S9E2 | pros and cons of creating a membership
Episode Description:
Sandra explains the pros and cons of creating a membership, and how to overcome the common challenges that come with it.
Show notes
“I love having that check mark beside the launch and having that recurring revenue come in so I could focus on what I love to do most, which is creating content and really interacting with the people in my membership and helping them.”
Last episode we talked about monthly recurring revenue, and why we would want predictable revenue in our business. In this episode we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of creating a membership, and how we can overcome some of the common challenges.
First, let’s start with the benefits. I used to own a digital marketing agency for almost 17 years, and we provided technical support for programs like WordPress. We built membership sites, we built course sites, we built websites, and did almost all things tech-related.
We would have a monthly retainer fee, and if the users didn’t use those hours, they would roll over to the next month. But in that case, most people weren’t buying hours because they were using their rollover hours. I talked myself out of doing this model, and it was a huge lesson to learn. It dawned on me how much I needed recurring revenue.
I wanted to know that my own monthly expenses were being covered, that I could keep my team members, and that I didn’t have to keep launching over and over again.
I launched my membership in 2019 and it was fantastic. It has pretty amazing retention, and having that recurring revenue helped me to sort out my money in my mind. I knew I could launch 2 or 3 times a year in that membership while still bringing in a steady monthly revenue.
Having a steady monthly revenue helped me to focus on what I cared about the most: creating content and helping my members. Recurring revenue brings you financial freedom and freedom of time. You can spend more time on family, friends, hobbies, or vacations. But let’s talk about some challenges.
When creating a membership, many people tell me they have trouble deciding what content to create. I recommend taking a couple of days where you outline what you’re going to create and make a list. Then, create that content ahead of time and drip it out. Make things really simple and know you can always add on later.