A common advice you'll hear from many people:
Be in the re-order business. Not a one-time-order business.
Today, I'll break down 6 models to be in a re-order business. (Inspired by Built to Sell)
1 - Subscription
Subscriptions are the norm in today's world. It's when you offer products or services through a subscription.
Think of Netflix and SaaS platforms. This model is so attractive, that even florist businesses have adopted it to receive predictable revenue.
2 - Recurring Service
In this model, you provide a service that needs to be performed regularly, like cleaning, maintenance, or marketing services.
Every week, a cleaner comes to my house to do some cleaning. Every month, your office orders stationery.
3 - Productized Service
Turn customer service into standardized offerings, you create a repeatable process. This makes your business scalable and less dependent on specific individuals.
In the E-Myth, Michael Gerber advises being systems-dependent instead of people-dependent. Marketing and consulting agencies, such as us – often find it hard to scale, because we're people-dependent. The solution is to create productized services, which we're working hard at.
Think fixed packages for design, social media content, or consulting services.
4 - Licensing
Licensing is a great model that offers scalability without increasing operational load. It usually involves developing a propriety intellectual property (IP) like software, patents, and copyrights and allowing others to use it for a fee.
Think of Microsoft. They license their software to businesses and individuals, allowing users to access their tools for a recurring fee.
5 - Franchising
Got a successful business model? Franchising is what most business owners would do next.
You often see this in F&B.
McDonald’s, allows others to start their own restaurant, replicating its business models in new locations – and earns royalties from each franchise.
6 - Agency/Commission
This is the bread and butter of affiliate marketers and salespeople.
You act as a middleman. Market services or products, and earn commissions (preferably recurring) from each sale.
As an example, we're affiliated with Mailerlite – and earn a recurring commission for the few clients and people we've referred as customers to the platform.
Which models can you apply in your business? Jump to the comment section on this post and let us know.
