It’s no surprise that the creative unicorns of the world end up feeling their hearts being tugged in multiple directions. We creatives have curious minds and a hunger to explore. This often ends up with very passionate, soulful people wearing all the hats and wanting to share all of their various passions with the world.

If this sounds like you, I have good and bad news.

In any service-based business, there's the potential to have what I call - and excuse my language - "client clusterf**ks". Let's call them CCF's for short.

These are those moments in working with a client that make you pull your hair out. You might even regret taking on their project altogether. 

The thing is with most of these CCF's, they're pretty avoidable.

2016 was a weird year for many. Times are changing in the creative business world! The things we have always known to be true about our businesses and about how the world makes their purchasing decisions are giving way to new truths. Those that previously relied on Facebook for organic content most likely began to divert their focus to Instagram & Pinterest or paid Facebook ads. You might have found yourself between different markets and struggling to maintain your brand voice amidst new challenges. Others experienced new, unfamiliar booking trends with potential clients.

Needless to say, many entrepreneurs finished the year feeling stuck. 

You've hired the designer. Spent hours honing in on your vision and collecting inspiration. You've established your target audience and set up a game plan on how your new brand voice will attract them.

Then it's launch day. Now what?

So many people take all the right steps in the launch process until the actual launch itself! The last thing you want is for your hype to fizzle out or - even worse - never have hype to begin with! Here's how you can make sure your brand launch or re-launch is successful...

Working for yourself can make for some long and lonely days. It's super isolating to have to be the sole brain and life force behind your business, yet rewarding at the same time. You make decisions by yourself all day long, with nobody around to free you from that tunnel vision. 

If you're sick of going at it alone, this is where mastermind groups come in.

If you're like me and happen to be a huge beauty addict, you've probably had your eye on one of Kylie Jenner's lip kits, but debated whether it's worth the hype. Jenner slayed the first launch of the product, with the first round selling out in under a minute. I ended up grabbing Candy K (#sorrynotsorry) when it launched again the second time. All six shades sold out in about 20 minutes that round. Since then, Kylie's micro-launches and restocks have continuously been quick to sell out.

The whole ordeal got me thinking a lot about how on point their marketing strategy is for this product, and how we can apply similar concepts to small businesses launches.