What Happens After You Launch? (It’s Not All Sales & Sunshine)

You start a business. You put it out into the world. And then… what? Here’s what it actually felt like on the other side of launching Azulike.

There’s this moment right after you launch where you expect something dramatic to happen... orders flying in, notifications pinging, messages flooding your inbox with, “This is amazing!”

But for us, that moment was… really quiet.

We had launched. We had done the hard part, so we thought. But suddenly we were in unfamiliar territory: the after. And it came with a whole new set of questions.

The Energy Dip Is Real

After months of dreaming, building, sourcing, photographing, writing, editing, uploading… the adrenaline wears off.

We weren’t sure what to do anymore. We had no plan for week 2, definitely no plan for month 3. That’s when the self-doubt crept in.

Was this a mistake?
Why isn’t anyone buying?
What are we missing?

The Real Work Begins After You Launch

When I used to have a creative business on Etsy, people just came to the site easily and we were pretty much on our way right out the gate. We thought launch day this time was also the finish line — but it was actually the starting line.

That’s when we had to:

• Keep showing up online when no one was engaging. Social media is a full time job that tends to burn me out with all of the trend following and audio that feels inauthentic to me.. 

• Start learning how to talk about our work over and over again without feeling awkward

• Rethink our pricing, shipping, and messaging

• Keep reminding ourselves why we started

No one prepares you for that part. But it’s where the business really starts to take shape.

The Small Moments Matter Most

The big wave of “overnight success” never came, and still has not. What did come were quiet signs that we were on the right path:

• A thoughtful message from a stranger who connected with our story

• A repeat customer

• A moment where we saw an artisan’s work displayed in someone’s home

Those were the wins that kept us going. Still do.

If You’re in the Middle Right Now…

You’re not doing it wrong. You’re building something real. And real things take time.

Keep showing up. Keep refining. Keep grounding yourself in the why — because that’s what will carry you when the applause is quiet and the algorithm is not in your favor.

This part isn’t glamorous. But it’s where your roots grow.

In our next post, we’ll be pulling back the curtain a bit more. Talking about the actual costs behind artisan goods, and why pricing with integrity is one of the hardest but most important things we’ve learned.