Do you ever notice how each year brings new business adventures and challenges? The early years of a business are figuring things out, and each year gets a little easier. And then throw in the odd regulatory challenge or, er, other challenges just to keep things interesting. This year marks the 3rd year we have been publishing the magazine since taking over. This fall will mark the 10th year since Handmade Seller was created!
We hear from many artisans how important it is to keep telling our stories. To write from the perspective of the small army of one business. To care about and champion small business and embrace its messiness. Our goal remains to be a voice of pragmatism to help you sort through the noise to make the right decisions for your business. We love the beauty that handmade businesses bring to our world. And we want to make the journey a little less lonely.
Wait, what’s this “we” stuff? Have you noticed my writing lately has had more “we” in it? This is because my husband Matt is starting to work on the business with me. Matt’s background is in technology, so he will be mostly behind the scenes. Mr HMS, as I like to affectionately call him, also joins me at trade shows and events. This is enabling us to finally have time to complete a number of projects to improve our offerings.
I share more below about our new options for subscriptions, better currency support, and our initiative to plant trees as a way to give back to our industry.
Our first project has been looking at our subscription model. The first subscriptions we offered were very limited. This was new for us, and I wanted to make sure we could manage what we had. However, I also know our readership is global, and this wasn’t as flexible as it could be.
New subscription options
We have added a number of options for each level of subscription. The core content of the magazine will stay the same, with minimal advertising. Keeping advertising minimal is an intentional part of our business model. All subscriptions also come with a monthly newsletter giving special access to additional articles as well as a roundup of everything we have published in the last month.
Our Print subscription still gets a copy of the magazine mailed to you, provides digital and archive access to our back catalog as well. This subscription is available in the US only, as we don’t have the ability to print outside the US.
We have added quarterly print subscriptions, in addition to our existing semi-annual and annual options. We have also enhanced our payment options by adding Paypal. This is in addition to our existing cards, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.
We have also chosen to keep our subscription pricing the same for 2025 as 2024.
Digital
Our digital subscription allows you to download a copy of the the magazine or read online, as well as ready anything from our archive. It also provides access to our mini-course “PR for regular people”.
We added subscription options so that we now can offer annual, semi-annual, and quarterly subscriptions. We have also enhanced our payment options by adding Paypal. This is in addition to our existing cards, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.
We have also made substantial enhancements for our readers outside of the US. We are adding subscription options for GBP,CAD,EUR,AUD, and NZD to start. This will allow our customers to be billed in their local currency, and we deal with exchange rates on our end. Next, I have also reviewed our pricing, as I am trying to ensure that the subscription prices for these currencies is reasonable.
I looked at two things in establishing the prices- the strength of the US Dollar and Purchasing Power Parity. The strength of the dollar means in some countries the subscription price in a local currency was simply bananas! Sorry I don’t have a better technical term for it. Then I also looked at calculators to help me understand purchasing power parity in other countries. It’s essentially a factor that accounts for what it costs to purchase equivalent goods and services in different countries.
It’s the first time we have attempted an exercise like this, and the results were eye opening. After a careful review, we have implemented purchasing power parity considerations into our pricing for all the new currencies added. If you are outside the US and have an existing subscription- reach out to me and will figure out how to get things adjusted for you.
Archive
Our archive subscription provides read only access to the full set of magazines.
We now offer annual, semi-annual, and monthly subscriptions for the archive.We have also enhanced our payment options by adding Paypal. This is in addition to our existing cards, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.
All of our direct subscriptions come with our monthly email recaps including all the things that we are publishing, to make it easy for you to keep up in one place. Our digital and print subscriptions mean you can download copies of the magazine on your local computer or phone as well.
Library Options
We also offer the option to read the magazine through PressReader or Libby, which many libraries have access to. Many people don’t realize this option is there, as only a limited set of publications in our industry distribute this way.
This is not our full catalog, but does have our recent magazine issues. This is a great option for those that want to try it out but are not quite sure if they want it directly. Or this is great if you simply can’t afford a subscription with the current cost of living crisis happening in so many countries. These options work in many places around the world- we know this as we have libraries around the world subscribing, including US, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, etc. It’s really all about if your library has access to PressReader or Libby.
If there is a digital provider that would like to see us distribute the magazine on, please reach out. We are currently working on some additional library platforms in addition to Libby and PressReader.
Thoughts on Legacy
Over the last several months, I have been going through a number of things personally. It’s made me step back and think about business legacy. I’ve been researching, learning, and thinking. I’ve also been very inspired by things I have seen other artisan businesses doing. Recently I have been inspired by Road Trip Sock Yarn and Begonia & Bench to think about what I could do to give back.
If you’ve ever listened to any of our podcasts, you’ve probably heard me talking about growing up on a farm outside of a small town in MN. We all have some of those childhood memories that stick with us right? One of my memories was all the summers we planted trees surrounding the farm. Now, to be honest, I hated it at the time, because I was stuck watering trees! Oh good lord the hours I spent watering those trees.
My parents had a wee bit of an obsession with pine trees. Over the course of many years, they planted over 800 pine trees surrounding the farm. As a child, I didn’t really understand the lifecycle of trees, or why we had to plant so many. As an adult, I see those trees every time I visit. Those trees plus one creative artisan business gave me an idea.
Even though we have a lot of digital subscribers, we also print magazines. As a company, we want to offset our printing. So we have started a new plan in 2025. Every time someone subscribes to our magazine, or renews their subscription, we plant a tree. Essentially, a tree per subscriber per year. Buy a ticket to one of our events, we plant a tree. Buy a print on demand magazine, we plant a tree. Buy a digital subscription, we plant a tree. I think you are getting the general idea. At the end of the year, I will tally up and share how many trees we as a group have planted this year.
Thanks for choosing to support independent media- we are so grateful that you are here!
Here is a list below of our new currency and subscription options:
