The year I quit launching and started selling my course on autopilot was the year I finally crossed the million dollar mark. I don’t think it ever would have happened if I kept launching.
The most important lesson I’ve learned in business is that there’s more than one right way to do something.
So, if you love launching – great! But, if you’re like me and many other course creators – just the idea of it makes your skin crawl.
Today, I’m sharing the three reasons WHY I quit launching my course forever because you deserve to know the truth about why myself and so many other course creators are trading our high-risk launches for consistent, predictable revenue month after month.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
When it comes to selling online courses, there are two main business models – launching and evergreen.
A launch model allows people to enroll in your course once it twice per year. But, with evergreen you have new people entering your sales cycle and buying your course each day.
Let me explain.
Launching typically requires 2-3 months of intense list building and constant content distribution leading up to what’s called an open cart.
Open cart is the period of time when you are allowing people to enroll in your course. It can last anywhere from 5-7 days. Then nobody can buy until your next launch, which is maybe 4 mos or a year later.
What many course creators find is that when their launch ends, so does ALL the momentum they worked so hard to generate. And it’s radio silence for your business until the launch cycle begins all over again.
This is a very high risk way of selling your course. Especially for course creators making less than $1m/year with a tiny team (or no team at all) and a non-existent ads budget.
If your course is generating LESS than $1m/year, the number one thing you need to focus on is generating consistent revenue so you can start to get some real traction in your business.
An evergreen model allows you to enroll new students into your programs on an ongoing basis, not just a couple times a year – which is great because it puts you in a position where you can grow over time.
You can continue to collect data on what marketing messages are resonating with your audience and which need to be refined. You have more opportunities to practice and get better.
If you’re like me, then you were likely taught that launching is the ONLY way to grow an online course business.
This was the episode I needed to hear when I was stuck in the Struggling Course Creator cycle all those years ago and my hope is that today you walk away with the knowledge that there IS another way to sell your course, make lots of money, and create the impact you want in the world.
Here are 3 reasons why I quit launching my course forever and started selling my course on autopilot.
1. I wanted more time freedom.
Most course creators making less than $1m per year DO NOT have a big team – I know I didn’t all those years ago. I was doing the vast majority of things myself and if you’re listening right now, you probably do, too.
Selling my course on autopilot meant I could stop doing time-consuming launches and sales calls – which freed up a ton of my time.
It also gave me flexibility.
I didn’t have to miss out on recitals, competitions, or impromptu get togethers for my daughter because I built a system that could generate sales with or without me.
So, whether I was hanging out at a family BBQ, going on an impromptu getaway with my husband, or volunteering as a chaperone at my daughter’s field trip – my business was making money.
Selling my course on autopilot gave me the freedom to develop sales and marketing SYSTEMS that ran on their own to generate leads and sales 24/7. This was a much more sustainable approach than putting all my eggs in one basket with a high-pressure, high-risk promotion once or twice a year.
2. I wanted more money.
When I was launching my course all the time, I was nowhere near the big revenue goals I set out for myself. In fact, my revenue was just plain stuck and no matter how much money I spent on ads I could not build any momentum.
And that’s one of my biggest gripes with launching. You work so hard to build even a little bit of momentum, and then the launch ends – and so does all the excitement and interest that you created for your course.
Then, it’s radio silence until the whole launch cycle begins again.
One of my friends once told me that if all my revenue was dependent on my next big launch, I wasn’t running a business, I was running a promotion and he was RIGHT.
Once I made the switch to selling my course on autopilot, I was able to generate $1m in just 9 months. I’m not saying that’s normal, but it happened.
Running your own business is hard, but adding in a predictable stream of revenue – like selling an online course on auto-pilot, makes things a lot easier.
3. I knew one person who had done it before.
Knowing ONE person who had made over $1m from selling one course on autopilot was enough evidence for me to know that it was also possible for me.
Our courses were different, but the sales process was the same.
That’s what makes our Profitable Sales Engine™ so powerful, whether your course is about parenting, dating, marketing, guitar playing, yoga, finance, or watercolor – you can still sell your course on autopilot.
Imagine where I’d be if I focused on all the people who told me I couldn’t do it, or that it would never work? Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. I thought I could, so I did.
I’m not saying it was easy, but it was doable. It took me a couple weeks to build out my Profitable Sales Engine™, but it was time well spent.
Because each month thereafter I was able to improve upon my results from the month before and by the end of that year I’d made over $1m just from selling one course.
I don’t believe in overnight success, but when you are making tiny tweaks consistently overtime to improve your results – those tiny tweaks add up…and before you know it you’ve doubled, tripled, or even 10xed your revenue.
So, these are my top three reasons for making the switch from launching to selling on auto-pilot:
- I wanted more time freedom.
- I wanted to make more money.
- I knew at least one person had done it before, which meant it was possible for me to do the same.
Maybe your reasons are different or maybe they’re the same, but if there’s one thing I want you to take away from this episode it’s that making $1m from selling one course on autopilot is doable.
It might not be easy (if it was then EVERYONE would do it), but it’s possible – especially if you’re following a proven system from someone who has done it before.
I appreciate you being here and join me next time for another episode of Scale With Success® – The Podcast.
Are you sick and tired of launching and looking for a proven method to generate consistent revenue from your online course on auto-pilot?
Sign up for my free masterclass, “How To Generate Launch-Sized Revenue Without Launching” and I’ll show you how our clients are making MORE money in LESS time than they ever did while launching.
If making sales everyday in a way that is completely automated and doesn’t require paid advertising sounds good to you, then click the link around this episode and sign up for my free masterclass today.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Scale With Success® Accelerator — an online course designed to help you generate launch-sized revenue without lanching. If you want to learn MORE about our proven method for success, click here to watch my free masterclass. See you in there!
