11,200 ÷ 6 months (3 before, 3 after) = $1867/month.
She will probably need to take on other work during the delivery of her current program.

The bottom line (for me) is that I would much rather put together a quick launch (less than a month upfront) with much less risk and possibly a smaller front end reward, but much higher profit margin. Obviously, not all product launches work out the way I described above. There are many (especially the ones that are in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year) see large profits. And, it would be so nice to see those people sharing their wisdom about profitable launches, instead of seeing total sales.

So, I’m celebrating my small launch

I’m celebrating that I was able to pull together an awesome digital product in about a week. Something that I can sell “forever” (yes, that’s a relative term in the online info product world).
I’m celebrating that this product is really passive. I probably won’t need to update it much, even for years to come, because it’s not time sensitive (or software sensitive).
I’m celebrating those 15 new customers, and what it means that they’ve put their trust in me.
I’m celebrating that my costs were less than $50 (I’ll tell you more about this in part 2 of this blog post)
And I’m celebrating the extra money in my bank account.

Come back next week to read the behind the scenes story of how I put the deal together (idea generation and technology).

And the following week to see what I did to market the product (like I said before, not much) and what I learned in the process, for next time.

Next week:

The Technology and workflow for this small product launch
The Marketing and promotion I did for this small launch