Nearly every coach I talk to has aspirations of launching a course or membership programme online. And it’s not surprising considering there are so many business “gurus” out there proclaiming the benefits of running them.

And do you know what?

Those gurus are right.

Courses and memberships are a great way to scale your impact.

And as a coach, you should definitely have it on your agenda.

But before you rush in, there are a few things you need to know first.

 

3 things you need to know before launching a course.

1 – Creating a course or membership takes time

Yes. You can save yourself a lot of 1-1 calls by working with a group or turning a concept into a piece of DIY content. But the preparation involved in documenting, publishing and sharing that concept ALWAYS takes a lot more time than you think it will.


2 – Creating a members area isn’t as easy as installing a plugin

There are multiple WordPress plugins designed to make building a course or members area easier. But building a members area is about so much more than installing a plugin.

You need to consider:

  • Navigation
  • Course progression
  • Dashboard
  • Page design
  • Payments

And a lot more besides.

And unless you’re a technical whizz with the time and energy to throw at it yourself, you’re going to need a team on hand to get all this set up for you.


3 – The success of your launch will be directly proportional to the size of your audience

Having a course or members area doesn’t mean people will buy it.

Trust me, I once spent three months building a course and ended up with one buyer! ?

If you don’t have a large email list already, then I highly recommend you spend a year focusing on list building before you even consider launching a course or members area.

That means building a marketing funnel BEFORE building a programme.

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If you keep those things in mind, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t start planning your course or membership now.

But better to go into these things with your eyes wide open, don’t you think?