A Brisbane mum earned a whopping $150,000 in just ten minutes after re-launching a popular product.
Clare Spelta, founder of Bon Maxie which specialises in organisational homewares and accessories, said she was ‘blown away’ when her hugely popular Sidekick cross body bag sold out in just one day after its rerelease.
‘I still get goosebumps when I read reviews from our customers saying they’re completely obsessed with our bag designs, and they’ve put their Louis Vuitton bag away,’ she told FEMAIL.
Clare Spelta (pictured), founder of Bon Maxie which specialises in organisational homewares and accessories, said she was ‘blown away’ when her hugely popular Sidekick cross body bag pulled in a whopping $150,000 in just ten minutes after its rerelease.
Bon Maxie’s Sidekick bags are a ‘customer favourite’ and cleverly designed to conveniently fit all of life’s essentials with sales hitting $150,000 just ten minutes after its restock dropped.
It was a welcome success for Ms Spelta and her family following a tumultuous 2020.
Ms Spelta was struggling to keep up with demand for the bags after launching the design in August 2019 then production ground to a halt the following year due to the pandemic.
She said shipping was slowed then eventually cancelled but demand for Bon Maxie’s bags and organisation homewares didn’t waver and it was a whole nine months before production was up and running again.
‘It was incredibly frightening as my husband had left his job the previous year to work for Bon Maxie full time, and the threat of no income meant we may have had to reconsider the business,’ Ms Spelta said.
‘With enough sales and customer testimonials under our belt, and ongoing correspondence with our customers on social media, the waitlist for the Sidekick Bag grew over those months, and with the promise of a huge restock, our customers really stuck by us.’
‘We’ve just recently done a restock of the Sidekick Crossbody Bag and we’re about to sell out again – we can’t seem keep the product in stock!’ Ms Spelta said.
Bon Maxie’s Sidekick bags (pictured) are a ‘customer favourite’ and cleverly designed to conveniently fit all of life’s essentials and sold out 24 hours after its restock dropped
Ms Spelta launched Bon Maxie, which originally found success in her earring organisers, in September 2015 and has since pulled in more than $5million thanks to clever Instagram advertising.
The business-savvy mum quit her marketing job after seven years to care for her ill son and start Bon Maxie which has since sold more than 50,000 earring holders and is on track to make $2.5million by the end of the financial year.
It was an unexpected success for the Brisbane mum who said she was ‘not coping’ less than six months after starting her business which was born from the frustration of misplacing sets of earrings.
The now 34-year-old had been juggling being a full-time mother to a sick baby, running a small business and working at her marketing job from home.
The entrepreneur and mum-of-one quit her job to care for her ill son and run her successful business Bon Maxie which has sold more than 50,000 earring holders pulled in more than $5million since its beginning in 2015
Ms Spelta had been juggling running a small business, working at her marketing job from home and being a full time mum to her son, Max, now 6, who has a rare genetic condition
Only two months after she launched the business her infant son, Max, now six, had a seizure.
‘I was in the shower and Max was on the bedroom floor where I could see him,’ she said.
‘Suddenly I saw his head drop to the floor and when I rushed over to him, he was purple.’
Ms Spelta and her husband of nine years, Joe spent months in and out of hospital with Max before doctors discovered he had a rare condition that can cause seizures, developmental disorders and limited mobility
Ms Spelta and her husband of nine years, Joe spent months in and out of hospital with Max before doctors discovered he had a rare condition known as SCN2A gene mutation that can cause seizures, developmental disorders and limited mobility.
During a long stint in hospital with Max over Christmas period in 2015, she had put Bon Maxie on the back burner but business wasn’t slowing.
Bon Maxie received its first wholesale order more than $1000 that the mum said ‘brought her to tears’.
During a long stint in hospital with Max over Christmas period in 2015, she had put Bon Maxie on the back burner but business wasn’t slowing
In February of 2016, Ms Spelta quit her job to focus on son while Bon Maxie was still booming in the background thanks to her ingenious solution to storing earrings that had taken Instagram by storm.
She came up with the idea while on maternity leave scrambling through jewellery trinket dish trying to find a matching pair while rushing our the door and thought there must be a better way.
‘I started googling and the only things available were those chicken wire things made by a dude in his shed who didn’t understand women and jewellery and pretty things,’ she said.
Ms Spelta spent years ‘obsessing’ over how to create the perfect earring organiser and came up with a design made from metal that is as practical as it is stylish
Ms Spelta couldn’t keep up with the demand for the first wooden earring holders she came up with because they required 234 hand drilled holes each.
She then spent years ‘obsessing’ over how to create the perfect earring holder and came up a new design made from metal that was even more stylish, useful and popular than the original.
As business expanded Ms Spelta’s husband also quit his job as a dietician so the couple could ‘band together and be a solid unit’ in their parenting and business ventures.
Max is still the couple’s number one focus.
As business expanded Ms Spelta’s husband also quit his job as a dietician to come on board with Bon Maxie full time but Max is still the couple’s number one focus
Ms Spelta said while his development is behind in comparison to others with his type of genetic condition, he’s doing well, walking against the odds and hasn’t had a seizure for three years.
With her husband on board, the inspiration mum has been able to expand Bon Maxie’s range of organisational products to bags, wallets, key chains and heaps more.
Ms Spelta said her main mission is for Bon Maxie to solve ‘those daily annoyances we all have’.
‘The benefits of being a small business is that you can talk directly to your customers,’ she said.
‘I ask ‘what is it that’s irking you and I can try and solve it for you’.’
To view Bon Maxie’s signature earring holders, Sidekick bag and full range of organisational products, head to their website here.
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