I ran across a recent newsletter sent out by Nesha of Nesha Designs not long ago where she shared a few things she learned after launching her new Shelancers course. I was inspired and felt that sharing my personal experience of a course I created that failed.

Back in 2013, roughly a year after I started working my design business full time, I put together a course for bloggers who wanted to learn how to design their own blogs from scratch. I figured I had plenty of experience to take the leap into sharing all the things I've learned during my time of building blogs and so forth and wanted others to know how too.

I had never created a course that would require me to be available to an actual "class" so needless to say, yes I was super nervous. I laid out a plan of what I would share, I recorded a few videos, created downloads, and even hosted a giveaway to allow a few people to take the course for free. The launch ended sadly... but I learned a few things that taught me what to do better next time.


A few great things happened though:

• The sign-ups went above my expectations.
• My audience was on point and wanted the info! 
• People were engaged and spreading the word.

4 Things I Learned After My First Course Launch Failed

1. HIRE A GREAT TEAM
This was my very first mistake. Again, I was only a year into running a business so my "recruit" skills weren't super sharp. I hired two interns to help me keep the course afloat, respond to emails, and keep the schedule live!

The problem with them though was they failed to contact me when things got out of control. If someone emailed them about an issue - I was the last to know until it was too late. None of what they did made any sense but it was my own fault for leaving even the small things to them expecting "teamwork".

2. BAD THINGS HAPPEN
I guess I thought I had my life together and that my course would be worthy and great. I didn't have the best "flow" in place. I figured that if I could record trainings in advance and then record more as I went along that it would work out.

Nope. Things happen in real life and in my case - not really factoring in the "what ifs" of life was a fail on my end. Not only that but I had major technical issues throughout the course. No bueno. Needless to say, I'm sure I lost some credibility with a few people who expected more out of me.

3. STREAMLINE EVERYTHING
This is one lesson that has stood out most and allowed me to do the same throughout the process of building my business. I love order and I'm sure order was expected of me. I was super embarrassed when I had to send out emails to my sign ups letting them know things had to be postponed and such. Like... I wanted to just go rock myself in a dark corner.

From this experience, having things in order especially for "bad days" could have saved me so much time. Things will be much better next go 'round.

4. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, TRY AGAIN
It's understood that we fail at many things in order to learn from them. I felt I created a great product but I also learned that sometimes, that's not enough. I didn't allow this failure to hinder me from continuing to excel in my business so since 2013 - I've been working to create an even better course. I'll be sharing more on it in the next few months but I have 100 times more confidence in myself.