Launches are a stressful, yet necessary part of many online businesses.

Whether you’re reviving an old program or coming out with a new product, launching an offering to your audience takes time, patience and the ability to make a lot of quick decisions.

Even the most seasoned business owners can make mistakes. And in my 10 years of working within the digital marketplace, there are three mishaps I see more often than others.

3 Common launch mistakes and how to avoid them

#1 Assuming that you don’t have to do any kind of prep.

During a launch, we tend to focus on the money we need to make and the amount of people we need to get in front of. We’ve got these specific, numerical milestones in our brains we’ve heard from other courses, colleagues, and coaches that are arbitrary at best.

And yet, we get so hyper-focused on those numbers that we ignore the action steps that are actually going to get people to buy. We forget to do Facebook Lives, talk about the launch in our weekly emails, and invite people to join us.

Focusing too much on the numbers doesn’t serve you well. Remember to make time for the steps that will help your launch be a true success.

#2 Focusing too much on the sales page and sales language.

When we get caught up in all the persuasive and hard-hitting sales copy, we tend to forget that after the launch we have a real product to deliver. Time and time again I’ve seen entrepreneurs selling products that don’t have a delivery email or include outdated information and broken links.

So make time to go over your product and make sure it’s 100% ready BEFORE you launch it. You’ll thank me later.

#3 Attempting to short-circuit your own timeline.

Now, that’s not to say that you can’t launch sooner than expected. If your ducks are all in a row and they’re walking nicely (and not turning into crazy squirrels), go to town! Launch immediately.

But — if there are still things you still need to test, beta people to find or coding to be done, hold off. Don’t launch before you’re ready just because you have some arbitrary number or date in your head.

Jumping ahead is not a great idea. You’ll end up with a lot of frustration, exhaustion and long hours.

And personally, I just think that’s no way to do business.