Start Your Business by March 31: A 90-Day Q1 Blueprint to Launch in 2026 | #230

*Book a free strategy call with Shannon here.

https://secondactsuccess.co/230

Ready to finally start a business in 2026 instead of just talking about it? 

In this first episode of the year, business coach and host Shannon Russell walks you through a simple, realistic 90-day Q1 plan to launch your business by March 31, 2026. If you’ve been sitting on a business idea, dreaming about quitting your 9–5, or wanting to add a new offer to your existing business, this pep-talk-meets-strategy session is your green light.

You’ll learn how to turn your idea into a clear business concept, validate it with real people, and set up the core foundations of your business in the first quarter of the year, without burning out or trying to do everything at once. Shannon breaks Q1 into three focused months so you can move from “someday” to “it’s happening” with a step-by-step roadmap.

This episode of the Second Act Success Podcast is a must-listen! 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to use Q1 2026 as your launch season (and why the first 90 days matter so much)
• The three questions that define your business idea and ideal client
• A simple validation strategy so you know people will pay for your offer
• How to break your giant to-do list into micro action steps you can actually finish
• A 90-day goal-setting framework to keep you on track through January, February, and March

If you’re a woman in a 9–5 job, a busy mom, or an early-stage entrepreneur who wants to start an online business in 2026, this episode will give you the clarity, confidence, and practical steps to get moving in Q1—so by the end of the year, you’re running the business you’ve been dreaming about.

Download my free 90-Day Sprint Planner 

*Get the full show notes here!

Leave a review for the Second Act Success Podcast here.

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Transcript

Second Act Success Podcast

Season 1 - Start Your Business by March 31: A 90-Day Q1 Blueprint to Launch in 2026 | #230

Episode - #230

Host: Shannon Russell

Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

 [00:00:00] Hey there and welcome to a new episode of the second Act Success podcast. This is our first episode in 2026, I just wanna pause and take a deep breath because we just got through the holidays I hope that you had a wonderful time. I hope you were able to turn things off in your brain, take a break in your business, take a break from work, and just enjoy friends and family.

And just enjoy the holiday season because it goes really fast. And Here we are now in January we're starting in this brand new year with a fresh slate completely blank. Ready for us to fill it up. 

And this episode is a pep talk. It is a pep talk that you might need to hear so that you can kick off your new year, right? Because my friend, if you have been holding on to a business idea, if there's something new that you've been wanting to implement in your current business, if you want to kick off a brand new [00:01:00] business, I want you to know that 2026 can absolutely.

Be that ear that you bring this idea of yours to life, and it all starts now because Q1 quarter one of the year has kicked off. We are in it. It has begun. So I want you to grab your notebook, grab your favorite drink, and let's map out how you can take your idea for a business and turn it into a real revenue generating business

 You can do this and have it ready to go in the first three months of 2026.

This first part is all about allowing yourself the power to have a fresh start, whatever that means to you. Because there's something magical about kicking off a new year.

Everything feels open and available, impossible, and it's an exciting feeling because we have 12 months ahead of us to accomplish our goals, and that's a pretty cool feeling. But a [00:02:00] vision for 2026, that resolution, that vision, it won't get you anywhere unless you pair it with action.

Energy is high, your motivation feels strong, and your intentions take shape right now. If you give them structure, and this is why I'm obsessed with getting women to use Q1 as that launching season for their business idea. It doesn't have to mean perfect launching or having everything built out and ready, but it's about really setting up that foundation that creates that momentum for the rest of the year.

If you are feeling that energy, if you're feeling this motivation, then we're gonna step into the next part of how we can really turn our idea into a reality this year. And that is by defining our idea and defining it really clearly, marking out what our goal is.

Before you can build a business or implement your new business idea into your current business, [00:03:00] you want to articulate exactly what it is that you want to do. What is your vision? What is your goal? In month one, we're there right now, it's January. I want you to get crystal clear on three things.

The first thing, what is your idea? Write it down. Say it out loud. Don't edit it. Don't ask if it's good enough. Don't ask if it's possible. Just write it down. Number two, who is this idea for whose life will this idea change? Who will wake up with this problem that you and your business this idea can solve?

So what is your idea? Who is this idea for? And number three in this three step process is why you. This is your story. This is your experience. This is your business that you're creating. So what is your story, your personal story, your past professional story? [00:04:00] What is your unique spark and why are you the perfect person to launch or scale this business?

And why are you the perfect person to offer this product or service? I.

We often underestimate this part, but it really is a piece that makes your business magnetic, it makes it magic. I talk about this a lot here on the podcast about your career story and that thread that really takes you from what you've done in the past to what you are creating right now. You might think, oh, they're really not correlated.

They're really not related at all. But really, if you really dig down, you'll see something. It might mean that you were really good at communicating and dealing with people in your first career, and now you're going to be. Communicating and marketing your business idea and communicating with customers or clients in your business.

Think about what your story is and why you're the perfect person to launch this business and offer these [00:05:00] services. now, my friend, if you can answer these three questions. By the end of January, you are worlds ahead of the many aspiring entrepreneurs because this is going to be the backbone to how you move forward.

Ideally, you will have your business idea ready. You'll know what your goal is, and you'll know who your ideal client, customer, or or audience are, and you will know why you are the person to offer this. So that right there is. Putting your business in a place where you can market it, where you feel confident and where you're ready to really start building it for the world to see.

 Alright, you with me. Let's step to the next part now. So you've defined your business idea. And now you're going to validate before you build. I preach this a lot, the whole learn before you leap method that I talk about in my book here on the podcast.

I'm a big believer in learning and doing your [00:06:00] research before you leap into something. February, so month two of Q1 is going to be your validation month. Validation simply means that you are going to make sure there is an audience that wants what you will be offering. You will do your market research.

You will find out if there are people who want your service or your product enough to pay for it. You Will be able to answer with a big yes that you are able to solve a real problem that exists. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to talk to real people.

Reach out to 10, 15 people in your potential target audience. These can even be coworkers, friends, family members. Make sure you pick people who are really impartial, not people who are going to sway you from this business idea, or people who are going to just prop you up and be a yes man. You wanna make sure that you're targeting people who are really going to give [00:07:00] you their true, honest opinion, because that's what you want.

So When you find this group of trusted people, I want you to ask them. What do you struggle with when it comes to, fill in the blank, what your business is offering? So what do you struggle with when it comes to finding the perfect dress to wear to a wedding?

Or what do you struggle with when it comes to trying to get your kids to eat healthy?

Next, you can ask what would help you most? What can I offer that would help you most, and what would you pay for this solution? What would you pay for a program that you can take that will help you to teach your kids how to eat their fruits and vegetables?

What would you pay for a consultation with me to help you pick out the perfect dress for this upcoming wedding? Whatever it is. Find out what they really think so you can find out their problems. And how much [00:08:00] they would pay for that product or solution.

Once you have that information, I want you to look at competitors who are offering similar services or products. Look at what they're doing, not to compare yourself, but to really just confirm that there is demand look at what they're charging for these products or services, what reviews people are leaving them on Google or Yelp or on their Facebook page. I want you to Look and see if others are offering something similar, because that is good, right?

There is a need if similar services are being offered out there, so you can do some research around what your competitors are doing and how you can differentiate yourself.

 finally, I want you to refine your idea based on this information that you get from this market research so you can adjust your product or service based on what you learn. You can expand if there's more of a demand into different areas that you may not have thought about yet. I want you to tighten up where things might [00:09:00] feel unclear.

if people had questions, go back and revisit those and figure out how you can align your idea or your messaging with what is clear. As you begin to think about marketing your business really this validation will build your confidence and that confidence will build action and that action build your motivation and the motivation.

Build businesses. this is what I want you to do in February of Q1.

Now we're onto March. We've had our goals on what we needed to accomplish in January. We have our action steps for February, and now we are into month three. Which is March, and here's where we're gonna break down exactly how to build this business.

this is when we're going to take your, I guess, more tangible pieces that can come together. What most women feel the most overwhelmed with, and I get it. I am the same way, but we make a really, really long [00:10:00] to-do list, and then we see it and we get stressed. And we freeze up and then we give up, and then we walk away and we say, okay, let me go watch Netflix.

You know, like, let's put that list to the side because it's just too overwhelming. do not do that. Do not get scared by what is on your big checklist. Instead, we're gonna break down and build out tiny. Doable micro actions. These are micro commitments, little action steps that you can take that will really build that foundation step-by-step task by task.

now you may be a little further along than what we're about to discuss as far as the business foundations go, or you may be not there yet. Either way, I'm going to dive into some basic business foundations because at this point you've clarified your idea and what you're offering.

You've done your market research, and now you're ready to really put those puzzle pieces into place. The first thing you can do is [00:11:00] think about. A name for your business. You wanna make it fun, simple. It doesn't have to be the end all, be all.

 Play around with it. I like to tell my clients to go into Canva take these different names and play around with pretend logos and see how they look. See if this is a business name that you are going to not get sick of in a year or five years, or 10 years from now.

Along with this also goes setting up all of the legal structures behind your business. So if you are going to register your business as an LLC or an S Corp, you can go to your Secretary of State for the state that you live in, and all of that information on how to register a business should be there for you.

Once you are sure about your business name, you can go through those next steps to make it all legal. Another easy to accomplish task is to grab your domain

second Act, success.co, google.com, whatever it might be. Go [00:12:00] to sites like GoDaddy, and other sites to find the domain that is available and register that, make that yours. You can also set up an email along with that so you can have a professional business email as well. next.

You can start outlining your offer. Think about the first services or the first products that you want to put out into the world. What do you want to offer? You can maybe just start with one offer, make sure that offer solves a problem. For one person, and make sure you just don't complicate it because you can add on to this product suite as you go, just think about what you want to show up in the world and offer first.

 Next, of course, is social media, make sure that you can get your social media pages set up. Figure out exactly which platform you want to show up on and lock in those handles. again, you don't have to be everywhere. You can choose one or maybe two platforms that you want to be active on, [00:13:00] and just set those up.

You can also think about creating a simple landing page, maybe not a full website at this point, but you want to have somewhere where people can go and see what you are offering. 

You can create these via Canva. There's other websites like Wix and Showit and Squarespace that you can create something very simple. It doesn't have to be something so overwhelming, but just one page, one URL, that gives people a place to go to learn a little bit more about what you are offering.

Next, you wanna make sure you set up payment options. You can't make money if no one can pay you. So you want to set up your payment options. this Again, is pretty simple. You can go to Stripe, you can go to Square, you can set up a PayPal, you can set up Venmo.

actually, another thing that I did not have here on my list is setting up your business bank account. You can do that right after you register your business with your state.

 Once you have your employer [00:14:00] identification number, your EIN set up, you will get that from your state after you register your business. You need that to set up a business bank account. So once you have that, you can set up your business bank account you can then set up your payment plans and your payment options for your customers.

Finally, as a part of these business foundations we're discussing here, is to have a brief elevator pitch ready to go. think about how you want to tell someone what you're offering, what your business stands for in one to two sentences you can always refine it over time. now, if you can accomplish these business foundations, then you'll see how each small task leads into the next one, each one builds that momentum. now by the end of Q1, by the end of March, you will not be trying to do everything.

Everything will be done each task build that momentum, and this is how women like you can succeed in [00:15:00] Q1. It's not by trying to do everything all at once. It's by trying to do small things each week.

Okay, I wanna keep this episode kind of short, so let's wrap things up by just talking about goal setting for these first 90 days, here is the framework that I teach my clients, and it's basically the idea of one outcome goals.

Example, by March 31st, I want to launch my first offer, or by March 31st, I wanna have my social media accounts set up and have my first post out.

this is a one outcome goal. So you're thinking of one outcome that you can visibly see happen by a certain date.

If you want to accomplish a little more, you can say, here's three outcome goals. I'm going to validate my business idea by interviewing 10 women in January. I'm going to build out my first offer in February, and in March I'm [00:16:00] going to set up my simple systems and make sure that my social media and one landing page is set.

You just wanna keep it realistic and something that you can actually achieve because as you achieve a goal and you check these things off of your to-do list, you will feel more excited and you'll wanna just keep going.

And that's where that momentum from Q1 can really set you up for the rest of the year.

Q1 is where you plant those seeds. You really build that clarity and that clarity, again, really just leads to confidence. And I think the more confident you are, the more you'll just keep going, right? Because you feel that energy and you know that you are. Going to be able to reach your goal.

And that is the whole point in really setting up the strategy early on so that by this time next year, you are in a completely different place, a place that you've been dreaming about. And that will finally be a reality. And I really want that for you. . Now before we wrap up, here is your [00:17:00] challenge again, once more

I want you to commit to your idea, get very clear on what your business is. Next, validate your idea with real conversations.

Then break down your to-do list into these micro action steps. next, I want you to set one big 90 day goal that you can accomplish by the end of March. And I want you to write a post-it on your computer, put a note into your calendar, but celebrate your progress every single week. Check in with yourself every Monday morning or every Friday afternoon and just celebrate what you've accomplished that week.

Don't get down on yourself. Just be excited. Even if you check one thing off of your list each week, you are making momentum, you're making progress, and that is going to really reap those rewards down the road.

Okay, my friend, I'm excited. I don't know about you. I have big plans for this year myself with my business, and I'm just excited to dive in. Going through this podcast episode today with you has [00:18:00] me really pumped and I'm excited I'm been using a 90 day sprint planner

which really helps me narrow down exactly what I'm going to be doing each and every week for the next three months. I wanna share that with you. I'm going to put a link in the show notes in the description for this episode below it's my free 90 day sprint planner.

You can just grab the link, download it, and start using it so you can map out everything we talked about today so you can really start taking action this week. Alright, let's go. Let's get into 2026, I hope.

I am wishing you the best. I'm sending you off today with the best of wishes that you can really narrow down this goal and get this business up and running in 2026. You've got this my friend, and I'm cheering you every step of the way. If you need any help or wanna discuss your business idea, feel free to book a free call with me anytime.

Just head to second act success.co, and you'll see a link to schedule a call or grab the [00:19:00] link in the show notes below. As a business coach and a mom, I know how busy everything is and how hard it is to get your ideas off the ground, and I'm here to support you any way I can. Thank you again for listening.

I will catch you on the next episode of Second Act Success. Take care, my friend.

Speaker: Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to second act, success. To view show notes from this episode, visit second act success.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell. And this is second act success.