Why You're Still 'Getting Ready' to Launch (And How to Actually Start)
A client I'll call Jess has a beautiful business plan. Colour-coded spreadsheets. A brand guide that would make a design agency jealous. Market research that's more thorough than most university dissertations.
She also has a bank balance that looks exactly the same as it did 18 months ago when she started "getting ready" to launch.
But ask Jess why she hasn't started her wellness coaching business yet, and she'll give you a perfectly reasonable list: "I need to finish my certification, create more content, figure out my pricing strategy, research competitors properly..."
Jess isn't getting ready to launch. Jess is hiding from launching.
And she's not alone.
The Preparation Performance
I see this pattern everywhere: bright, capable people who've turned business preparation into an elaborate performance of being serious and professional.
They research their market until they could write academic papers on customer demographics. They create buyer personas with names, backstories, and favourite coffee orders. They design logos, choose fonts, write mission statements that sound like they were crafted by a management consultancy.
Meanwhile, their competitors – the ones with terrible websites and mediocre ideas – are making money.
Here's what's really happening: You're using preparation as protection.
Every hour spent perfecting your business plan is an hour you don't have to risk someone saying no to your actual offer. Every competitor analysis session is time you can avoid finding out whether people actually want what you're selling.
Research feels productive. Planning feels responsible. But both are just socially acceptable forms of procrastination.
What You're Actually Avoiding
Let's be honest about what you're really scared of.
It's not that your idea isn't good enough – you wouldn't have spent months obsessing over it if you didn't believe in it.
It's not that you don't know your market – you've probably researched it to death.
You're terrified of being visible and failing publicly.
Jess spent 18 months building a business in her head where she was successful, respected, and never had to hear "no thanks." Real business means real rejection. And rejection feels like evidence that you were right to doubt yourself all along.
So you keep planning. Because planning maintains the fantasy.
The Research Trap
Here's another truth: you know more about your competitors than they know about themselves.
You've screenshotted their Instagram posts, analysed their pricing, joined their email lists, maybe even bought their courses. You could probably teach a masterclass on their business model.
But you still haven't launched yours.
This isn't market research. This is comparison dressed up as strategy. And it's keeping you stuck in the most insidious way – it makes you feel like you're working on your business when you're actually avoiding working on your business.
Your competitors aren't your problem. Your inability to tolerate imperfection is your problem.
The Stakes You've Created
The longer you stay in preparation mode, the more impossible launching becomes.
After 18 months of planning, Jess felt like her launch had to justify all that preparation. The pressure was enormous. If she failed now, it wouldn't just be a failed business idea – it would be proof that 18 months of her life had been wasted.
If Jess had launched something simple after 18 days instead of 18 months, failure would have felt like useful feedback. After 18 months of "getting ready," failure felt like personal failure.
This is the trap: the more you prepare, the more you have to lose. And the more you have to lose, the less likely you are to risk losing it.
The Fantasy vs Reality Gap
In your head, your business launch goes like this: You announce your perfectly crafted offer to your carefully researched audience, and they respond with enthusiasm, gratitude, and immediate purchases.
In reality, most people will ignore your announcement entirely. Some will see it and forget about it immediately. A few might think "that's nice" and scroll on. Maybe – maybe – one person will be interested enough to ask a question.
This is normal. This is how all businesses start. This is not evidence that you should have prepared more.
But because you've spent months imagining the perfect launch, reality feels like failure. So you go back to preparing for the fantasy instead of building something real.
How to Actually Start (Without More Preparation)
Stop researching. Stop planning. Stop waiting for readiness that will never come.
Week 1: Accept 'Good Enough'
Choose the simplest version of your business idea. Not the full vision – the version you could launch next month if someone held a gun to your head.
Jess wanted to offer 12-week transformation programmes. I told her to run a 90-minute workshop. One workshop. For real people. For real money.
What's your version of the 90-minute workshop?
Week 2: Price It and Create It
Pick a price that makes you slightly uncomfortable. If it feels too easy, it's probably too low. If it makes you want to hide under your desk, it's probably about right.
Create the thing. Not the perfect version – the version that solves one specific problem for one specific person. You can iterate later. You can't iterate nothing.
Week 3: Find Your First Customer
Not customers. Customer. One person who has the problem you're solving and money to pay for the solution.
This isn't about marketing strategy or social media campaigns. This is about finding one human being who wants what you're offering. Start with people you know. Ask them directly.
Week 4: Do the Thing
Deliver your service. Collect feedback. Notice what worked and what didn't. Resist the urge to disappear back into planning mode.
This is data you can't get from research. This is information you can't find in competitor analysis. This is what actually building a business looks like.
The Questions That Matter
Before you go back to researching and planning, ask yourself these:
What specifically are you afraid will happen if you launch now?
Not vague fears – specific scenarios. Write them down. Most of them are either unlikely or not actually catastrophic.
What's the real cost of waiting another six months?
Not just opportunity cost – what does staying in preparation mode cost your confidence, your momentum, your belief in yourself?
If you had to launch something next week, what would it be?
Your brain will immediately protest that you're not ready. Ignore it. What would you launch?
What are you pretending not to know?
You probably already know if people want what you're offering. You probably already know what to charge. You probably already know how to find customers. What are you pretending you need to research?
The Uncomfortable Truth
You're not going to feel ready. Ever.
Readiness isn't a feeling you achieve through preparation. It's a decision you make despite the fear.
Jess finally ran her workshop eight weeks after our conversation. Four people attended. Her slides had a typo. She forgot to mention the pricing until someone asked. It wasn't the polished presentation she'd planned for 18 months.
But four people paid her money for her expertise. Four people found value in what she offered. Four people gave her feedback that was more useful than 18 months of competitor research.
Six months later, she runs workshops monthly and has a waiting list for her 6-week programme. Not because she finally felt ready – because she decided to start before she was ready.
What are you pretending you need to prepare for?
Your business doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist.
Still stuck in preparation mode? A Clarity Sprint cuts through the analysis paralysis in 90 minutes. No more research. No more planning. Just the real reason you're avoiding launching and what to do about it.
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