I was listening to a mentor of mine the other day. We're both on a team together and there was a question going around to everyone: “If you were handed $100 million today, what would you do?” It was just a simple exercise in thinking without constraints.

Anyway, I thought I was slick.

I said, “I'd invest it and live off the interest”. A pretty good answer, I thought. But, my mentor was up right after me and as soon as he gave his answer, I knew he was right. It was one of those “duh” moments. Anyway, he followed on from my answer and said:

“Yeah, I'd invest it, but I'd invest it in MY business.”

Forehead slap. “Duh!”

I know this. The best place to invest, recession or no, is in yourself. Something YOU have control over and input into. Instead of passively dumping it into a mutual fund or stock that you probably won't watch all that close and have no control over.

Your returns will almost always be better.

Because you're truly “invested”.

Not that stocks and mutual funds aren't a good way to diversify, but if you're an online business owner wondering what you should do as we potentially head for another recession… my mentor's advice is as apt as ever.

Invest in yourself.

Of course, how you do that matters, too.

That's one of the reasons we got into the membership game over 13 years ago. It's why we run a technology company built around memberships. It's why we implore online business owners to add membership into their revenue mix.

It's a game-changer.

It alleviates so much of the stress that goes along with running an online business. With most business models, you're starting from scratch each month. If you sell online courses, for example, you start back at 0 courses sold each month. And, if you want to hit your goals, you have sell all those units, again, to new customers.

But, with membership, you don't start at zero.

Yes, people have to renew… and some won't, but even if you only have $100 in recurring revenue from your membership, that's better than zero. Plus, you're not only selling new customers. Of course, you want to add new members and grow your bottom line, but most of your income comes from renewals.

Click here to listen to legendary direct response marketer, Brian Kurtz, talk about the power of renewals and membership

That's existing members simply keeping their subscription.

You've heard the stat, right? It's 6-7 harder to sell a new customer than it is to sell a repeat one. Membership takes that idea to the max. And, with time, you can grow that “floor” of income from $100 to $500, $1000, $5,000 and beyond.

And, recession isn't even a thing you'll think about

In any case, I'm painfully biased because I work at a company that sells membership software, but it's like I said… there's a reason we created the software we did. There's a reason we're in the business we're in. We all genuinely believe in the power of membership because we've watched it change people's lives time and again.

But, up to you.

Something to keep in mind as you navigate some potential future turbulence.

With membership especially, the sooner you get started, the better.

And, of course, if you decide to add membership to your online business, give our membership software, WishList Member, a look. It helps you turn a WordPress website into a full-featured membership site so you can start earning that recurring revenue that'll give you peace of mind — no matter the economy.

To your success!

In the recent podcast we published with Brian Kurtz, one thing he said that caught my attention was, “Once people renew once, the odds that they'll renew again grows.”

Brian also mentions that “renewals give me the most satisfaction.”

We’re talking about Recurring Revenue. Subscriptions. Continuity.

Right now, there's a lot of talk about our economy and whether or not we're in a recession. I'm not an expert when it comes to economics or what the definition of a recession is.

What I do know is that during COVID when a lot of business owners were struggling, online courses and training were doing better than ever because people were at home, in front of their computers, bored, and they knew that they needed to increase their skillset.

If YOU have a skillset that you can teach others, trust me when I say you have potential for a business.

There are a lot of different models you can use for a membership site, but if you want something more recession proof, allows you to reach more people, and provides a steady stream of income then you need to look at offering subscriptions.

You can make a million dollars by selling $39/m subscriptions one at a time. Look at the news companies, Netflix, Spotify…. And it will probably be easier than selling $2,000 courses one at a time.

Why?

Because the upfront investment is small. And once you get someone on that subscription and they renew, each time the odds they’ll renew grows.

Sell once and collect over the lifetime of that subscription. In addition to what you’re doing to generate new sales.

I would strongly recommend adding some sort of continuity to your membership model if you haven’t already done so.

But even more, I would recommend that you listen to the full interview with Brian Kurtz because there is an unbelievable amount of practical advice and wisdom in it.