Subscription Baby New Year 2021 is Resilient…
A short parable about the importance of welcoming a new family member (monthly subscription revenue) into your longstanding transactional household.
You have made it through perhaps the toughest year of your business life – COVID-19 was the ultimate disrupter and turned most people’s lives upside down. Many looked to add or extend their business model to add monthly subscription capabilities as many customers looked to significantly reduce capital expenditures (CAPEX) to deal with the economic turmoil.
As we exit 2020 - the pressure is mounting to create new revenue streams and give birth to a business model that will make your organization more resilient and ultimately set the stage for a stronger, growth-oriented business that will survive and then flourish as we return to normalcy..
Baby New Year 2021 needs to be conceived, supported, and fed to ensure your organization is positioned to add stability and a solid foundation that will ensure both short and long-term growth and profitability.
In short, the birth of a new subscription-based business will ensure you’ll be able to thrive and prosper in 2021 and beyond.
But just as in your home life, contemplating bringing a newborn into the world is a serious and life-altering decision.
It requires commitment! At this point in your business life do you have the desire and stamina to capture the new subscription revenue streams presenting themselves? It’s all about your ability to commit and adapt to the needs of a new family member that is different and will certainly require you to change some of your legacy approaches.
Although serious, these days it’s almost a non-decision if you’re looking to grow your business over the next year. As you may know, 25+ cents of every IT dollar in 2020 was spent on subscription-based services in the way of monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
Raising a baby to adulthood is not easy, however, as we all know it is one of the most rewarding things we ever do in our life. It is supremely rewarding as you see that new family member come into their own and become a significant contributor to the household.
Even if this family member does not look or act like all the rest – it’s OK. Some babies are just born to live a subscription-based lifestyle and you need to welcome this child into your family - just like you did all the rest.
Remember “Baby Services” – you thought she, and “Baby Product” would never stop fighting for your attention. You thought one baby would be just fine, then came another and another…
Yikes, those new business births were tough, but you made it work and your business household became stronger and more relevant as you saw the power of an expanded business model that allowed the household to grow.
Make the commitment, give birth to a new revenue baby in 2021…
The Newborn
You ready yourself for parenthood – perhaps you put a little money aside and perform some minor renovations in anticipation of the newborn. Remember, subscription-based babies, require special attention and the old parental playbook will just not work if you want to truly see them grow and become a fruitful and productive adult.
You know it will require change, but you make your decision to act and the blessed day comes and you are overjoyed to welcome the new baby into the world. But wait, you’re having to do all the work and the baby is 100% dependent on you and the rest of the family.
You spend all day worrying when and if the newborn will grow into a thriving young child – right now all it seems to do is sleep, eat and shit all day.
You could not be any prouder of your newborn – it is developing its own monthly personality…
The Child
What a great kid – you’re still on the hook to provide a ton of guidance and pay all the bills, but this child is showing signs of someone who’ll grow up to be strong, independent, and a valuable member of the family – in fact, it’s showing signs of becoming the most valuable member of the family. There is much to do and many things to learn, but your child is becoming more self-sufficient by the day and is more helpful around the house as they grow.
This kid is starting to get it and you see all the signs that they’ll be a productive citizen…
The Teenager
Wow – just when things were going so smoothly, and your child needed a little less guidance and attention, things have gone sideways. My cute little subscription baby has become an expensive, gangly, and disruptive teenager and is disrupting the order of our house. Oh well – that’s the teenage years, we all get through it even though it’s never clear how it’s all going to pan out.
They’ve become a wise-cracking know it all that wants more freedom and a much larger allowance.
They are growing, but they seem to have an endless appetite and they keep playing these repetitive new tunes that get louder and louder every month. This time it seems Elvis won’t ever leave the building, they’re here to stay and you love them.
Time to reset some of the rules and remind them of who still puts food on the table - for now…
The Young Adult
It’s great to see, your baby has grown up to become a strong, independent and self-sufficient young adult. What a solid and productive member of the family. They’ve provided so much more help around the house than you ever could have expected.
In fact, they’ve matured just at the right time as your older children are less able to pay room & board as they’ve become less able to support the household as their income and take-home pay (gross margins) have shrunken over time.
Looking back over the years (12 - 18 months in digital time…) perhaps the student has become the teacher as Baby Subscription has matured and shown you that this new monthly lifestyle called subscription-based revenue was not so foreign after all – we just needed to accept that change is a must, however, bringing a new life into one's world is always rewarding if you realize change is needed and bull-headed determination is a must if you are to raise a child to that’s strong, independent and self-sufficient.
You can clearly see that your subscription child is truly able to support themselves and is a winner who’s made the entire family better, stronger, and more valuable to the community…
Closing Thoughts
In closing, remember it takes a village to raise a child so don’t forget the importance of strategic partners, vendors, and distributors that can help provide a solid hand in growing & driving your subscription success.
KloudReadiness has just released KloudReadiness OnDemand to help you create, nurture and grow a healthy and profitable subscription business. We have made the journey many times and are built to help “new parents” raise their subscription baby’s in half the time and at half the cost of your traditional Nanny, Au Pair or Homeschooled legacy approach.
Now get moving and commit to giving birth to a
Subscription Baby in 2021!
Epilogue
Although it was tough to originally support and protect that new baby it turned out to be the best thing you’ve ever done. In the end, this kid will have the healthiest and longest life expectancy of all your children – bar none.
You pause and take a minute to reflect - what a proud moment it is as you look back on the newborn’s birth, first steps, homework, awkward teenage years and then seeing them become a bright and prosperous young adult. It feels great creating a strong and lasting family legacy…