Subscription based business model ideas?

[stormjb1]

Hi guys, I've been browsing the forum relentlessly for the last few weeks and have learned a lot. Props to MJ for setting up such an awesome environment and the writing the life changing book.

Anyways, I've been trying to find a need for a subscription based business that is a web app online. But I just can't seem to find a need, or a sector which isn't dominated by a major player. I want to create an automated business that can serve at least 10k people and charge $10 per month. (Don't worry, I'm not focusing on the mischevious cat (money), I know the product is the core)

Are there any subscription based businesses you know or can point me towards?

P.s Bit about myself. I'm 22, a business management student at a "top" UK university, not very technical however have learnt enough RubyonRails to build a protoype.

Thank you.

 

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[travisl]

You can go on clickbank and search the marketing place and sort by "avg rebill total". There's a ton of subscription based products there.

 

[FreeMan]

Think about a B2B web app. You can charge more, so you'll need less customers to get to your target revenue.

Since you learnt RoR you probably know about 37Signals and all the other SaaS apps out there.

If you go down the B2B path, talk to and/or research some businesses and find out what their problems and pain points are. It'll take time but you'll learn a lot about your market's needs this way.

Do a forum search for your key terms (subscription, web app, saas, etc) and you should be able get some ideas too.

Post a more detailed intro and maybe others can help you more as they'll know more about your background and areas of interest.

Good luck!

 

[dknise]

P.s Bit about myself. I'm 22, a business management student at a "top" UK university, not very technical however have learnt enough RubyonRails to build a protoype.

Decision chart for ya.

Got money?
Yes... Have enough knowledge to know the software infrastructure?
.........Yes? Continue and outsource.
.........No? Quit. Try something you're knowledgable with.

No... Are you technical enough to code it yourself?
.........Yes? Code it yourself. Goodluck! should be good stuff
.........No? Quit. No money, no knowledge, just want to make a dollar. Not gonna happen.

 

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[Bigguns50]

Sounds to me like you are looking at the money because you told us

10k people and charge $10 per month.

I did that for years and got nowhere. 3 days after reading the book, I found a problem to solve.

One of the best things I got from the book was to look around you for problems. I found one where I worked and it's a B to B. There must be problems in college. Do the professors bitch about anything ? Students ? What isn't being done well ?

 

[DeletedUser2]

some real experience for ya

in any rebill cycle there is alot of churn.

better add in, how to keep adding people to the funnel

we have a subscription, depending on the product, 1.2 to 1.8 months average. so we have to keep filling the funnel

find some of the stickiest things you can, and focus on solving those problems.

good luck

Z

 

[Nick]

If you know the product is the core, how did you come up with 10k at 10$ for a web app?

You do not have a market, so you can't estimate it's size, perhaps there are no 10k customers there. You do not have a product that solves a problem yet, so you do not know whether it will be worth 10$, or 100$, or 1$, etc...

You don't know the problem, so how do you know a web app as a subscription service works best?

You got it all backwards. Once you start looking at a problem with these constraints: 10k paying customers market, recurring revenue web app, worth 10$ per month, etc... is much harder to find a problem.

Find a problem, then do all the calculations backwards, and see if it's worth the effort to get in.

 

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[TedM]

we have a subscription, depending on the product, 1.2 to 1.8 months average. so we have to keep filling the funnel

in the US, wine of the month clubs average 12 months of membership duration...

 

[H. Palmer]

What can a subscription based app do for a customer?


Access to a search based database
Access to great content (text, video)
Access to a decision support algorithm
Access to a service package
Access to a people network
Access to ...

 

[leighstjohn]

Hi stormjb

I'm with most others here - first find the problem - then find/build the solutionS - package them up, market them and sell them...

You may even discover your 10 x 10 focus is incorrect - perhaps it turns out that there are several tiers of pricing...

Start with solving the problem...

Wishing you every success and keep us posted!

 

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[JudoTom]

I run a subscription based business and I am starting a few online ones. Consumer for now. One business one in the near future.

I got the idea from some martial artists who have membership sites. You pay monthly, they put up vids. Very simple 20-40 bucks per month.

My current business is brick and mortar so not the same per se but a lot of the 'rules' apply. Keep people happy, make it easy for them to get value, over deliver on whatever price you charge, stay in touch, etc etc

If you want to see some of the online sites I belong too let me know. I also belong to a few sights that are business consulting sights.