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Ending The Feast and Famine Cycle: The Power of Recurring Revenue
[buzzsprout episode=’12143046′ player=’true’]
Summary
Learn how to make more money consistently even during slow months to solve the feast and famine cycle for freelancers and businesses on this episode of Online Business Systems on Zeilhan’s Podcast
Introduction
Welcome to Zeilhan’s Podcast where we believe in the power of using the internet, software, and technology to achieve online business success.
Go to zeilhan.com and set up a consultation with our team.
Tell us the problems holding your business back from increasing revenues, getting more clients, and being successful. Tell us your problems and we will take care of everything else for you.
Go to zeilhan.com to get your consultation with our team.
Today you are listening to episode 13 of the Online Business Systems Show where we will be looking at the topic “ Ending The Feast and Famine Cycle: The Power of Recurring Revenue “.
Today’s episode will be done a little differently than our other episodes.
In our other episodes we would begin by reading an article from a reputable source, research, or an industry thought leader to get facts, statistics, and other easy-to-measure and compare metrics upon which we base our claims.
Then we would start to look at the topic in more detail and address the solution that is best for you at the end.
In this episode, we will do things differently.
We will start by looking at the problem. That is we are going to start by learning more about the problem of the feast and famine cycle – what is it, what are the causes, and what are the symptoms.
This will mark the first section.
In the second section, we are going to look at the solutions put forward by reputable sources, thought leaders, and industry experts. These are solutions that any freelancer or small business owner can use to improve their business, revenues, profitability, and success odds.
This will all be done in the second section.
In the third section, I will propose a solution to the problem that I think is a far better answer than the ones proposed by today’s industry experts and thought leaders.
The solution I propose is not a novel one but one I learned from John Warrilow’s New York Times bestselling book, ‘Built To Sell’.
Let us dive right into the episode by taking a closer look at the problem of the feast and famine cycle.
What is the feast and famine cycle?
“The feast and famine cycle is an up and down roller coaster where you’re joyful and “feasting” at times, and hungry and needing labor at other times. It’s normal to have a few slow months during the year, but there are a few things you can do to try to be more consistent and break the cycle,” according to Refrens
Very quickly before we get started I’d like to introduce myself. I am your host today, Jabez Roberts, and I am also the Founder and CEO of Zeilhan Systems Limited. I will be your guide for this episode of the Online Business System.
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Transcript (To Be Edited)
Welcome to Zeilhan’s Podcast, where we believe in the power of using the Internet, software and technology to achieve online business success. Go to Zelhan.com and and set up a consultation with our team. Tell us the problems holding your business back from increasing revenues, getting more clients, and being successful. Tell us your problems and we’ll take care of everything else for you. Go to Zelahan.com to get your consultation with our team. Today you are listening to episode 13 of Online Business Systems, where we will be looking at a topic ending the feast and famine cycle the Power of Recurring Revenue today’s episode will be done differently than our other episodes. In our previous episodes, we would begin by reading an article from a reputable source, research, or an industry thought leader to get facts, statistics, and other easy to measure and compare metrics upon which we base our claims. Then we will start to look at the topic in more detail and address the solution that is best for you. In the end, in this episode, we will do things differently. We will start by looking at a problem. That is, we’re going to start by learning more about the problem of the feast and famine cycle. What is it? What are the causes and what are the symptoms? This will mark the first section. In the second section, we’re going to look at the solutions put forward by reputable sources, thought leaders, and industry experts. These are solutions that any freelancer or small business owner can use to improve their business revenues, profitability, and success odds. This would all be done in the second section. In the third section, I will propose a solution to the problem that I think is a far better answer than the ones proposed by today’s industry experts and thought leaders. The solution I propose is not a novel one, but one I learned from John Warlow’s. New York Times bestselling book, built to Sell. Let us dive right into the episode by taking a closer look at the problem of the feast and famine cycle. What is the feast and famine cycle? The feast and famine cycle, according to Reference, is an up and down rollercoaster where you are joyful and feasting at times and hungry and needing labor at other times. It’s normal to have a few slow months during the year, but there are a few things you can do to try to be more consistent and break the cycle. Reference continues in their article by saying that one of the most common worries among freelancers, particularly newcomers, is how to prevent the revenue of the feast and famine cycle. In this episode, I’ve come to realize during research that a lot of articles and research not research, but articles and posts and everything on on the topic of feast and famine cycle, they tend to be focused on helping freelancers. And I can see why this would happen because as I say right here, especially when you’re a new freelancer. I’ve tried freelancing before. You go through a lot of periods where no business is coming in and you can see why this would lead to the feast and family cycle. Because then when business does come in, you’re going to struggle and try to put in as much time and effort as possible to get the top job done. Because then that can lead to referral and future business. So your stake in the future on the present and so you invest a lot in the present. Problem with that is you’re not giving yourself a consistent and reliable and measurable source of new business which most freelancers starting out can’t afford. So we’re going somewhere here because the thing you know is we have to look at this and also a macro level, not just as an individual person that is a freelance support as a business or even the body of entrepreneurs. Because what you find happen a lot of times is that, for example, closer to the end of the year in my country, I was calling on a lot of construction businesses. Cold calling. I was cold calling. And what I learned rather quickly is that most businesses in Jamaica, believe it or not, towards the end of the year they’re closed for like two, two and a half, three weeks. I could never fathom that. Closing business for three weeks for what exactly? And that’s where the problem of feast and farming could have come in to Zelhan at the time. Now here’s what happened though. Our business model is built out a bit differently. So we don’t really have the feast and famine cycle in the way that other businesses would have it. But you can see where this would lead to slow seas or slow months as they call it. So what is the feast and family cycle? According to reference it says the feast and family cycle refers to whether you’re loaded with client work or don’t have enough to do as a freelancer or business. I’m going to use businesses as well. Many freelancers or businesses despise the pattern of being overburdened when a big volume of work comes in at once. With deadlines pile up on top of deadlines, they get so stressed that they can only focused on client work. The fees and family cycle is a polar opposite of a regular income as it isn’t unavoidable. Only you can stop that loop. That’s because you won’t be able to repair forward if you don’t have control of your company. You can’t predict anything because the only thing you know for sure is that there will be greater ambiguity. As a result you eagerly anticipate the next fees. It’s more like putting your life on the line in a high stress game of roulette. Let’s understand it better with an illustration. Let’s assume you earned $8,000 in January. That’s fantastic. You met your financial and revenue targets, added new clients and yet have a lot of work ahead of you. So that’s how you spend the month of February. You take cover and get down to business. However, by the time February closes and March arrives, you have no fresh leads because you were preoccupied with client work. You barely made $5,000 in February because it was a slow month. Hence it’s important to prevent and learn ways of handling the feast and famine cycle. And that was a reference, just giving us a bit of information on the feast and famine cycle. We’re going to look at an article by Life Hack. It’s tied to life. Hack breaking the feast and some in cycle. But we’re not going to look at the section of the articles that speak about the solutions just yet. We’re just going to focus on the problems as they describe it and learn a bit of the causes as they also describe it in their articles. And in the second section, like we said at the start of the episode, we’re going to look into the solutions proposed by today’s thought leaders and industry experts. So let’s go to Life Hack break in. The Feast and Famine Cycle for many freelancers or businesses, the feast or famine cycle is a common one. For a while, you get a big job that takes up all your time. When a job is finished however, you’re back to where you started searching for a new work with zero income. Getting out of this cycle is one of the biggest challenges for freelance workers or small businesses, especially ones starting out. For people who love working on their own, however, the freedom of schedule and the ability to build their own businesses makes freelance work still an attractive alternative. If you approach freelance work with the right attitude, you can avoid many of the problems associated with freelance work and maintain a healthy work income balance that will keep you going throughout the year. As a freelancer, time is money, so it is important to manage your time and finances effectively to maximize your income. Follow these tips to avoid the feast or famine cycle in your own freelance or small business. End of us. So here’s what’s happening. Now like I said, most articles are speaking to the freelancer but this is something that happens in business as well, especially when you’re just starting out. And surprisingly, a lot of larger business has this problem as well. And we’re learning here that one of the things that contribute to the feast and famine cycle because I see feast or famine and as a feast and famine, I’m going to go with feast and famine because it’s not one or the other, it’s both. One happens, then the other happens. I’m going to go with that. So one of the things that you realize cause the feast and famine cycle is that, like I said, you’re starting out. You don’t have a lot of business. You finally get a client to sign up, and you’re so excited. You want to do such an excellent job that you spend a lot of time focused on client work. Or it is possible that you get a lot of client work all at once because it’s been cold calling or cold email. If you’re running ads, you probably shouldn’t have the fees and families cycle, but we look at that a little bit later. But let’s say you’ve been running ads, you’ve been getting leads, you have a lot of work to do right now, more than you can handle. And as a result, what you’ve done is you’ve started to do the work in such a way that you don’t have time to continue cold calling or setting up consultations or even free trials or getting in the car. And driving out to meet with a prospect to do free consultation or quotation because they’re just so focused on what moves the needle right now. The income of the business. And that’s where we’re seeing where a lot of the problem is coming in. Now this article goes into the solutions. We won’t do the solutions until the second section. Let’s just look at an article by Jim’s Marketing blog. And this one is a very short and spicy article. It’s very straightforward to the point, doesn’t be turned on the bush, tons of value. Let’s take a look at this article. So guys, you would not believe what is happening. I did the research last night, put everything together, structured, organized, and I had a flow for the episode. And now Jim’s Marketing Blog is saying you don’t have it’s saying error. Let me actually read the error to you because it says forbidden, you don’t don’t have permission to access this resource. It remains to be seen it’s 403 error. So I’m wondering if the privacy settings for this post has changed or it’s been deleted or the blog is done. Because it’s given me a 403 error. I think that would most likely mean the privacy settings has changed or the blog post has been removed. But it was there a few hours ago. I did the research for this episode. So we’re going to skip Jim’s marketing blog. I don’t think I’m going to link to it because well, we’re not going to discuss it in this episode. All right, so sorry about that guys. I don’t have Jim’s Marketing Blog to share with you right now. Very quickly, before we get started, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m your host today, JBS Roberts, and I’m also the founder and CEO of Zelen systems Limited. I’ll be your guide for this episode of online business systems. How would you like to increase your revenues by 10% to 30% over the next twelve months while we increase your revenues? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could increase your profits by 10% to 30% as well then? While we increase your revenues and the profits, how about we take away all the stress anxiety and frustration of setting up and running a successful online version of your business. We’ll keep it open 24/7 manage and market your amazing new online business so that you never have to worry about getting your next lead, sale or clients again. Introducing the Zelhan Online Business Suite, where we take your business online with a website that turns out more leads, more clients, and more sales for your business. 24/7 added to your conversion optimize Online Business is a twelve month online marketing strategy to help your business reach its goals, whether it is more leads, more profits, or even to expand in the next twelve months. Managing marketing and helping to scale your online business is your team of website development experts, experienced online marketing professionals, and accomplished online business development strategists working for you 24/7 so you have more time to do the things you love and spend with the people you care about. The Zelan Online Business Suite works for every business of every size and niche and was designed and engineered to help you and your business succeed. We’re so confident we can help you that we are giving you a 30 minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session valued at $1,000 for free so that we can show you what your business needs to succeed online. During this session, you will meet with an online business strategist from our team to discuss the problems holding your business back from success. The phrase you have around taking the next step forward frustrations you see will get in your next sale or client and the goals you would like to achieve in the next twelve months. Your online business strategist will take everything from there in helping you set up a successful online version of your business that is fully managed, marketed, and secured by our team working for you. Visit onlinebusiness@zelhan.com to learn more or go to Zelhan.com and schedule your free 30 minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session and our team will take care of the rest for you. Our first ten signups will get the chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscriptions. That’s a minimum of $6,000 saved for the year and more than one month free. Set up a free consultation@zelfin.com to get started and claim one of ten discounted spots. No obligation to buy. Just tell us where you’re struggling and our team will show you what you need to change to be successful. That’s like we’re paying you $1,000 to sit down with us for 30 minutes so that we can help your business succeed and help you achieve your dream life. Visit onlinebusiness zelhan.com to learn more. Or go to Zelhan.com with the link in description or show notes and schedule your free 30 Minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session and our team will take care of the rest for you. Conditions apply. We’ve now started the second section. What we’re going to do in the second section is we’re going to look at the solutions proposed by industry thought leaders and experts, people who are in the trenches, the solutions they propose for the feast and thumb and cycle. Like I said, most of these articles are focused on the freelancer because freelancers are the ones that normally they’re not the ones that normally have this problem. But when they do the keyword research for the article, freelancers are the ones that come up most often and you can realize because a lot of businesses would have enough staff to cover the word that comes in while still continuing marketing. And if you have a marketing budget that is being used wisely, you will also avoid this problem. So we’re going to look at different articles that explain solutions that we can use to solve the feast and famine cycle. And then in the third section, just after this section, we’re going to look at a solution that I propose that I think does a bit better. And like I said, this solution isn’t another one. It’s not anything new. It’s something I learned from reading the New York Times bestselling book, built to Sell by John Warrior. So we’re going to get started in looking at the solutions to the feast and famine cycle. This one is by reference how to handle the feast and famine cycle as a freelancer. Like we said, small business and freelancer startup and freelancer start also at freelance. So step by step we’re going to get there. We’ve already described what the feast and famine cycle is. It is simply the period where it’s a cycle really where you have a period of all things are going good, you’re eating well, a lot of clients, a lot of work and then for a while the opposite happens. No client, no work. And so you try to get a lot of clients and then eventually you get clients or clients and it’s a lot of clients, a lot of work. You’re not able to continue marketing, getting leads and everything like that and next thing you know it’s no clients and you have to go market again and this goes on. It kills you instead because you never have sustained success which can be stifling. So that’s what the feast and famine cycle is in a nutshell, layman’s term. So we’re going to look at some solutions. The first set of solutions are from reference. It says here different ways to handle feast or famine cycle. Different ways to handle famine actually, sorry about that. Different ways to handle famine. Invest your feast money wisely. Spend your famine time wisely. Do a side project. Explore and monetize your niche. Set yourself apart. This is going to be an interesting one. Diversify your earning. Market yourself. Expand and grow your business. Invest your fees money wisely. It’s easy to feel that you finally made it when you’re making excellent money. Do you right. You never have to worry about another month. With no income, famine can strike at any time. But if you use your feast money carefully, you won’t be counting pennies when the famine strikes. It doesn’t say what you should use your feast money wisely for here, but I’m going to give you some tips. The first thing is that when you start making more money, don’t start spending more. Don’t get that new app or software or that cool marketing course that you think is going to work well, the course would be good, or a book, but don’t get more expenses, especially recurring revenue like a Netflix subscription or something that’s going to keep deducting money from your income every month. Instead, what you should spend your feast money on is, ironically, a system that will help you to break the cycle. If you remember the cycle, it really is business, no business. Business, no business. Business no business. And what leads to having business is that during the periods of no business, you are marketing. So you need to find a marketing channel that best fits you for getting some quick wins. I can’t say what it is based on not knowing what your business is and your target audience or target customer and everything like that. But you need to settle in on marketing. If you got one client from, let’s say you got three clients, all of them came from cold calling. When you have your feast money, it would be wise to continue marketing to the leads that you have. And for this, you might just set up a free MailChimp account. Every time you call someone and you’re interested, you add them to your email list manually, tell them you’ll be sending them information, and you just send some information once every week or once every few days using MailChimp while you have your feast time. So that’s actually good help. Use email marketing, even if it’s manual, because you type one email, you use a proper segment. Hey, first name. We’d love to help you get some more money in business name. These are three tips. Or if you’re a graphic designer or a logo maker, or you make music or whatever the case may be. And from that you send that and ten people get it, 20 people get it. We have an intimate relationship with you, of course, because they would have been the ones to manually give you the information over the phone because you were a cold calling. So that’s why you will invest your feast money wisely. The essence is that when you have feast money, you spend it in such a way to improve your marketing capacity or ability. And that’s why I use email or any other platform that will help to do that. Spend your famine time wisely. During the famine, you should make the most of your time by performing the following tasks in search of new clients. Very good. That’s the very first thing I would say. If you’re not working on client projects or serving customers depending on how your business is set up or helping users or whatever the case may be, if you’re not in feast, you should be working toward feast. And that means in search of new clients, marketing, et cetera. It says also, as well as in search of new clients, checking in with existing clients for work while looking for new sources of income. Very good is easier to sell to a customer than it is to sell to somebody. New guest blogging helps to build their portfolio. That improves online traffic and visibility. Checking in with existing clients for work while looking for new sources of income. So this post editor because it was already there working on your websites and blogs, which is similar to the guest posting or guest blogging, but this time you’re posting it on your blog, on social media, trying to expand your audience, or using social media to promote your work. And these are all good points. Marketing in a nutshell, to get more clients or customers or business in, that will bring the famine cycle. But yet again, remember, when the feast cycle starts, don’t spend more money. Try to double down on marketing. In a way, if it’s even 2 hours per day that you dedicate to marketing still. So if you’ve been cold calling, continue cold calling for 2 hours instead of five, but just keep it going. Do a side project. Having a side project can be beneficial. It’s not something you’re counting on for a living, but you never know. It’s always possible that you’ll take off. A side project might keep you occupied and provide some creative comfort during downtime. Maybe you’re working on a WordPress plugin or custom app. It’s exciting to have side projects that you can start and quit. And I don’t like this. I’m reading it because it’s there, but I don’t like this because Alex Or Mosse runs 100 million dollar business. He says that one of the problems businesses have is that they try to do more instead of doing better. And what it means is that instead of trying to do another business so you’re making $100 from this business or $1,000 and you say, wow, I’m making $1,000. You know, it would be cool if we did this as well. And John Warlord, he talks about cross selling instead of trying to offer another service, double down on what you’re doing and get better at it. That means that you’re not going to do a sale project. The article here says it, but I agree. I don’t agree with it. Because when you do a sale project, you’re not focused on the main goal. And if you continue to do set projects upon sale projects, sure, you’re casting more hooks in the sea trying to catch that fish of success, but the possibility will remain. And it’s highly possible at this stage because they keep doing this is that your lack of attention on one and focus your lack of attention and focus on one project will lead to you not being able to master any project. And in this world, you get paid for being really good at what you do. So good they can’t ignore you. Correct? Like, I disagree with you. That is why I disagree with this. This says explore and monetize from your niche. While you don’t have work on your ideal, now is the time to begin exploring alternative sectors that interest you, conducting research on them, and conversing with other freelancers about your prospects and pay. This will assist you in selecting the niche that would suit you on your niche. So I like this and I dislike it. I dislike it if you’re going to just use it to keep searching around like casting in many books. But at the same time, I like it because it’s practical advice. The previous example could have been called as practical advice as well. If it goes along the line of this, all right, so I am selling shoes. I’m selling shoes. I’m JCPenney. I’m selling shoes. I don’t have customers and I have customers. So this feast and feminine cycle is really getting to me. How can I solve this? And they’re saying, here, explore and monetize your niche. So try to find other niche. So instead of just looking at shoes, you can look at dress. And here’s the thing, why this differs, that I’m not at all 100% diametrically opposed to it. I’m beginning to feel that. And it’s not a feeling, it’s more like a hunch where a lot of times you might be doing something wrong in the current business that will come out when you look at what other people are doing. So look at it from the perspective of figuring out if what you’re currently doing is the best way that it can be done and if there are other things that you could excel at because you might not have. Found your sweet spot, and that’s a good thing. When you explore other options, you run the possibility of finding that one thing that might be good for you. But this kind of contradicts what I said earlier. But here’s the thing though. If you’re doing it just to find what works, that is good. But if you’re just doing it because a new project is exciting, terrible, double down and get better. And a lot of times, which is why most businesses fail, people do businesses just to make money. And when the ground comes, they fall apart and they run away. So this is something along that line for the most part. Don’t start a side project or going to another niche because you’re looking for a quick buck, but because you’re trying to learn two things how to perfect your current niche aircraft, or you want to find out if there’s something out there that you will connect with better. Because what you’re doing right now isn’t necessarily the thing you could see yourself doing for the next several years. The next point. Fifth point. Set yourself apart. You must distinguish yourself from the crowd, which is what I was saying. Something that your client will always be on the lookout for, something that no one else can supply. And something that your client will wait for you to return from vacation to finish their assignment. Nothing will be able to stop you once you found it and proved it with actions. And this goes back to the last two points. So you’re going to alternate markets or niches trying to figure out what they’re doing that you’re not doing, that could have improved or could improve your business. And if there is an opportunity for you to be the best at something else, this set yourself apart. Also explains why I say don’t keep doing different side projects in the hope that one of them works and get a quick money because you have to set yourself apart. You get paid to be an expert. Again, I will say it be so good they can’t ignore you. It’s a song. It’s the name of a book by Carl Newport. It’s very important to be good. Experts are will make the money in this world. Experts at it, probably anything. And that’s what’s happening here. Double down and become better at your craft. Six. Diversify your earnings. Find something else to do. Regardless of your business or monetize expertise, before you max out your credit cards, you should have other options. If you are a writer. For example, guest blogging could help you supplement your income when the famine strikes. So here’s what this is going to actually do for you as you diversify your earnings. You are not putting all your eggs in one basket. Because remember, most of the people who have issues with the feast and famine cycle, they either are freelancers, small businesses and startups that don’t necessarily have a strong marketing budget. While I mentioned that stroke, it just gave me a brilliant idea. Go to Zelhan’s podcast or go to podcast zelhan.com podcast zelen.com. There will be an episode titled free zero Dollar Marketing Budget Strategy for Your Business. If you’re a freelancer, a small business, a startup business, if you have the feast and famine cycle, look at that episode. Do what’s in that episode and you have a solid solution to the feast and famine cycle. Because what that’s going to give you is going to give you a marketing strategy that’s a step by step system explained in full, no garbage, nothing like that. It’s really quality content that we use with our clients as well. Funny enough, it’s going to give you a system that you can use to reliably and consistently getting leads as long as you do what’s required of you. So look at that episode of online business systems. I think it’s episode four or five. It sounds a lot like five to me at this stage. So look at. Episode five or four of online Business systems. It’s called Free Zero Dollar Marketing Budget Strategy for your online businesses success. I believe that’s what it’s titled. And from there, you actually have a solution to diversify your earnings. Because the next point here says marketing. When things are slow, you must advertise yourself. Turn up the volume on your networking, make contact with previous clients, whatever it takes, do it. Keep in mind that doing a lot of marketing when things are quiet and doing nothing when things are busy is what got you into the issue in the first place. And that’s why I will continue here. It says, avoid urge to go on a marketing bench. Look for strategies to put into your marketing. Know that will pay off later when you’re less busy. Set up techniques like Drip email Marketing that can bring in work while you’re engaged with client tasks for a small up front time investment. So, doubling back, I also said earlier that one of the things you could have used to spend your feast and feminine time wisely is email marketing. So let’s say you’re a cold calling. Every business you cold call, that is a prospect. You add them to your email, you say, all right, I’m going to send over some stuff. You’ll be in my email list. I’ll update you, get all the good information, and you have 10, 20, 25 people, they all have an intimate connection with you, or 30. And you email that list once or twice per week. Some valuable information. You type one email, it’s sent to 30 people. That’s something that could work here. And it’s saying that here with Drip email marketing. Because with Drip email marketing, you can create a three step sequence email that everyone knew that gets added to your email is get this list of testimonials referrals and a case study. Those are three emails and you don’t have to send that over and over and over. You just send that once and it works on autopilot forever. And it also says the same that we’re speaking about previously with a marketing system because like it says, the idea of marketing during feminine time marketing, not during feast time marketing again during farming time, over and over is what got you into this situation in the first time. So instead of just doing one or the other one or the other, do them both at the same time in fees than farming. So in fees, your marketing in familiar marketing, just a bit, just be consistent with it and you get consistent results. That is easier to do with our marketing system, which is fully given in episode four or five of online business systems titled Free $0 Marketing Budget Marketing Strategy for Your Free Zero Dollar Marketing Budget Strategy for Your Business Success. Last one. Take advantage of the downtime to expand and grow your business. Use your break between clients to pick up a new talent preferably one that preferably one that you both enjoy and can be beneficial to your business. There are a lot of possibilities that learning a new talent can open. It’s easy to take on in a job to make money during a famine. But keep in mind that the work you do reflects both you as a freelancer and your company. Jobs that aren’t good fit could push you out of your comfort zone, causing worry. Saying no is a tremendous affirmation of your self confidence. Going through this cycle is not easy. However, practicing these tactics will assist you in conquering famine time. So here’s the thing. I like this, and that is why I’ve consistently bought books and read books. I love learning. I love to say that when the more you learn, the more you earn. Doubling down on your craft, learning something new and improving not just what you do as a business owner. So let’s say you’re an accountant, chartered Accountant. Improving at other things like soft skills, ability to communicate, to build a relationship with clients, ability to empathize with others, soft skills or even your analytics skills. Just get a bit better at your math, your balance sheet reading. Learn a bit of investing and a bit of personal finance. Just improving on your craft, learning something you can set you apart, because now you’re a Chartered Accountant that knows personal finance and investing. You’re investing your own business or real estate or stocks, bonds, or whatever the case may be. You can have a new division at a business that looks at that because you’re familiar with it. You hire someone. And now instead of just doing Chartered Accountant business that gets very heavy around tax season and slows down a bit thereafter, you’re more like, all right, we have done our taxes. We’ve done taxes for clients. These are the clients that are making $10 million per year in profit or more. Let us reach out to them. Hey, we are starting a real estate investment trust. We’d love to have you on board. We’ve been handling your finances. We think that this would be a good opportunity for you at this stage. You just go in at, let’s say, $100,000, and this would be the dividend payments. We’d love to have you on board. It’s JBZ. Let’s have a cup of tea and discuss it. Or let’s have lunch a little bit and talk more. Let’s have lunch and talk about this a little bit more, whatever the case may be. And no, even though you have extended your business in that you’re in a different niche, that wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t learn and understand the possibilities at this stage. You’re not doing it for the quick money or doing it because this is something that you can do. You understand? And that is the beauty of it. That is what you do during famine time. What to do during feast time. You save money, quite frankly, like I said, you don’t spend more the moment you start to make more. That would be problematic. Save Money now is the perfect moment to start putting money aside. Don’t overspend. Instead of save, prepare an emergency reserve in case of a famine. Set aside the government’s part for taxes. Set aside a part for your saving for the next time you need it. Prepare for the future. Simple. Don’t stop with your marketing. Also very important. You must advertise yourself when times are busy. As it was marketing that got you in this job in the first place. Even an hour a week can have a significant impact out there. An hour a day. But this depends on you. But keep in mind that doing a lot of marketing when things are quiet and doing nothing when things are busy is what got you into this issue in the first place. So go ahead and schedule that time. Like we discussed earlier, nothing new. Don’t stop learning new things. Even if you have a job and are busy, you should never stop learning new things. In times of famine, improving your skills would always come in handy. Perhaps learn a new skill that fascinates you will assist you in finding more freelance opportunities or business opportunities, or even help you to get market fit or bring our products to market that would really connect and resonate with your clients and solve a problem. Do you guys hear the bird in the background? I don’t know. I hope you do. Ignoring your Clients you should not stop contacting your previous clients. You should keep in touch with them so that if they have work in the future, they can contact you. You should also regularly update your skills on social media sites where you connect with your clients so that you can maintain a good post work relationship with them. This works whether you’re a freelancer or a business. And it’s especially important if you’re a business because you stay top of mind. The magic about this, and the good thing about this actually, is that you can just use email, marketing, automate, everything and you’ll be fine. Trying out new platforms for Leads you should always be on the lookout for new leads from other platforms so that when your current work is over, you can go on to the next. And this is marketing. If you have an excessive amount of work, reach out to other freelancers to see if they can help you finish before the deadline and in exchange you can offer them a part of the payment you earn and vice versa. This also helps if you’re a business owner. Just knowing other business owners in your market will have you be able to refer people to them and they refer people to you, especially during feast and famine. And you can even grow your business from that because you might find a good fit. Merge your businesses, merge and improve from there. So try not new platforms or new business opportunities for more leads and getting the job done. So ideally, you never want to stop promoting your business. You want to try to create new sources of income by getting a new clients or offering new products or services or just doubling down on what you do getting better. You also want to move away from single job, time based work where they say, all right, you work for 10 hours a day, I’ll pay you this. That’s not good business because the better you get, you do it in less time. And at this rate, you’re being punished for being better because you can do it faster, so you’re getting paid less. Don’t do hourly job work ever. Don’t do it. And then you have a client or customer or business save and handle your finances responsibly. At Zelahan, we believe in the power of the Internet, software and technology to make it easier to start and run a successful business online. We know that it takes more than running Facebook Ads or Google Ads for two or three months to attract the right clients or customers for your business. There is a bird. This bird outside is furious. He’s right alone. I don’t know if you guys hear him in the mic, but if you do, sorry. I’m sorry about that. Well, it’s nice to hear a bird, so let’s deal with it. We also know that as a business owner, you don’t want to be bogged on with learning the latest online marketing trends. The best way to set up a Facebook ad or deciding what to do before or after your newest Google Ad campaign goes live. For it to be successful, we want to make it easier for you to attract more clients and customers, increase revenues, build a brand that your ideal client knows, loves and trusts, and ultimately live your dream life. That is why we have removed the guesswork out of marketing your business online by designing and engineering a twelve month marketing strategy cared for your online businesses success. Introducing Sell Hands Online Marketing System over the next twelve months, our online marketing and business development strategy teams will work together with you to help your business succeed. We will do this by settling we do this by settling on smart goals to achieve over the next twelve months. For your business. A smart goal can be as simple as increasing revenues by 15% in the next twelve months, getting 20 clients in the next year, or even growing top line revenue to $500,000 in the next twelve months. After we set and agree on the smart goals to achieve, our team will design and engineer a unique and helpful marketing system that will give you the highest chance of success and achieving your goals. Every month. We will have a consultation with you to let you know our progress on helping you achieve your goals. We will help you understand what we worked on last month and the results, what worked, what didn’t work, what our conclusions are, and how best to move forward strategically in the next month. By doing this, we ensure that our goals are always aligned with yours and that of your business. Your business is getting the results and needs, and you know that your Southern marketing team is working 24/7, doing meaningful work to support your business’s success. After twelve months, we will have our final consultation where we see our goal, set in January 2023, was to increase revenues by 15%. It is now January 2024 and we have successfully increased our revenues not by 15%, but by 25%. Our approach removes the guesswork of getting your next sale or client and makes your online business success inevitable as a result of a marketing strategy tailored for your business’s success. Prices start at $3,000 per month, as low as $100 per day for your own professional and experienced marketing and business strategy teams working twenty four seven to ensure your business succeeds before a limited time or first ten sign ups will get a chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscription. That’s more than $3,500 in savings for the year, or more than one month free. Set up a free consultation@zelahan.com and click Get Free Consultation to get started and claim one of ten discounted spots. The link will be posted in the description of the video. If you are watching on YouTube and the show knows if you are listening our podcast, go to zelhan.com and click Get Free Consultation to set up a free consultation with our team to get started and our team will handle the rest for you. Set up your free consultation today and be one of our first ten sign ups who will get a chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscription. That’s more than $3,500 in savings for the year and more than one month free. Conditions apply. We have looked at section one, and in section one we just learned what is the feast and farming cycle and what causes it. In section two, we looked at if that is the feast and feminine cycle, how do we avoid the feast and famine cycle, how do we resolve the issue? And we have some valuable information there, especially the article that we read. We sected it. We looked at the points in a bit more detail and we learned a few ways that we can avoid and solve the feast and famine cycle. In this section, though, is going to be a section where I speak about a better solution that I have for solving the feast and famine cycle. It’s a very ingenious solution. It’s not one that I came up with. It’s one I learned from reading John Warrilo’s book built to Sell. It’s a New York Times bestseller and it’s helpful because in that book, John Warlo makes a living helping small businesses get sold. So he knows what drives the business’s valuation. But the thing that caught my attention and eventually led to me mentioning the book in this episode is that he speaks about recurring revenue and how that helps to increase the value of your business. As a matter of fact, the recurring revenue model. So what is recurring revenue? Caseia says the recurring revenue model is a business model wherein the company provides its customers with a product or service in exchange for a specific fee that is charged to them at regular intervals, such as monthly, quarterly or yearly. Subscription and membership based businesses operate on the recurring revenue model. So it’s subscription based. Think Netflix or Amazon Prime. You pay a monthly fee, you get a product or service. We’re going to have to look at this a little bit more deeply because you’re going to say to me that JBZ, I’m a roofer, you’re crazy. Am I very good? That shows I’m very good at what I do. I’ve learned that the experts are really good guys. They are always a bit of cuckoo upstairs. It’s true. Genius and insanity accompany each other. So we’re going to see if I’m crazy or I’m actually a genius here. Not a genius because it’s not my idea, but we’re going to continue benefits of recurring revenue businesses by Cost analysts. Now, Cost Analysts is not the job title. It’s actually a website. We’re going to link that website below. It’s going to be an episode description of the show notes. We’re going to look at a small part of that article about the benefits of recurring revenue businesses. It says with so many companies turning to recurring revenue business models, there clearly must be benefits in doing so. Some significant benefits include predictable cash flow and with that, the fees and salmon cycle is destroyed. So here’s what happens with predictable cash flow. As mentioned, one of the most attractive things about our current revenue business is predictability. When you can make a solid prediction of how much revenue you’ll be making in the coming months, you’ll also be able to forecast cash flow. This helps when it comes to analyzing and planning for the future. In addition, being able to make educated guesses about these numbers can reduce stress for business owners. So you have predictable cash flow, you have reduced stress because you know how much you’re going to need. You can better forecast. And like we said, you don’t have feast and famine cycle anymore because, well, even if there is no business, there is money coming in, which is the true problem of the feast and famine cycle. If you look at it, it’s not that you don’t have business, that there is no money coming in as a result of no business growth potential. Predictable cash flow means that you can invest more of the money into scale in your business. By analyzing the data recurring revenue models offer, you can lower the risk of investing in growth tactics so your business can grow a lot better because, well, you know where the money is coming in, what’s most important, and everything like that. Automated payments. Most subscription based business models use automated payments from their customers. This helps maintain high customer retention, as many people don’t want to or forget to cancel their subscriptions. This is true. Another thing that you realize happened is that you don’t have to worry too much. I’m telling you guys, these birds are fewer now. It’s like three of them. I’m hoping it’s not interrupting the audio. Hope it’s not. I’ll leave that in the episode just in case you’re hearing it. But I really do hope the birds are not upsetting you. I’m not even in the countryside, but this is Jamaica for you guys. Beautiful Jamaica. Land of paradise. You should visit sometime. So, yes, automated payments, wonderful. You don’t have to build clients. You just have them sign up at their credit card. The software takes care of the rest for you. I spend a lot of time writing invoices and everything. Not my favorite thing. So I’m going to automate at some point in the future, get in software. And yes, that’s going to be very easy. The problem is, what I’m doing is but I’m in Jamaica now. I just say that Jamaica is a tropical paradise, so a bit of criticism can warrant it. Jamaica, believe it or not, doesn’t have Stripe or PayPal to integrate with your bank. So I can do a lot of the software that I speak about here so easily. That’s why I don’t have invoicing software. I had QuickBooks, but it doesn’t work as well because there are no payment extensions like PayPal, for example. I talked for another day. Customer retention. If you don’t have to allocate as many resources to the sales department, you have more time, energy, and money to provide the best service possible. Happy customers result in brand loyalty. That means more referrals and easier upsells, both of which bring more money into your business. There we go. So you get better customer retention, increases your revenues per customer, increases your profit. And we looked at how retaining customers was valuable in previous episodes. Increased valuation. Episode on how to double the revenues in your business in 2023, episode ten, if I remember correctly, of online business systems. The other point is increased valuation. Investors are much more likely to be interested in your company if you can prove predictable and reliable revenue, as well as expenses and stability. So you can say, all right, this is how much we’re going to make every month. This is how much we’re going to spend every month. This is our profit every month. And here’s why this is sold. We have 100 customers. Let’s say they pay us $1,000. You’re making it big time. Six figures. And you spend $35,000 every month because you have expenses and stuff and everything. $65,000. 65% profit margin. All right. Very good. Now, the challenges of return revenue businesses, so it’s not without its downfall. I’m not going to be the hypocrite until you own the good and send you off and you don’t know what could go wrong. So here’s the thing. While there are many benefits of a recurring revenue business, there are also some challenges business owners face when modeling their business like this. Some issues that business owners may face include subscription hit you’re not the first business owner who is reflected on all the benefits of recurring revenue businesses. Consumers see more and more subscription or contact based products or services, and not everyone is happy about it. For some types of businesses, this model simply makes sense. But for many others, it can push consumers away. So we have to be careful with how we present this to our consumers. And I don’t agree that it will push them away. I think it depends on how you put it forward. So if you put it forward in a money grabbing way, all right, this is how you pay. Because this benefits us, you’re going to get some pushback. But if you put it forward in such a way that this is the best for you financially, you’re going to get more reception. Solve the problem that your client or customer has. Customer churn is the other problem. Cancelations are inevitable even for the best products and services. Because I’ve canceled Amazon Prime, which is not in Jamaica either. Guys can imagine that. No Amazon Prime. A certain amount of customer churn is normal. But if you start losing more customers than you retain, you will have significant long term issues. While customer retention may be easier than other business models, it’s not automatic. You’ll need to focus on meeting and exceeding customers need. I believe this is true and like I said, one of the things to always do is manage expectations with clients and employees. We looked at that in episode seven how to craft a powerful Guarantee. I believe it’s episode seven or eight how to craft a powerful guarantee that will increase your revenues. Online Business System then we learned that whenever customers and clients have a clear idea of what to expect, everybody is happier and customers leave way lot less operational challenges. Especially for businesses trying to transition to a record of a new business model. You may face operational challenges, particularly in renewing customer contracts. This process requires teamwork between the sales and finance departments, which often have entirely different systems and processes. This is a minuscule problem because you’re getting so many benefits, like a bit of internal trouble. It’s negligible for me because it’s better to have a think about this. It’s better to have a business and worry about getting the finance and accounting team and working on the same plane than to not have a business because you refuse to do the change that would result in that one problem. I’m a strong advocate of choosing your own problems. I choose to have that problem over not having a business, no money, and not being able to care for myself and my family. Choose your battles, my friends. Now we’re going to look at something interesting at this stage of the article. What we’re going to be looking at is different types of current revenues and examples of businesses that use them and how they can help you. The reason I’m doing this is because, like I said, you might have listened to episodes so far and said to me, JayBay, you’re crazy. I am in the roofing business. I’m in a construction business. I am a car mechanic, whatever the case may be. I don’t have a business that can successfully or has successfully executed the business, the record revenue business model. And that is where I’m going to say two things. First, read John Warlow’s book On Build to Sell because he expounds on record revenue in that book. I suppose the other thing I want you to do is remember you’re in the business of solving a problem. You solve the problem and as a result you make money. That means that your method of collecting payments should not depend on the solution that you give. Let me say it again. As a freelancer, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you’re in the business of solving problems for your customers, your clients, your users, whoever. You should not at any point in time allow your ability to solve that problem. Influence how you get paid for that problem. Quick example, you’re a roofer. You pay $100. Well, let’s say you charge $15,000 for a roof of a small home instead of charging $15,000 upfront or 50% at the start of the project, at 50% upon completion, you end up project in two months at $15,000 in two months. Instead of doing that, what you can do is you can say, all right, you have a roof that needs to be done. Here’s what we’re going to do for you. We’re going to charge you $3,000 per month for the next six months. What this does for you is that we’re going to get the work done in two months. You’re going to pay over for six months. But for the next year, if there are any leaks in your roof or something needs to be changed, we’re going to do it for free. And this is going to help you to avoid having to spend a lot of money upfront. And I believe that this is a better payment schedule and business proposition for you as the client. The client is going to say, all right, pay $3,000 per month for the next six months and for a year they’re going to maintain and manage and pretty much give us a really good offer on keeping ensuring that our roof quality, our roof is done properly. It’s put that way. And another company is going to say, all right, because remember, you’re starting out you might charge a bit less. So let’s say you charge a bit more. Other company says, all right, pay us for this project. We’re estimating $20,000, let’s say $15,000, it doesn’t matter. 15,000 or 20,002 businesses. One says 15, one says 20. That customer is now going to have to choose between spending $3,000 per month, $15,000 per month or $20,000 per month. And the businesses that are charging 15 and 20,000, those two businesses, they aren’t going to say, all right, when we’re done, if there are any problems, give us a call. They might say that but it’s still that less genuinely. You said to them, all right, $3,000 a month for six months, that’s a payment. And then we’re looking after you for the next year. You’re not going to have a fee star staff because what you’re going to find will happen now is that with $3,000 coming in, it’s not 15 or 18, but what it’s going to do is you’re going to know that for the next six months you’re going to make at least this. Now you can hire someone. So we’re going to look at some examples of recurrent revenue business model. This is the article, this is the article I like the most. It’s from wise old marketing how to leverage non recurring revenue business models. We’re just going to go right at it because this one is so beautiful. It explains rather nicely the different types of subscription models for your business. It says here, do you have the peace of mind from owning a recurring revenue business model that brings you a minimum amount of money each month with a subscription product? If you’re like most of my clients and they come to me, the answer is no. And this is from wise old marketing. Cash flow is a major dilemma in a service based business. We have good months and bad months which make budgeting and predicting our income extremely challenging. So you have recurring expenses each month, so why not add recurring revenue tools? So your internet, your phone, your email, your online schedule, your website hosting, domain name, website maintenance and security, photographs, marketing materials, your computer software, cloud storage, mileage on your car, gas, office supplies, postage and maybe even advertising costs, rent, shipping, packaging, supplies, product fulfillment, insurance, paying employees. It’s recurring, it’s recurring expenses. So why not have recurring revenue? I associate that bills come in every month steadily at the waves in the ocean without an end in sight. Sometimes though, the waves are smaller and sometimes they are bigger. But one thing you can count on is that if you keep using the service, the payments will keep needing to be made. That you’re financially in the hole each month and need to earn X dollars amount to just break even. Can be frightened. Plus many business owners don’t know where their next client or paycheck is coming from because they lack a highly converting. Lead generation funnel and solid marketing strategy that we also do here at Sellhan. The book by John Warlow is actually the automatic customer not built to sell. Because as I hold on, I’ve looked at build to sell. This isn’t the one. But there is another book. It’s the automatic customer. So the book I’ve been mentioning all this time is The Automatic Customer. Guys. The book is titled The Automatic Customer creating a Subscription Based Business or a Subscription Business in Any Industry. Still John Warlow. Yes. Sorry for that. I did make the mistake. I kept looking even in research I’m like, this is not the book because I’ve read so many books. I was going through my list of books I’m like, I can’t find it. But here it is the automatic customer. Let us continue creating your own monthly recurring revenue System or MRR. I began offering website maintenance and security as an option to every website proposal I sent out. This is why it’s all marketing. I didn’t see it as a necessity before because it was something I could easily do for myself. But after building a new site for a client who came to me because our site was hacked, I realized it was a major point of friction for business owners. Adding this subscription website maintenance service created a perfect win win for my clients and myself. My clients have the peace of mind and ability to focus on their business and that have got their back when it comes to their website technicalities. And this is something we do at Zelda as well. I got a peace of mind knowing that I have a certain amount of income coming in each month regardless of any new clients who may come in. So these are additional services. upsold on a recurring revenue basis. What a difference a year makes. Creating a recurring revenue business model has completely changed my business. I’m now choosing a project that’s most fun to me, serving my clients at a much higher level and have eliminated the cash flow ups and downs. How to leverage the Nine Subscription business Models for online Businesses so we’re going to get into the meat of the matter right now. The first one is the network model and this one is used by cable TV, internet and cellphone. This type of subscription model works best for businesses where the service or product improves with the number of subscriptions, with the number of subscribers sorry, who join. As the business grows, the members also benefit. So like for example, social networking community. So the more people you have on Facebook means the more valuable Facebook is and the more important it’s easier to use for you because you can find people easier. This is also the same for co ops and businesses leverage and crowdfunding the surprise box model. An example are tinker crate and birchbox. This model works great for anyone who sells a physical product. It also works well for home based business owners who are building a direct sales or network marketing business, parties and presentations are the only way to grow your business. Think outside the box. For example, skincare subscription. Use this jewelry designs of the Month candles of the Month club makeup product of the Month gift for a year such as birthday, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas. In my country, they have Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. New Year? We have a lot of holidays in Jamaica. Nutrition Products auto Ship so when I tried to buy a protein powder for the gym on Amazon, it says you can just subscribe and we send this to you every month or two months or three months, or I think six months is an option as well. But like I said, I didn’t do it. But it’s something that can be done. The all you can eat library model such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Are you a master? Creating Content create a library of content behind a login screen and build a membership that allows people to access it. Remember, the automatic customer discusses a lot of these guys. So you just want to read The Automatic Customer by John Guarillo. It’s not built to sell. Build to sell is something else. It uses recurring revenue in that book, but not the focus for The Automatic Customer by John Guarlo. How to build a subscription business in any industry amazing book. Absolutely. Check it out and this will help you here. So the Master Content Creating creating a library of content beyond the login screen and build a membership that allows people to access it. This will be perfect for photographers who provide stock photos for use in blogs and social content. Graphic designers who create pretty quote images for Instagram. Health coaches who own a large library of recipes. That’s true. Personal trainers who have built a library of workout videos. Financial planners will have a library of spreadsheet, templates and worksheets. Energy Healers will offer guided meditation recordings. The next Model the private club Model gym membership and country clubs use this a lot. Have you been thinking about creating a private Facebook or LinkedIn group? How about a private membership community on your website? If you vet your community well, your members will add as much value as you do. This is a great add on to a training program as well. Create a masterminds group and group coaching packages and a lot of businesses do this. Build private communities on Facebook and LinkedIn. This is true. So you have a community of high network individuals. For example for example, a lot of people will pay to get in. The next model is the front of the line subscription model, and this one is used by airline credit cards, savers cards at local grocery stores. This type of membership offers extra services, discounts or priority to subscribers. An example would be the priority boarding on airplanes for frequent flyers or cardholders as true. This could be used in any business for your best clients. Just be sure to make the offer exclusive to your VIPs to keep it enticed and also give it high value. That way it’s really coveted and people will pay to get in. So you can offer exclusive services, products or features only to VIP subscribers. You can give subscribers priority such as in scheduling, seating, early bird access, etcd. Or you can allow more access to you personally for higher paying subscribers. So this is a good one. Membership website model like Udemy teachable and Skillshare I have Udemy and skillshare I probably should check out teachable. If you’ve taken an online training course, you’ve likely experienced the membership website model. The membership subscription model is similar, but provides ongoing access to member information with a recurring fee. Now Udemy isn’t recurring anymore. Some membership subscriptions drip content modules on a schedule so that subscribers are enticed to stay. This works excellent for business to business and business to consumer information. And it’s perfect if you teach a skill to your audience. Have an online training course with videos or written content or audios. Create a digital resource that you only share with subscribers. Offer 30 day challenges, host recurring events, webinars conference calls, et cetera. That’s the membership website model. Remember, we have the private club model as well. We have to simplify a model. This is for like home, house cleaning, home maintenance, personal shopper, bookkeeping services. How can you make your clients life and business easier if you can simplify a process for them? So this is one of the things that I alluded to with the roofing example. If you can simplify a process for them or take something off their plate on a regular basis, you have a perfect simplified subscription product. For example, I offer website maintenance packages that include time each month to clients who want to help adding scheduling and optimizing blog posts for the search engines, as well as making minor changes to their website. That way they can focus on their clients. We also have virtual assistants and freelancers on retainer. We have bookkeeping website updates and maintenance, marketing agencies, SEO, search engine optimization. That’s a simplifying model. And there are a lot of businesses that can do this, especially home maintenance. Someone comes in, they do the hedges, they do the lawn landscaping. They ensure that all the bulbs are changed. They ensure that all the drains are unclogged, the leaves on the trees, the trees are nice, they’re trimmed, the pool is cleaned, the garage door is working well. Just general around the house duties that most people don’t have time to do but still needs to get done. The plumbing is working well. The peace of mind model. And this is like website maintenance and security, home security systems and cloud backup. So for my company at Zelda, all of our clients get their website protected by our website security that uses Scurries. By GoDaddy, they are one of the biggest website security companies in the world. We have a partnership with them and this is website maintenance and security. I always say to my prospects that it wouldn’t make sense for us to build them a website and send them home to figure it out. We take care of everything and allow them to run their business while we do what we know how to do best build online businesses and everything. It says here that the Peace of Mind subscription model is perfect to keep your clients from having to worry about things that could cause them stress or loss, especially a website attack. If I could pay for a peace of mind to know that my daughter will return home safely when they take the car for the evening or my son won’t get hurt trying whatever new stunt he has dreamed of, I’d be the first in line to subscribe because you prefer not to have some problems. The Peace of Mind subscription model would work great for a business that offers website maintenance, backups and security, provides cloud backup or hosting or even social media management. I don’t really worry about this one too much, but I think it’s something that’s something that could really work, especially home and business security, your website security maintenance as well. You prefer not to have your car braid on the middle of nowhere. So you look at the problems your client or customer has and you figure out which of these best will work and the link is in the description and show notes just for a future reference. Consumable product model. This is like a dollar shave Club, an Amazon subscribe or prime and sales. Do you offer a service or product that gets used up on a regular basis, for example shipping with Amazon Prime? There are several that work well with this type of subscription. Photographers offering stylized stock photos such as seasonal photos are perfect for this. Marketing coaches who create seasonal marketing campaigns. Content creators who can provide ongoing content like blog posts and social media updates. True. And chefs or cooks can plan weekly menus and shopping lists. Or they can just come and cook like I think I’m going to hire a chef, it takes too much time and I need to heat healthily. So there’s that as well. It says here, what if you don’t have an online business or your business model is most local. You can still create monthly recurring revenue by offering subscription packages to your clients. It will make their life easier as they won’t have to stop and pay every time they see you. They’ll get a better deal with your package price instead of paying. You’ll likely be able to help them get better results if you work with them ongoing and you’ll deepen relationships with your clients and stay top of mind for referrals. So like for that roofing example I mentioned earlier. Just saying. All right, we’re doing your roof. I see that this needs to be done. That needs to be done for about $1,000 per month or $1,500 per month, whatever the price may be. We’re just going to come in every month on the 28th, nine to eleven, and get everything up and running. You won’t have to worry about changing the light bulbs, the garage opener or door or gate opener not working, your security system being down, roof leaks, anything like that, and you offer an upsell of service that you can help with. And from there you have predictable income. So you have the project for the roof and you have predictable income. And this comes from expanding, right? Learning what else you can do in addition to what you’re already doing. Some types of local businesses who could drive with monthly subscription packages include rental property, dry cleaners, house cleaners, massage therapists, personal trainers, aquarium maintenance, music teachers, tutors, car wash, hairstylists, energy healers, chiropractors, daycare providers, exterminators, landscapers, tree trimmers, pet cleanup, pet sitters, dog walkers, restaurants, and there are a lot of them. Idea being that the business that you offer can adapt our current revenue model that ends the fee start families cycle. Because you finish the roof in two months, you don’t have another claim. But guess what? Every month they’re paying you $200 to ensure that the lights are on, the door is opening, and the plumbing is clear. You can do that and they like it and refer you to someone else. And before you know it, you’re making more from recurring revenue than you’re making from projects. So you have to just understand what it is you’re trying to do for your clients. Make it easy for them to have the solution, and we go from there. I’d like to thank you for listening to episode twelve of online business systems on Zelahan’s podcast brought to you by Zelhan Systems Limited and our online business suite where we believe in using the port of the Internet, software and technology to make it easier to start, run and build a successful business. Your optimized online business comes with a conversion online business from our expert development team, a strategic and systematic online marketing system for short and long term success, and a team of certified and experienced developers, marketers, website security specialists, and business strategists that are working twenty four seven to ensure your business succeed. Let’s start with our micro plan that comes complete with website developers. You are UX designers, email marketers, SEO specialists, premium hosting and website security, your personal account manager, a business development strategist, and a PPC campaign from Facebook. Our micro plan starts at $5,000 per month, or less than $165 per day or less than $7 per hour. Our first ten clients will get a 10% discount each month, totaling $6,000 saved for the year. Go to onlinebasinselhound.com and set up a free consultation to get your 10% discount. Remember to share our episodes with your friends and family who you think will find this episode and others helpful. Hit the subscribe button on YouTube or where you listen to your podcasts to get notified when we bring more amazing content tailored for your online business success, visit Podcast@zelhan.com for a complete list of our podcast episodes. You can also visit Watch Zelahan.com or our YouTube channel to watch our most recent content. Most importantly, earn up to $500 in commission for every client referred to us by signing up to become an affiliate at affiliates Zelahan.com. All the resources mentioned in this episode in the show notes or episode description. If you’re listening on YouTube on the next episode of Online Business Systems, we will discuss why businesses fail, the three biggest reasons, and how to avoid them. This has been episode twelve of Online Business Systems, brought to you by Zele and Podcast. I’ve been your host, J Base Roberts. Take care until next time.
