How would you like to own a business with minimal labor that makes $1 to $2.5 million a year, with 50% of that, pure profit?

Click here to find out.

Investors have discovered the thriving business of car washing, all due to subscriptions.

Car washes without subscriptions suffer from the high competition, bad economics pushing price down, no loyalty with customers pulling their cars in anywhere, and then bad weather that shuts down revenue until it’s passed.

However, it’s interesting to note that subscriptions have totally eliminated these negative issues for car washes. And turned some into positives. And, what car washes have discovered can help you use a subscription business model to disrupt your industry.

This episode of Be Unleavable^® Subscription Growth reveals the key value drivers for any business looking to disrupt their industry using the subscription business model using today’s car wash explosion as a key example.

📘 What I’m reading:

I’ve always been aggravated by the book, The E-Myth. For more than 2-decades, I’ve had to listen to people praise that book. The whole time I’ve been planning to write a sequel, the E-Myth Myth.

To me, the E-Myth is similar to giving a friend a free cat. Sure, it’s all fluffy and cute. But, it doesn’t account for the claws, litter box and the incessant meowing at 5:00 am when it wants to go outside. Systems look great and bring their own problems.

The E-Myth promises a utopia of systems. Building systems is presented like it’s a science. Document a process. Done.

However, creating systems that work is an ART. Anyone can create a system that fails. Few can create systems that work.

All this came rushing back to me this week. I invested $88.75 to buy a used copy of Systemantis – How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail by John Gall.

This is a book I’ve been searching for my entire life. And, it was published in 1975, 20 years BEFORE The E-Myth.

This book gives you Superman X-Ray Vision to see into a system to identify why it is failing.

Here are a few of the axioms you’ll discover within the book:

• To those within a system, outside reality tends to pale and disappear
• A system is no better than its sensory organs
• Complicated systems seldom exceed 5% efficiency
• New systems generate new problems
• People in systems do not do what the system says they are doing
• Things are not what they are reported to be
• A large system, produced by expanding the dimensions of a smaller system, does not behave like the smaller system
• A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
• Programs never run the first time. Complex programs never run.
• A system continues to do its thing, regardless of need.
• Systems develop goals of their own the instant they come into being.
• …and many, many more.

If you’ve ever wondered why a system isn’t working the way you had expected, spend what you must to get your hands on a copy of Systemantics. The book is funny. And, the humor reveals truths about why the operating system board apps, the systems books, and the productivity courses are built on the same flawed assumptions.

Your approach to building systems will never be the same. And, it’s possible, if you are lucky, that it’ll improve.

🎧 What I’m listening to:    

When I was a teenager I spent hours at the mall record store flipping through the record albums choosing the one to buy that week. I’d flip through each and every album. Examined the photos front and back.  And, my selection got 20-50 listens over the following week.

My 14-year-old self could not comprehend the catalog available on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music and Amazon Music. It’s insane.  Millions of songs, at the press of a button.

And yet, most people listen to the same music they enjoyed when they were a kid.

Yes, there’s a special place in my heart for Van Halen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, and Queen.

And yet, today’s technology brings you millions of new great songs.  They also bring you a problem. How do you sift and sort to identify the songs you’ll enjoy.

That’s why we have friends.

My friend, Kevin Rogers of Copy Chief, and I message about music 95% of the time. He’s a brilliant marketing mind. And, I love every time we talk about marketing and headlines. But I love him more when we talk about music.

Fresh off the Kevin Rogers recommendation list, for you Southern Rock fans, Tornillo by Whiskey Myers.  You’ll know if this is for you a minute into the second song, named “John Wayne.”

My favorite type of rock band has at least three guitarists, check. And, when I first heard this song I thought it must be Alex Van Halen on the drums. This prompted me to watch a live, in-concert version of the song where I discovered the keyboard player also plays drums sometimes which explained the unique sound I was hearing. It’s not Alex on the drums, two guys were required in this case. Still excellent.

If you enjoy Whiskey Myers, thank Kevin Rogers.

My 2020 New Years’ Resolution was to listen to music that’s less than five years old 95% of the time.  This has put me on a constant search for new, great musicians.

What’s your favorite new music?

👀Watch Be Unleavable Subscription Growth here.

About Robert Skrob

The problem with subscription membership programs is that members quit, I fix that problem. For more than 20-years I have specialized in direct response marketing for member recruitment, retention and ascension in diverse subscription members environments including non-profit associations, for-profit publishers/coaching, subscriptions and SAAS companies. For an evaluation of your current churn rate and how I can improve it, contact me here. I discover there are often two or three quick wins you can implement within a week to lower churn immediately, let’s talk about your quick wins.