Is getting paid to refer business services to companies actually legit

Yes, it is legit. Companies pay referral fees and commissions all the time. The question worth asking is not whether it is real. It is whether what you are referring actually holds up.

I got burned early on recommending things I barely understood. A buddy told me the commission was good and I passed it along. The service underdelivered and I looked like an idiot. That taught me to only refer things I would stake my name on, because my name is what I am selling.

The way I look at it, there are really only four ways to build residual income. Real estate, retirement accounts, royalties, and expense reduction. Most of those, the client gets nothing fresh after the sale. Expense reduction is different. If you refer a service that saves a company money every single month, that company is getting real value every single month. They would never want to leave. That is the test I use for anything I refer. Would the client ever want to leave? If the answer is yes, I stay away.

So the model is legit, but the product behind it has to be legit too. Work once, get paid continually only works if the client keeps getting something worth paying for. If they stop getting value, they cancel, and you stop getting paid. That is not a residual. That is just a delayed transaction. Pick what you refer carefully and the math works. Pick wrong and you are just a middleman with a short shelf life.