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The Subscription Playbook
How to build a rock-solid recurring revenue stream. By Robert Coorey, MBA. Free as an ebook and audiobook for everyone, and free in hardcover for Australian business owners.
Outside Australia and want the hardcover? Buy it for $29 with free worldwide shipping.
304 pages, Aviva Publishing, ISBN 978-1-63618-240-7. 5 hours 19 minutes on audio
Are you tired of unpredictable cash flow?
Do you wish you had a steady stream of customers who pay every month?
The Subscription Playbook shows you how to add subscription revenue to almost any business and protect it from copycats. It blends Robert's own stories with best practice from big corporations and nimble startups, and it shows how even the most traditional businesses (doctors' offices, coffee shops, restaurants) can add subscription billing.
You'll learn
- How almost any small business, even on a shoestring budget, can start adding subscription revenue
- The exact steps to introduce subscriptions and enjoy predictable cash flow
- The factors that protect a subscription business from competitors (the MOATS framework)
- Unusual ways to build a subscription business that's hard to copy
- How two well-known hardware businesses shifted their models and added software subscriptions
- How to borrow ideas from computer games to keep customers engaged
Five reasons to read it (even if you don't have a subscription business)
- Almost any business can add subscription billing. Doctors, lawyers, restaurants and hairdressers are already doing it.
- Subscription businesses are easier to sell, and for a higher price, than one-off revenue businesses.
- Customers often prefer smoother billing. A lawyer friend's clients would rather pay $3,000 a month than $30,000 upfront.
- There's a framework for choosing. Eight subscription models and five pricing models, and how to pick yours.
- You'll learn to dig your moat before the copycats arrive.
Every chapter is also online in full, updated for 2026, with tools, templates and new case studies.
Download the ebook free
Get the PDF instantly, plus the audiobook and Feed a Starving Crowd.
Inside the book
Chapter 1: Subscription recurring revenue: the ultimate business
Why recurring revenue plus a moat beats one-off sales, from the 1926 Book of the Month Club to why subscription businesses sell for revenue multiples.
Chapter 2: Choosing your subscription model
The eight models (member benefits, consumables, unlimited content, boxes, bundled services, insurance, SaaS, minimum commitment) and how to pick yours.
Chapter 3: Choosing your pricing model
Fixed fee, advertising, e-commerce, transaction processing and data/APIs, plus freemium vs free trial and annual vs monthly.
Chapter 4: Usage-based pricing
How Procore prices on construction volume, net dollar retention, the downsides and the four factors to get it right.
Chapter 5: Dig your moat
The MOATS framework: Marketing supremacy, One, Audience, Toughness and Switching, with Nubank, GoPro and Stripe.
Chapter 6: Network effects
The six network effects that turn small companies into fortresses, chicken-and-egg, and gamification.
Chapter 7: Land and expand
Lift revenue without a huge sales team: Patreon, a local bakery and DocuSign's keys to success.
Chapter 8: Grow client numbers on a shoestring
Community, webinars, referral programs and embedded integrations, plus 50 low-cost tactics.
Chapter 9: Minimize churn, maximize usage
Groove's 71% churn cut, Uber's modern loyalty program and the best practices that keep subscribers.
Chapter 10: Are you on track? Product/market fit
Netflix, Looker, Patreon, GitHub and Superhuman's PMF engine, plus bootstrappers who did it on tiny budgets.
What readers say
“A must-read for anyone thinking of subscription pricing in their business. I wish we had this book at Catch!”
Co-founder of Catch, Scoopon and Eatnow/Menulog
“Subscription works and the idea of creating a 'moat' around your business to keep customers engaged and happy is simply brilliant. A must-read and one of the best business books I have read.”
Award-winning business coach and advisor to fast-growth companies
“Deeper client relationships and more predictable finances lie at the heart of every entrepreneur's dreams, and subscription business models are the answer.”
Best-selling author and C-suite advisor
“Robert lives his talk and is the real deal when it comes to sharing the best in the market. The best secrets and tips to build subscriptions that last. Highly recommended.”
International best-selling author and speaker
Frequently asked questions
Is the ebook really free?
Yes. The PDF and the audiobook are free for everyone, worldwide. We ask for your first name and email so we can send them to you. Our sponsor, BPAG Accountants, makes the free copies possible.
Can I get a printed copy?
If you own or manage a registered Australian business with an ABN, you can claim a free hardcover, shipped free. One per business while stocks last.
Is the book still current?
The frameworks are evergreen. The examples are from 2022, so every chapter online has a 2026 update, and the site adds AI pricing, new case studies and the latest Australian subscription rules.
Who is it for?
Owners of service businesses, retailers and e-commerce brands, SaaS and AI founders, and anyone who wants revenue that turns up every month.