Why Every Business Needs a Continuity Program

In this article I’ll explain the benefits of implementing a continuity program into your business and show some continuity program examples.

First of all, let me explain some basics.

There are many different forms of continuity programs.

The goal of a continuity program is to generate predictable recurring revenue. This can be achieved in multiple ways, for example with subscription boxes, memberships or clubs.

An example of a continuity program in the dog niche is Paw Pack.

But they are being used in all sorts of different industries including socks, cosmetics and even nerd articles. If you’re interested in some continuity programs examples check out Hello Subscription. But you likely already use continuity programs on a daily basis. Netflix, Spotify, Shopify, Clickfunnels, Mailchimp – What do they all have in common?

They’re continuity programs that bring in monthly revenue.

Why Every Business Needs a Continuity Program

According to Jay Abraham there are three ways to grow a business:

1. Increase your number of clients
2. Increase your average transaction value
3. Increase the frequency that the average client buys from you

The easiest way to increase your revenue is to sell more products or services to existing customers. Why? Because your customers have already established a relationship with you. They know, like and trust you which makes it more likely for them to do business with you.

On the other hand, having to acquire new customers every time is difficult and costly.

Don’t put all your eggs into one basked by relying on one method only.

You have to spend money on ads and make an effort selling your products and services to “cold” people. The “colder” a prospect is, the harder it is to sell them something. That’s why building relationships is so important in marketing. Although every business needs to find new clients, at least at the very beginning,  it’s not the most effective way to generate revenue.

Increasing your average transaction value and the frequency of transactions is a more sustainable way to grow your business because this is much easier and cheaper to pull off.

What if you could get every customer to make ten or hundred transactions instead of just one?

That’s what continuity programs can do for your business.

They turn one time buyers into repeat buyers.

This is extremely powerful because you can expect a certain amount of money to come in every month. You don’t have to hope for it, you know with complete certainty that X amount of money will come in. As you can imagine, this eliminates a lot of headache, insecurity and stress.

Continuity Program Examples

So what type of continuity programs are right for you?

You already know what continuity programs are and why they are so great. And I’ve showed you some businesses that are entirely based on continuity programs. But let me show you some continuity program examples that you can use in your business:

• Subscription boxes in e-commerce
• Software as a service with monthly or annual plans
• Monthly or yearly retainers for freelancers and service businesses
• Memberships, clubs and premium online subscriptions
• Payment plans with monthly installments

Let’s talk about each of these continuity program examples individually.

1) Subscription Boxes in E-Commerce

If you’re selling physical products creating a subscription box is a really easy way to implement a continuity program. Just create a subscription box with a collection of products.

This isn’t easy when you’re drop shipping.

But if you have your own stock it’s not that hard.

Take a bunch of new products quarter yearly, put them into a nice box and send it to all customers who are subscribed to your continuity program. You can also send out monthly boxes if you have the time and energy to do so. If you’re drop shipping, talk to your supplier and see if they can help you put together and drop ship your own subscription box.

I recently consulted Bikini.com and helped them with the launch of their subscription box.

Every e-commerce business can use subscription boxes one way or another.

2) Software As a Service

This is one of the most common forms of continuity programs.

We all know it.

If you’re using Shopify, Clickfunnels or Mailchimp in your business then you’re enrolled in multiple continuity programs. I spend at least $1,000 a month on continuity programs like this.

It’s a really great model if you’re in the software business. Shopify used to charge a 3% commission on every sale in 2007. They later on switched to a continuity model where they charge $29-$299 per month depending on the plan you choose. Pretty much all software developers these days rely on continuity programs. With a few exceptions of course.

What if you don’t sell physical products and aren’t in the software industry?

Let’s look at some more continuity program examples.

3) Retainers in the Service Industry

If you’re running a service business you should start offering monthly or yearly retainers.

What’s a retainers?

It’s just another word for continuity programs for services.

When I started my marketing agency Nexilitas I worked on sales letters, product launches and sales funnels for customers. Later on I switched to relying mainly on monthly retainers of $1,000-$10,000 depending on the customers needs. This created a consistent and predictable stream of income every month and eliminated a lot of headaches.

If you’re a copywriter, marketer, translator, designer or similar, consider offering retainers.

4) Memberships and Clubs

If you own a blog or some other media asset, premium memberships or clubs can work great.

For example, many newspapers and magazines offer some sort of continuity program to their customers. You simply subscribe and get the newest edition sent to you whenever it comes out.

If you’re a blogger, YouTuber or Influencer you can create a VIP membership with exclusive content for your most avid fans. A lot of influencers are already doing this with Patreon. If you’ve never heard of it, Patreon allows you to create continuity programs for people who want to support your work. Your fans subscribe to one of the plans and gets access to exclusive content that’s secured in a members only area. But Patreon is not the only way of doing it.

Creating these types of online memberships is also really easy to do with Clickfunnels.

I used to have an online membership program called Inner Circle Mentoring where I published exclusive marketing trainings, interviews and resources for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. It doesn’t exist anymore but I’m considering creating something similar in the future.

5) Payment Plans and Installments

This is an easy way of adding continuity to your business.

It’s not really a continuity program in the strict sense but it does generate recurring revenue.

For some of my recent courses I offered people the ability to enroll with a payment plan. Instead of having to pay the full fee upfront, they cold only make a small downpayment an repay the outstanding debt in monthly payments spread over ten months or an entire year. This made it possible for many people to access my courses even if they didn’t have the funds ready.

The downside?

Some people don’t understand the difference between a membership and payment plan.

People will want to cancel installments and occasionally even do chargebacks for money they owe you. Of course this makes no sense at all. If you have a two year leasing contract for your car, you can’t just walk up to the car dealership and tell them to cancel the lease.

This is owed money that you repay for using the car.

There you go.

I hope you enjoyed these continuity program examples.

Let me know in the comments which type of continuity program you’re planning to use?