How to Start a Skool Community: What I'd Do First
Last checked: September 2026
Starting a Skool community is technically quite easy.
The harder part is deciding what people are supposed to do once they get there.
That is where I would start.
Not with 27 course modules.
Not with a complicated launch funnel.
Not with trying to make an empty community look enormous.
I would build the smallest useful version of the community first.
Then I would find some real people and see what happens.
Before you create anything, answer one question
Why would somebody come back?
Not:
Why would they click Join?
Those are different questions.
A good About page might persuade somebody to join once.
But the community itself needs to give them a reason to return.
That reason could be:
- getting an answer
- learning something
- accountability
- access to you
- meeting people like them
- participating in a challenge
- following a programme
- sharing progress
- getting resources they actually use
You don't need all of those.
You need a clear reason for the community to exist.
Step 1: Decide who the community is for
"People interested in business" is not very useful.
Neither is:
"Anyone who wants to improve their life."
I would get more specific.
What are these people trying to do?
What are they struggling with?
Why would doing it with other people be better than reading a website or watching YouTube?
You don't necessarily need a microscopic niche.
You do need a recognisable person with a recognisable reason to join.
Step 2: Decide what happens inside
Before filling a Classroom, I would decide what members actually do.
Maybe the community revolves around:
- one weekly discussion
- a challenge
- questions and answers
- progress updates
- a course
- coaching calls
- accountability
- shared resources
The important thing is that a new member can understand the point.
If somebody joins and sees a wall of categories, dozens of lessons and no obvious next step, more content has not necessarily made the community better.
Step 3: Choose free or paid
Skool currently supports several pricing structures, including free communities, subscriptions, freemium, paid tiers and one-time pricing.
But I wouldn't choose a pricing model because it sounds sophisticated.
I'd choose it based on what the community is actually offering.
A free group can make sense when the community itself is the top of the funnel, an audience asset, a support space or somewhere people discover your work.
A paid community needs a clearer value exchange.
What are members paying to receive, achieve, access or participate in?
That answer matters much more than the button you select in settings.
Step 4: Build the About page
This deserves more attention than I gave it when I first started looking at Skool.
The About page is not just an introduction.
It is the page a potential member uses to decide whether this community is for them.
Keep it clear.
I would want somebody to understand:
- who the community is for
- what problem it helps with
- what happens inside
- what they get
- what it costs, if anything
- what they should do next
You do not need to make it look like a late-night infomercial.
Clarity beats hype.
Step 5: Don't build a giant Classroom yet
Skool's Classroom is useful.
It can hold courses, guides, resources, templates and other material.
But I would resist the temptation to spend weeks filling it before anyone arrives.
Start with enough material to make the promise real.
Then watch what members ask for.
The questions people ask can tell you what belongs in the Classroom far better than guessing 30 modules in advance.
Step 6: Give the first member somewhere obvious to go
Imagine one person joins.
Just one.
What happens next?
Do they know:
- where to introduce themselves?
- what to read first?
- what to do?
- what to post?
- when something happens next?
I would make the first few minutes ridiculously simple.
An empty community is already intimidating enough.
Don't make the new member solve a puzzle as well.
Step 7: Find the first real people
This is where "build it and they will come" becomes dangerous.
Creating the Skool does not create the audience.
Your first people might come from:
- people you already know
- existing customers
- YouTube
- your website
- partnerships
- referrals
- direct outreach
- search
You don't necessarily need a big audience.
But you do need a route to people.
Can you start a Skool with no audience? →
Step 8: I'd rather have 10 useful members than 1,000 decorative ones
At the beginning, I would not obsess over making the member count look impressive.
I'd rather have ten people who actually belong there.
Ten people can:
- ask questions
- expose confusing parts
- tell you what is missing
- participate
- give you language
- help establish what the community becomes
A thousand names on a member list do not automatically create a community.
I learned that one the hard way.
Step 9: Watch what people actually do
This is the bit I think gets skipped.
Don't just watch joins.
Watch behaviour.
Do people:
- return?
- post?
- comment?
- use the Classroom?
- attend anything?
- ask questions?
- stay if they are paying?
You are trying to learn whether the community has a reason to exist in somebody's routine.
That is much more useful than celebrating a signup number.
Step 10: Improve the thing people are actually using
Once real people are inside, you can make better decisions.
Maybe they love the calls but ignore the course.
Maybe questions get answers but nobody starts discussions.
Maybe everybody wants one particular resource.
Maybe people join but don't return.
Now you have something real to improve.
That is when I would add more content, change onboarding, adjust the offer or rethink the structure.
Not before.
What would I put in a brand-new Skool?
If I were starting again, I would keep version one very small.
I would want:
- A clear About page.
- A useful welcome/start-here post.
- A simple explanation of what members should do.
- Enough Classroom material to deliver the initial promise, if the community needs it.
- One obvious reason to return.
That's enough to begin learning.
You can build the rest with actual members rather than imaginary ones.
Do you need to launch with a course?
No.
A Skool community can use the Classroom, but that doesn't mean every community needs to launch with a giant course.
If the reason people are joining is discussion, accountability, networking, access or participation, build around that.
If the course is central to the promise, then make the essential course material available.
The platform should serve the community.
The community should not exist just to fill every tab in the platform.
Should you wait until everything is perfect?
I wouldn't.
There is a point where "I'm still building it" becomes a very comfortable way to avoid finding out whether anybody wants it.
Get the useful version ready.
Bring in some real people.
Watch.
Then improve it.
What about Skool Discovery and Growth Boost?
They can matter later.
But I would not build a new community on the assumption that Skool will automatically provide the members.
Growth Boost itself needs performance data to understand how efficiently a community converts and retains paying members.
That means getting real visitors and real behaviour is useful even to the system that may eventually help you acquire more.
How Skool Growth Boost actually works →
My simple starting rule
Don't ask:
How much can I put inside my Skool before I launch it?
Ask:
What is the smallest version that would genuinely be useful to the right ten people?
Build that.
Then go find them.