business advice - Craft Focus Magazine

news round-up
New magazine a success
MollieMakes, the latest magazine launch from Future is a craft and lifestyle title
aimed at a young generation of crafters who are part of a vast online community
connected through websites and blogs. The new 100-page magazine will provide
readers with contemporary projects in a beautiful and inspiring environment.
With the tagline of ‘Living & Loving Handmade’, “MollieMakes is a magazine which
celebrates craft as a part of life. It curates the best contemporary craft content
from around the world into a beautiful, collectable, unique and totally irresistible
magazine based around the premise that if a thing is worth making, it’s worth making
beautifully,” said Janet Meadowcroft, Editor-in-Chief. The fi rst issue of Mollie Makes hit
the newsstands on 12th May 2011 priced at £4.99 and included a covermounted felt
kit to make a smart-phone case. It is also available via the Zinio platform for tablets
and iPads. Further info www.molliemakes.com.
David and Goliath
Specialist Midlands publisher, How2crafts, was recently
shortlisted for a FutureBook Award alongside
multinational publishing houses Harper Collins, Random
House and Oxford University Press. “Whilst we didn’t
win, we are still proud of our achievements” said John
Morse-Brown, founder of How2crafts. “The panel of
judges were interested in How2Crafts because of
the way their books are interactive. After reading the
how-to guides, craft-makers are encouraged to upload
images of their designs along with any tips that they
have discovered to the how2crafts website. The print
runs of the books are purposefully kept short so that
readers’ images and suggestions can be included as
an appendix, complementing the books’ instructions
and giving inspiration to future readers. So the books
effectively ‘grow’ as more and more readers respond. “We
are passionate about crafts and understand that digital
technologies create new opportunities for makers to
network with others who share their enthusiasm. Written
by experts in their fi eld, our books combine high quality
instruction together with visual inspiration contributed by
our community of readers and makers,” said John. Further
info T: +44 (0) 121 212 9857, www.how3crafts.com.
Boost for community owned shops
The future of community shops throughout the country received a huge boost with the announcement that they have signed a deal to use Ethecol
Merchant Services. The Plunkett 255 Community Shop Network expects to save in the region of £1,300 per year for each shop by employing
Ethecol’s card processing services. The new service will also provide new opportunities for small traders.
Ethecol is the brain child of social entrepreneur Robert Ashton and credit card specialist Peter King. It is a social enterprise company which process
credit and debit cards at greatly reduced rates for community concerns and small traders. Ethecol Merchant Services use charity organisations to
introduce their supporter base to the service and pay a commission in the region of £250 per year to the charity making the introduction. “Ethecol
works with a bank that is keen to build up a market share and to be competitive. We are a social enterprise and so we are happy to earn a salary
and we are not trying to become fi lthy rich. Also because the charities we support make the introductions we don’t have to invest in an expensive
sales force,” explained Robert Ashton, who is the author of the best selling business guide How to be a Social Entrepreneur. Ethecol began trading
in March and the Plunkett Foundation’s network is its fi rst large scale customer but several more are in the pipeline. “A viable card service is
imperative for community shops because people spend more when paying by card, people walk out of shops that don’t accept cards and cheques
are hard work and they may soon disappear.” Further info www.ethecol.com.
10 craftfocus