Today we’d like to introduce you to Kara Laws.
Hi Kara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Kara Laws and I am the CEO and owner of a company called Launched.
Launched is the sixth business that I have started. I sold four of my previous businesses and still run two, Small Town Hub and Launched. Launched was created to help new entrepreneurs build solid foundations for their businesses.
A solid business foundation saves you time, makes you more money, and helps you avoid expensive mistakes. I started my first business over 15 years ago and I have no idea what I was doing. I believed that if I was good at my craft, that would be enough. I was an outstanding photographer so, by my logic, that meant that I would be a good business owner. Reality quickly set in.
Being great at your craft doesn’t make you a great business owner. I spent the first several years of my first business in one of two camps. I was broke and joked and couldn’t pay the bills or I was business that I couldn’t function. I was stuck in this frantic famine cycle for years.
Once I finally learned how to run a business and run it well, I realized the frantic or famine cycle was the norm for business owners. Most businesses were running their business the same way I was – just winging it.
So, I created Launched to help teach new business owners all the things that I wish I had known when I started my first business, all the things that would have saved me an easy $100k, all the things that would have helped me reach my goals faster.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Building a business is never a smooth road. There are always challenges and issues along the way.
Building a business is a long and intense process. A huge struggle was being able to afford to work full-time in my business. To have the time that I needed to invest in my business, I had to quit a job that was paying for a lot of my family expenses. It was a huge risk and the months that followed were rough.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Launched teaches new entrepreneurs all the steps, in the right order, to make sure they are building a solid foundation in their business. Most business owners make business up as they go. We piece things together and pray that it all holds. It rarely does.
Launched teaches business owners how to keep it all together. How to make sure their business is built on a firm foundation so it can withstand the hard times and keep growing, and most importantly, making money.
A solid business foundation saves you time, makes you more money, and helps you avoid expensive mistakes. At Launched, we have a six-month academy to handhold business owners through all the steps in building their business. This academy includes weekly classes, monthly coaching, and check-ins to make sure our clients have everything they need.
For people who are not quite ready for a six-month academy, we have a book called Don’t Suck at Business that gives a great overview of everything you need to build a solid business foundation. It is a fun and sarcastic way to learn business essentials.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
We used to play hide-and-seek in the dark with my parents.
It is exactly like it sounds. We turned off all the lights in the house, scattered, and hid in the dark until the person who was “it”, the only one with a flashlight, came to find us.
It always turned into a game of scaring the crap out of each other.
It was a riot and I always loved it.
Pricing:
- Don’t Suck at Business – $21.99
- Launch Your Business Academy – $1249
Contact Info:
- Website: https://launchedacademy.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/launchedacademy
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/launchedacademy
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@Launchedacademy
Image Credits
Photoumbra Studio
