I had just launched my Airtable Blueprint for the FOURTH time...and had made a whopping $257.  As much as I loved the swipe file collection, and the customers who had invested in it…$257 would barely cover groceries.  That was the month I panicked. I had over $3,000 in rent and bills...and less than $300 in my bank account.

Even worse...I knew that EVEN if I could scrounge together the money I needed to survive (which I KNEW I could do, since I’d done it every month previous), next month would start the clock over. So not ONLY was I panicking over the rent due in 7 days...I was panicking over the rent due in 37 days. 

I needed something more.  I needed something I could grow...and something I could depend on. I didn’t want to feel (or look) like a failure in business anymore. I desperately wanted my friends and family to see my success (and MAYBE even envy it a little). 

I sat in front of my laptop...a blank stare at a blank screen.  I had NO clue what to search for.

“How to make money in small business?”

“How to create a profitable business?”

“How to make money every month?” 

Nothing.  Just a bunch of crap articles I’d read before telling me to start an Etsy shop, create a course, and write an ebook. They were all great suggestions...but they weren’t dependable OR profitable. They didn’t help me NOW.

That same day, I decided to help myself out by going through my bank account to kill what I didn’t need. As I did this, I learned two things…

1. The majority of my money went to recurring charges like Netflix, business tools like ConvertKit, and a handful of membership sites.

2. I DESPERATELY didn’t want to cancel any of them.

As scared as I was about being evicted, I felt JUST as dedicated to these “recurring revenue” sites for various reasons.

“This is only $10 a month…”

“This one is helping my business grow…”

“I’ve been a member of this one for three years!”

I felt like MORE than just a customer...I felt like a member of the team. I felt emotionally attached to these companies.

A light bulb went off. What was stopping me from doing the same? What was keeping me from creating SOME sort of subscription system of my own business?

​

​A few things, actually…

I had no idea where to start.

I had LITERALLY zero clue of the tech involved to create this.

I wasn’t sure what I would even put INTO my subscription.

Considering my business was making ZERO profit...I had nothing to lose and dove headfirst into finding the answers to these conundrums.

I THOUGHT I would spend a week or so assessing the doability of my new project...but less than three hours later, I’d bought my URL and started uploading content I had sitting on a shelf.  

Within three weeks...I had my first 50 subscribers, and was making my first recurring $1,000 in revenue.  Sure...it wasn’t the $3,000 I needed, but it was SO much more. It was hope, growth, and finding the top of that hill I’d been pushing my boulder up for almost two years.

Don’t get me wrong...subscriptions aren’t simply about creating content and finding subscribers. There’s a certain “rickety” psychology to this style of business.  It’s all about trial, error, and being genuine with your newfound community.

There’s an amazing phenomenon in small business.  When you STOP doing everything for the money...the money will actually start flowing. I had to STOP focusing on the end result, and focus on the path it took to get there.

Almost a year and half down the road, and the community, growth and sanity have been groundbreaking.  I’ve learned to focus on my community and my content...and let the income of nearly $8,000 (in February of 2018) grow month after month.

I’ve become passionate about not only membership sites, but the idea of launching multiple income revenue streams to help keep YOUR business new, cutting edge, and profitable.