Subscription commerce is booming. According to the most recent report, subscription commerce has grown by 800% since 2014. Not only are businesses and entrepreneurs finding the subscription model to be profitable (and sustainable), but consumers are looking for more and more “analog” experiences driven by curation (think the opposite of instant Amazon deliveries of exactly what you want).

Starting a subscription business requires time, effort, and often an enormous amount of startup work, regardless if you’re operating out of your home or from your existing business.

Below are 10 of my top suggested resources for starting your subscription, sorted by educational resources, technical resources, and creative resources:

1. Educational: SubscriptionSchool.com

I might be biased here… I’ve contributed a ton of content to Subscription School, produced and developed the Subscription School video series, and spearheaded growing the community on Facebook and through webinars.

Even though I’m not writing at Subscription School anymore, this is an amazing resource and community, filled with helpful, eager, talented, and hardworking people.

If you’re looking for guides, feedback, and inspirational content, Subscription School sits at the top of my list. Hit these guides first:

2. Educational: The Moz Blog

One of my top recommendations when launching your subscription box is launching with content.

Why? Because content is king.

Even in the days of instagram and snapchat, blog content is incredible valuable. Not only does building a base of content improve the perception of authority for your brand, but it strengthens your position in search results for keywords that your target audience are searching.

My all-time favorite SEO resource is the Moz Blog. Start with the Beginners Guide to SEO.

3. Educational: Gary Vee

If you haven’t had the luxury of someone in your life calling you on your shit and getting in your face to motivate you, let me introduce you to Gary Vaynerchuck.

Gary doesn’t focus on subscription commerce specifically (though he has offered some insight in the past, and has his own subscription wine club), but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a useful educational resource for the industry. From viral marketing ideas to interviews about buying psychology to direct challenges and ways to grow your startup cash, Gary is a wealth of resource.

My favorite thing about Gary: whenever I’m eyeing the new Netflix show to binge, I’ll flip over to his page and pick almost any video. Within about 30 seconds, I’m motivated.

4. Educational: The Subscription Box Startup Guide

Okay, so you could find this on Subscription School, but the usefulness of this book warrants a special mention.

Download the 70+ page start-up guide written by myself, good friend and business partner Jameson Morris, and Cratejoy founder Amir Elaguizy. It covers everything from preparing your idea, prelaunching, bringing your box to market, and scaling.

5. Technical: Cratejoy or Chargify

Two options in one here.

Cratejoy is hands down the best all-in-one solution for starting your subscription box. They are a platform, marketplace, marketing team, and all around insanely useful group of people.

Chargify is my top suggestion for more enterprise level startups. This will require higher development costs early on, but allows you greater control than Cratejoy and also keeps your data all on your own system.

For both of these, bonus points if you tell them Jesse Richardson sent you! (I don’t get paid, I just like their teams)

For existing businesses on Magento or Shopify, you don’t need to migrate. There are plenty of ways to build subscription businesses right on your existing platform. Book a call with me or just send me an email if you want some quick advice!

6. Technical: Pirate Ship

If you like saving booty as ye’ sail your boxes round the world, there’s nothing bett’ar than Pirate Ship.

Bjorn, Jameson, Jonas, Felix, and the rest of the team at Pirate Ship make this the BEST solution for shipping, without a doubt. They offer pass-through pricing on USPS cubic shipping, insanely responsive customer support, tons of integrations (with Cratejoy, Chargify, and more), and killer knowledge on shipping for subscription boxes.

If you’re shipping a subscription box, quit wasting money and use Pirate Ship.

7. Technical: Essential Apps

Three in one! Here are three of my favorite apps no business is complete without:

• Mailchimp: Mailchimp makes sending emails easy. Drag and drop email builders, easy to manage lists, and a powerful knowledge base make this an easy choice for email management.
• Opt-In Monster: You need emails to grow your business. Opt-in monster is a dynamic, beautiful, and easy to install opt-in provider that doesn’t break the bank.
• KingSumo Giveaways: See above as to why leads are critical. Simply put, if you’re looking to grow your leads list, you should be hosting giveaways. These can drive enormous traffic for qualified leads and it doesn’t have to be expensive. My favorite giveaway engine right now is KingSumo. I can get a giveaway up in minutes and directly integrate with Mailchimp. To date, my projects have collected 100,000s of emails using this tool.

8. Creative: 4over4.com

No subscription box is complete without solid inserts. These are your packing lists, coupon cards, CTAs, catalogs, magazines… you name it. These are critical to the unboxing experience.

4over4 is based out of New York and I’ve worked with them directly on multiple projects for the better part of a year. Their team is crazy responsive, their quality rivals that of any printer in the space, and most importantly, their prices don’t raise eyebrows.

Alternative for West Coast boxes: GotPrint. GotPrint is based out of Burbank, California. I love GotPrint because they offer crazy low pricing and fast turn around times. Their online chat support is a great resources, too, so don’t be shy!

9. Creative: StickerMule

If you want to step up your game, you should seriously look at branded stickers. They are a great way to seal boxes (or seal the tissue paper inside the box). StickerMule isn’t the cheapest, but they have a simple upload process and crazy fast turn around times.

They can also be a great add product wise. I wouldn’t assign an MSRP, but as Mac Miller once said, “I got my own stickers now so literally I’m everywhere.” In other words, these are just nice, inexpensive ways to get your brand in front of more eyeballs.

10. Creative: Arka Packaging

Arka Packaging has been my go-to prototyping company for box designs for a long time. With quick turnaround times and a team of experts, they can advise on box orders and help negotiate for you to help ensure you’re getting the best prices possible.

Looking for help?

Consider booking a session with Jesse Richardson: