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Organising a Successful Company Launch.

I found it both challenging, thrilling, stressful and amazing to have a vision, see it through and finally be at my company launch for my Online business, Ethika Boutique. In hindsight there are many thing I could have done very differently, but I couldn*t find advise that was appropriate for me out there. So if you are thinking of staging your company launch, but don*t know how to go about it, then read on!!!

* First pearl of wisdom. Depending on the type of image you wish to portray, high class products, or cheap items, you need to reflect this company image all the way throughout your launch. This could make your launch very expensive, or cheap!!

* Do you really need a public launch??? What are the benefits of spending money on this launch, and what will you gain by it, after all you do what to generate sales, not put on a festival for people to have fun!!!

* Therefore, make sure you have allotted people, whether from local universities, business courses etc.. to approach people on the day and encourage sales through excellent offers only available for that day.

* Start at least two-three months in advance if possible, you need a lot of time to get in touch with your target market, check out venues, and all the other mad things you'll need to do.

* This may sound obvious, but is your product refined, perfect and ready to go, and do you have enough of a range for people to buy, because if you don*t people make like your company, but not see enough of a range to like anything- which is what I learnt very quickly!

* Try to look at all the other local and national complimentary companies, so for example like me if you*r launching an ethical fashion company, you could invite ethical jewellery companies, shoe shops, hat companies, make-up companies to come and spoil your clients on the day at the same time, life coaches to give your people free sessions, free massages, etc*

* When you do approach companies, it is in their interest to work with you, as they also have the same target market. Ask them if there interested in sharing the cost with you, and having their logo featured with yours when you put up a banner advertising the event, as well as flyers given out running up to the event. Ring the companies up and ask them if they would like to join you to raise their profile and highlight there products in an interactive event to help build their brand further.

* You could also ask local companies to send an email to all their local customer contacts, generally all companies hold a database of contacts, which they could email, or you could possibly invite them to the event, by calling them.

* Does your company have a unique story, have you been through a nightmare getting here, can you feature a presentation that will relate to your companies aims? As I was launching an ethical fashion label, we give 25% of profits towards building an orphanage and supporting earthquake victims in Pakistan, in association with Kyds Foundation. I therefore invited Rafina Ashaq, the founder of Kyds Foundation to come along and show a BBC documentary that had been recorded in Pakistan, as well as inviting women from the social-enterprise sector to speak about how companies can give something back. So you can invite speakers that may be relative to your company and really create an event covering a broad range of topics, and pitch it as an entrepreneur-networking-pampering ladies event, this way you will reach out to more people and have a better turn out.

* Start really early, at least a month in advance and get your event listed with your local chamber of commerce, as a unique Networking event. This is a key move as you will get many more people registering, and looking specifically to go to events to reach more clients. Also look at the everywoman/wire website which will tell you about local networks in your area, ring them up and tell them about your exciting event, and to buy a ticket before they sell out. They can in turn promote the event to all their contacts.

* Try to invite the local newspaper editors, free of charge for a little pampering with the massage person you*ve booked, or for the free yummy desserts you*re serving with tea. Again go to business start-up agencies, like wbda, business link, wire local networks ect.. to find start up businesses that have started up and need also to promote themselves but can also work for free to help you put a great event on!

* Invite a local successful business speaker, look at the chamber of commerce events, or invite marketing experts from wire to give free advise on how to market successfully and get exposure for their products from pr experts, even if you have to pay, you will get far more people coming along.

* How about actually teaming up with a local business networking event, and ask if you can combine forces, to increase the people who will come to the event, which is good for both of you!

* Try to get a local MP to come along and support you on the day. They could use the coverage, and you could ask them to speak for a few minutes in how they like to be involved in supporting local people. Once they are confirmed you must two weeks ahead of the event- when you*ve sold enough tickets contact all the local press in the area and let them know whose coming!!! Look up conservative, labour party websites and look at the MP`s details and send them an official invite, as well as email and calling. I sent an email to Clare Short, which she didn`t take notice of , I then sent a personal letter, of how much I had had to struggle as a Muslim woman in some very difficult political circumstances to get this company set up- We had in Birmingham as a community just experienced Police Raids and felt very insecure- which made it any equally challenging time for me. Unfortunately I had to deal with some very negative attitudes and Clare related to this and agreed to kindly support me! So in this way sometimes a personal story can help.

* Make sure you sell tickets way in advance, and entry by ticket only!!!

* Call as many people as possible when inviting, people actually like a personal voice, rather than an email, which will go straight to their spam and get deleted! Do this from two weeks, calling at least 20-30 people a day. Try to invite your old school/ college teachers especially if your living in the same area still, or try to speak to your child`s teacher and let them know about the event, maybe they`d like to come to an interesting event?


* Also keep the tickets at a price that you`r target market will be happy to buy, i.e *10 each etc* And make sure you sell enough to cover your costs!

* If you don*t sell enough you may consider canceling, there might not be much point of spending a whole lot of money just for 10 people!

* Could you try to organize your launch in a main shopping mall? Phone the shopping mall up, you'll get much better traffic and be possibly tapping right into your target market.

* Another huge lesson, order the flyers 3-4 weeks ahead , and ask other small business for a reliable printer. My printers were very polite, but they were so busy I ended up getting my flyers far too late.

* Another essential point. Make sure you r organize the delivery of your flyers in advance. Search for Flyer distributors, or even approach other small businesses that you have just received flyer from and ask them who they used to give out their flyers. BOOK THEM TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE!!! I unfortunately did not know this and ended up wasting 5,000 flyers as my flyers delivery men refused to do the job and I was then totally stuck!

* Take enough business cards on the day to give out to all the visitors. When visitors arrive take their details, email address, phone, address and send them a thank you note and offers just for them later on.

Company events and launches can help build trust, brand awareness and build credibility, but as you know it may not be as successful in bringing in the sales, which is the key and the lifeblood to your business.

The truth is that you will learn some great lessons about event organization, but don*t feel pressured to organize a launch, it,s very tiring and emotionally draining!!! My moto, if your going to do something, you may as well do it well, or not at all.