What the heck is a launch party?
This Saturday was the launch party for my new business, Alex Campbell: Renaissance Woman. What even is a launch party? Why should you throw one? What do you do?
What even is a launch party?
Firstly, a launch party is a celebration of the launch of your brand or business, often used for networking or to spread awareness that your business exists. The majority of my attendees were friends and family that didn't really understand what my business is, as well as current and potential clients. In order to get potential clients there, I put out a digital flyer across all of my social media platforms and had my friends and current clients share it. This essentially doubled my guest list.
Secondly, you should absolutely throw a launch party. Even if you just want to celebrate the launch of your brand without expanding to potential clients, your hard work should be appreciated. If you do want to attract potential clients, this is a great way to do it - a relaxed setting is a great way to network, so you seem like an actual person instead of this robotic business machine that only meets people in professional settings. For me, especially, this is the case as the majority of my clients are in real estate and lending - two fields where you really have to get people to like you in order to be successful.
So what exactly do you do at a launch party?
Since my venue was a little small (I used my tiny office and the guest list doubled the week before the party so there was no time to change venues), I had appetizers, lots of alcohol, a live band, a raffle, and a display of my work. I know raffles can be a little tacky, but I made shirts I knew my family and friends would love, acquired an embroidered laptop backpack that's reflective of my laptop-heavy lifestyle, and obviously people love free wine and vodka. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to design raffle tickets (many oohs and ahs), as well as farm emails and phone numbers for newsletters and subscriptions without having to persuade each individual to sign up.
As far as alcohol is concerned, I'm so happy that I enlisted the assistance of a bartender. Even though I only had beer and wine, having a bartender allowed the monitoring of some of the heavier drinkers in the crowd, so drunken incidents were avoided and nobody made off with any of my wine. Having no hard liquor also helped with this, but I do know a chosen few who can get belligerent on Coors Light alone.
I did order way too much food. I ordered enough for about 75 people and the final headcount was about 50. There were massive cheese boards, Boar's Head meats, fresh fruit, a crudités platter, and a 40-piece canapé plate. The canapé plate was the first empty (within 20 minutes) but really the only thing that went mostly untouched was the crudités platter. I plan on using the leftovers for stir fry and possibly omelettes, so I'm not bothered by the amount of leftovers.
The band was incredible. I got super lucky, as the band I originally tried to book was unable to perform due to work schedules and recommended the Floral Jackets. They were exactly what I was looking for and everyone loved them. Unfortunately, I booked them too early and not very many people had gotten there yet. Next time I book an event with a band, I will take that into consideration.
How did your party go, Alex?
My launch went great! I'm so grateful to have such supportive friends, family, and coworkers. I even got a couple new clients to come through! It was overall a super fun night and everyone had a great time, so I'm calling it successful.
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