As a launch strategist, I hear this question a lot: How many email subscribers should I have before I launch a product?

The most common answer you'll hear from the "experts" is 1,000 subscribers. (Some even say 2,000 or even 5,000!)

I think they're wrong.

If you wait to launch until you get 1,000 subscribers, you could be waiting months or even a year or more.

You don't need 1,000 email subscribers.

You need one potential buyer.

I understand why people say you need more email subscribers before launching. Launching is a lot of work, so you want to make sure there's a payoff.

But to a business owner, sales — even a smaller number of sales — equals money in the bank.

I've worked with several business owners who had successful launches with fewer than 1,000 email subscribers.

I even had a successful launch back when I had just 278 subscribers. It converted at over 3%, which is higher than the industry average. Sure, it wasn't life-changing revenue, but it was money in the bank.

If I’d waited until I hit 1,000 subs, it would have been a lot longer before I was making sales.

Launching to a smaller list also gives you a good practice run-through. If something in your launch goes sideways, it’s better for those launch mistakes to happen with a smaller audience than a larger one.

And lastly, launches bring more than just revenue to your business. A launch helps you establish your expertise, gets you in front of more people in a bigger way, and can lead to other opportunities in your business.

Don't let the size of your email list be your excuse not to launch.

If you have a product, and you have an audience, no matter what that audience size is, consider this your official permission to launch your offer.