The Startup Business Checklist: 27 Things to Do Before You Launch

Most founders launch with chaos. The ones who launch clean close more sales, ship faster, and avoid expensive cleanup six months in. Here's the 27-item checklist we walk every Brand Evolution client through before they open the doors.

Legal & money (1–7)

1. Pick a business structure — see our LLC vs Sole Proprietorship breakdown.
2. File the entity with your state.
3. Get an EIN from IRS.gov (free, 10 minutes).
4. Open a business bank account — see our best business bank accounts list.
5. Set up business bookkeeping (Wave is free; QuickBooks if you want a CPA-friendly export).
6. Apply for any required licenses — sales tax permit, professional licenses, home occupation permit.
7. Buy basic business insurance — at minimum general liability if you sell products or meet clients.

Brand foundation (8–13)

8. Lock the name + .com domain before announcing anything.
9. Create a wordmark — keep it simple, ownable, and trademark-safe.
10. Define your color system — 2 neutrals + 1 accent.
11. Pick 2 fonts — one display, one body. License them properly.
12. Write your brand voice doc — 10 sample sentences your customer would recognize as "you."
13. Set up brand asset folder — Notion or Drive, organized by logos / fonts / colors / photos.

Online presence (14–18)

14. Build the v1 site. Shopify if you're commerce, a TanStack/Lovable build if you're content/services.
15. Write the 5 essential pages: Home, About, Shop/Services, Contact, Privacy.
16. Install analytics — Plausible, Fathom, or GA4. Pick one and check it weekly.
17. Claim social handles — even if you only post on one.
18. Set up a Google Business profile if local matters.

Email + audience (19–22)

19. Choose an email platform — Klaviyo for commerce, ConvertKit for creators.
20. Build a real lead magnet — not "join our newsletter," something they actually want.
21. Write the 5-email welcome series that delivers, introduces, builds trust, sells, and asks for a reply.
22. Plan your first 30 days of content — even 3 posts/week is enough.

Product / offer (23–25)

23. Define one core offer. One. You can add more after revenue.
24. Document your fulfillment process — what happens the moment someone buys.
25. Build a "post-purchase" delight — a thank-you email, a Loom from the founder, a small surprise.

Launch (26–27)

26. Plan your launch week — not just one day. Tease (3 days), launch (1 day), retell the story (3 days).
27. Have a "soft sell" everywhere — the launch is about momentum, not perfection.

What to skip on day one

• A 14-page brand book.
• A logo redesign.
• An office.
• Hiring anyone full-time.
• A complex pricing matrix.
• Paid ads (until you have organic traction).
• A complicated CRM.

How to actually use this list

Print it. Tape it to your wall. Cross items off in order. Don't skip ahead. The order is the strategy — getting the legal + brand right first means your launch energy goes into selling, not fixing.

When you're ready to skip the trial and error, book a launch strategy call and we'll walk you through it personally.