In this talk Aaron LeBauer argues that businesses without a recurring revenue system are leaving significant money on the table. He defines recurring revenue as income that repeats month after month after a single sale, using gym memberships and Costco memberships as familiar examples. LeBauer shares how his own physical‑therapy clinic survived COVID‑related disruptions by creating a "Wellness Warrior" membership that bundled PT, massage, discounts, priority scheduling, and other bonuses. While massage services vanished during the pandemic, the membership model kept cash flowing. He stresses that relying on a single income stream is risky and encourages entrepreneurs—whether hairstylists, gym owners, or any service provider—to develop multiple, subscription‑based revenue streams. The core message is that a recurring revenue system stabilizes cash flow, protects against market shocks, and can unlock millions in untapped profit.
Chapters
If you don't have a recurring revenue system, you're potentially leaving millions of dollars on the table. Clearly by now, if you only have one stream of income and it was a clinic or a retail business, you're hurting. I can tell you what, one of my income streams was hurting. The other one was doing pretty well, doing good. It would have been doing better, but it's doing good. And I've got a couple that are staying steady. So let's talk about not only multiple streams of income, but I'm gonna talk about recurring revenue. So what is recurring revenue? Recurring revenue is income that comes in month after month after month after month. But you only sell it once. You don't have to have the money conversation with your clients over and over again. Every month you have it one time and they agree to a monthly membership or gym membership. Just think about like the gyms, right? You get on a gym membership and every month you get revenue from the membership. Well, what do you have to do every month? You have to, you know, service them, you know, have to give them value so they stay. But recurring revenue is one of the reasons that our clinic was able to survive. Because two years ago, we put together a Wellness Warrior program for some of our members. And they get, not only get a physical therapy treatment, they get other bonuses and discounts and special service and priority scheduling, et cetera. And not a single one of our bonus Warrior members asked to stop their membership. Not only do we have people coming in for physical therapy, we have people coming in for massage therapy. We have our Wellness Warriors. That's three streams of revenue in our clinic. Guess what? Massage therapy got cut off, like right at the neck, like bleeding, no tourniquet, nothing. Just like, it was just like whop. No more massage. Because that's not an essential service. I mean, it's not a life saving service. I mean, yes, massage helps a ton of people. I can argue it all day long. More than most physical therapy you've probably experienced, your colleagues are doing and can't do it because it's not a medical service. But we're also not doing a lot of in person treatments because staff wasn't that comfortable. I don't want to have people coming in to our clinic who might have coronavirus and spreading it to other people. But we had other streams of revenue and other clients to serve. So if you don't have a recurring revenue system, you're potentially leaving millions of dollars on the table. Because people come in for physical therapy and they leave. You have to have a what's next. You sell once and then over time, you deliver the change that people want. The service, the transformation, etc. I mean, man, if you're a hairstylist, why not have a hair club of the month? It's not just for men. You get your hair cut every month. If you don't have this, I want to know what else are you missing? Because this is just one of the multiple streams of income that you should have. If you have a business, you need to have something. You know, it's not something that people don't need, but it's something. Just think about Costco. The only way to shop at Costco is to get a membership. You know why Costco's prices are so darn cheap? It's not just because they buy in bulk and they strong arm the factories. It's because of the memberships. It's a yearly recurring revenue. I don't know if they auto bill you, but still they, they got a membership. Most people pay it over and over. They get hooked, pay it over and over again. So you need to have a recurring revenue system in your business or businesses. I have it in both of my main businesses. Long time ago. I didn't know that I needed recurring revenue, but that's one of the big things that's kept me going. If you only have one stream of income, you need to have multiple streams of income. Sam.
