122: My Top 5 Sources of Recurring Revenue

As I ask in the introduction to Free Time: What revenue streams are in that oh-so-sweet-spot of profit, ease, and joy in your business? Recurring revenue is one of the holy grails within a sustainable, scalable business. It’s an area that I have focused intently on since 2015, so in a follow-up episode 112: My 3 Biggest Business Regrets, today I’m sharing more about the recurring income streams in my business.

The primary recurring streams of income in my business are (in order of size): 

1. Corporate licensing, primarily of the Pivot IP 

2. Coaching powered a network of subcontractors

3. My private BFF community

4. Royalties from my three books (not much, but they still count!) and LinkedIn Learning video courses

5. Podcast ad revenue, and 

6. Affiliate sales (okay, so I snuck in a sixth! These aren’t quite recurring on a monthly basis, but a small-yet-active ongoing activity) 

Some of these are more passive than others, but together they combine to create a diversified business model that supports both Fortune 5 clients and “Fortune Five Million” as the basecamp founders would say :)

🌟3 Key Takeaways:

• You can batch service delivery like you batch other tasks. Consider putting all of your coaching (or equivalent!) calls on certain days of the week or weeks of the month to maximize your free space.

• Sometimes “passive” income is really just asymmetric income, where you front-load the effort, and see the results later on.

• Ideally, a business will have a small mix of recurring opportunities so you’re never completely dependent on a single stream or client. I aim for three primary focus areas when it comes to recurring revenue: licensing, coaching, and community. 

📝Permission: To renegotiate how you invoice clients, shifting from one-off project-based billing to recurring retainer-based billing. You might be surprised at how much easier this makes things for your clients too, by reducing decision-fatigue and scheduling complications! 

✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Reevaluate one of the revenue streams in your business: How could you “productize” a service, making a one-off or ad-hoc stream more predictable by shiting it toward a subscription model? 

📘Books Mentioned:

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business 

• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

• Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future-and What to Do About It

• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

🔗Resources Mentioned: 

• Jordan Gill’s Systems Saved Me

• Free Time Programs: BFF Community, Free Time Operations Dashboard, Voxer Coaching Waitlist

• Turning the Flywheel (Monograph)

🎧Related Podcast Episodes: 

• 112: My 3 Biggest Business Regrets 

• Pivot 066: Create Multiple Streams of Income with Dorie Clark

• 016: IP Licensing with Lee LeFever

• 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte

• Pivot 283: What Are You Here to Do? How to Find a Path That Fits with Adrian Klaphaak

• Pivot 288: Embracing Uncertainty — Mic Flip with Adrian Klaphaak

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