10 Best Recurring Revenue Business Ideas in 2024
Financial freedom is a luring term for any entrepreneur, solo or working with a team. Achieving it is an art and science, the recurring revenue model being one of its ‘branches’.
But how easy is getting started? Today, we’re sharing top hot business ideas that proved sustainable thanks to high recurring revenue potential. And are eagerly sharing them with you.
What’s the Best Thing About Recurring Revenue Business?
The simple math behind it!
It’s widely accepted that recurring revenue business is based on the exponential math model, which is different from the linear growth of traditional businesses.
In business, a linear growth model typically implies that the business grows at a steady pace. For example, if you sell 10 products or services per month, and do that consistently, that’s linear growth, which means you know what to expect.
Recurring revenue businesses often don’t follow this linear pattern, they grow exponentially. This means faster and faster over time. As customers are happy and refer others, the business grows quickly. Then the business gets bigger, attracting more customers and generating more revenue faster.
A simple conclusion here? You get more money and get it faster.
Top Benefits of Setting Up a Recurring Model
Before diving right in, let us consider why you should set up a business with a recurring revenue model.
- Predictable Revenue: When you set up a recurring model for your business, you have a fixed, predictable revenue for each month or year. You know you are bound to get a specific amount and this eases up your worries about continuous cash flow to sustain the business.
- Customer Retention: When you set up easy installments for a recurring subscription, you retain more members. Further, if your content is good, the users would not like to let go of their access. For instance, Netflix. Even if a person is unable to use it regularly, they like to have the access for anytime they want to use the platform.
- Low Customer Acquisition Costs: With a fixed set of members paying a fixed amount, your investments in acquiring new customers can be limited. And it’s 5 times cheaper to retain the old members instead of finding new ones, thus, you must consider recurring plans.
- Upsell and Cross-sell: You already have a market to sell your other offers. The ones who are attached to your business would love to explore what more you have. Thus, chances of upselling and cross-selling increases.
- Scalability: When you have a fixed amount of money in hand, you can plan the growth of your business and scale it up. This assurance lets you invest in other ventures without any worry of exhausting your cash.
- Strong Customer Relationships: With a constant member base, you build strong relationships. You would connect with them on a personal level and understand their problems. This can be reflected in your future offerings thus, making the relationship and value more strong.
Subscription & Consumption Business Models
Creating and providing SaaS services with upfront payments is one of the most popular methods of tapping into a recurring revenue model.
They normally rely on such popular business models:
Subscription
Offer monthly, quarterly, or annual contracts paid upfront (popular with SaaS).
Consumption
Offer usage-based pricing (e.g. pay-as-you-go services).
With subscription models, sales can happen much faster. Customers can start using services in just a few hours, and pay you every month/year.
However, it’s not exclusive to Saas services, many businesses have a chance to build such a model in one way or another. So let’s take a look at the different recurring revenue business ideas.
High-Potential Recurring Revenue Business Ideas
These ideas vary from low-cost to high-investment, so consider your budget and personal interests when choosing.
Content-Based Membership Club
Communities and courses. These are names for modern platforms for social connection and personal growth, and potential customers seek them intensively.
Digital content memberships are so far the most obvious, effective, and attractive way to start a recurring revenue business. Here are a few examples:
- Membership club for pet owners.
- Workout routines and fitness challenges.
- A platform offering parenting advice.
- A monthly book club.
- Coaching.
- Podcasts and videos on nutrition, fitness, mindfulness, and holistic health.
There are several pricing models you can consider for your content-based membership club that can generate recurring revenue:
- Tiered pricing (levels of access).
- Monthly/yearly subscriptions.
- Pay-per-view or pay-per-download.
Podcast Subscription
Starting a podcast subscription is not for everyone but definitely for those who want to build exclusive content and generate recurring revenue at the same time.
How to do that? Think of Patreon or Supercast. These platforms easily connect with most podcast hosting services. For example, such popular podcasts like ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ and ‘Chapo Trap House’ generate revenue through platforms like Patreon.
Ads or sponsorships alone don’t provide that steady revenue streams creators of podcasts are looking to have, so offering premium, subscriber-only episodes, early access, ad-free versions, or even behind-the-scenes content is a great way to create recurring revenue.
Niche Digital Product
From appointment scheduling software to lawyer calendar apps, there is a niche for everyone to create a digital product that solves customer pains. Find a solution that subscribers would need on a regular basis and create recurring revenue streams.
Interesting modern niches include demands like:
- Memory preservation or family trees.
- Travel gear recommendations.
- Simple media editing tools.
Online Virtual Services
Offer customers the option to subscribe monthly or annually for personalized, one-on-one virtual experiences or assistance in various fields.
For example, provide a virtual app that allows customers to monitor their pets from home while they’re away.
Consider such examples:
- Virtual pet sitting service.
- Virtual home staging designs.
- Virtual personal shopping and styling.
- Virtual escape rooms.
- VR games.
Access to Online Events
Have a good head for organizing events? Offer subscribers exclusive or premium access to live and on-demand virtual events on a regular basis.
Subscribers can pay a monthly or yearly fee to access a selection of live virtual events and meetings (webinars, workshops, or networking sessions).
Delight higher-paying members get VIP perks like access to smaller, more intimate sessions and workshops.
Mobile App
No denying, people love apps. They’re a convenient way to access entertainment and information. Businesses that can create a great app can tap into this growing market!
To succeed, you’ll need:
- A compelling idea: what impact can you create by solving a specific pain?
- A user-friendly design: Attractive, memorable, and usable.
- Effective marketing: Promote your app in various ways.
Top three categories for your ideas:
- Entertainment
- Education
- Personal productivity
Car Wash Memberships
Let’s talk about the non-internet world scenarios a little bit more. Car washing is just one of the niche examples, where subscriptions for recurring revenue can work pretty well.
For example, customers can pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited car washes/the set number of washes. This can attract regular customers who want a clean car year-round. There can also be seasonal car washing passes.
Looking even further, you can build tiered plans for more basic washes or premium options like waxing, polishing, and interior cleaning.
Rotating Art Subscription
Such things as giving art for rent are very popular in big cities, among both art enthusiasts and businesses.
Subscribers pay a monthly fee to rent original or limited-edition artworks for their home or office, with the option to rotate pieces every few months, for example.
Household Product Refills
There is a growing market and demand across eco-conscious customers.
Learning from popular examples, this is how it may work – subscribers receive monthly refills of concentrated cleaning products in refillable containers. Look to companies like Blueland that aim to fight plastic waste for inspiration.
Personal Travel Concierge
Time-starved travelers would adore having a concierge who can manage all their travel logistics.
That can include services like trip planning, including flights, accommodations, transportation, dining reservations, and even personalized itineraries. Subscribers pay a yearly fee to get unlimited or tiered access to the service.
ARMember for Perfect Recurring Revenue Flow
Recurring revenue models rely heavily on technology to automate and manage the subscription process.
If you want to build a content-based membership business, ARMember, the all-in-one membership management software for WordPress, facilitates recurring revenue thanks to powerful subscription management and payment gateway tools.
- Create various subscription tiers for your content.
- Manage your subscriptions, customer information, billing cycles, and payment processing easily.
- Automated billing with numerous payment gateways and secure transactions.
- Boost subscriptions with powerful marketing tools.
Recurring Revenue Business Ideas – Final Tips
If you want to increase sales and stabilize revenue, think of how to make it recurring, with a totally fresh product or service launch.
More final tips:
- To achieve recurring revenue, you need to deliver recurring value to your customers. It’s not all set and forget, it’s a result of your regular effort and impact.
- You can utilize multiple business models at the same time, combining subscriptions with other models.
- Always look at churn levels to measure customer commitment.
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Brian Denim
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