Brisbane’s Bon Maxie rakes in $2 million after mum taps into huge trend

Despite her best-selling product being out of stock for nine months, a Brisbane mum has thrived as she helps people with life’s daily nuisances.

Clare Spelta’s painting hobby turned into a business based on solving life’s daily annoyances and is set to rake in $2 million in revenue this financial year, yet seven years after it began, she still runs it from her own home.

When the mum-of-one went on maternity leave back in 2015, she was worried as she wasn’t entitled to any paid leave and she wondered how her family would cope for six to 12 months.

Having “dabbled’ in painting, she picked up her brushes and started to create custom portraits of babies and toddlers, which she later expanded into nursery prints on wooden wall hangers.

“Then my son was getting quite mobile and the custom portraits took nine or 10 hours each, so I was running out of time to complete them,” she told news.com.au.

She decided she needed to add something into the product mix that could be more easily duplicated.

Clare Spelta doesn’t believe in business plans. Picture: Supplied

But it wasn’t until she was dealing with her “increasingly frustrated” husband one day as she searched through three dishes worth of jewellery trying to find matching earrings, that the broader idea began for her business Bon Maxie.

“I started researching over the next couple of months and realised there were a lot of chicken wire earring holders made by old men in sheds and really bland plastic ones. I thought I could mix painting and create something that looks really nice on the dresser as I had started to get into interiors and decor,” she said.

“So I drilled 200 holes into a piece of wood and painted an intricate design and whacked it on Instagram and all the earring makers and jewellers designers said, ‘we need this’.

“So it went from being very hand made and me hand drilling up to one million holes, until I thought maybe a machine could do it and I looked to outsource and since then we have grown progressively.”

She wanted to help people with their desperate need to be more organised. Picture: Supplied

The Brisbane-based business has now sold 60,000 earring holders, but has also evolved to target the organisation space.

“So it’s about anything I can do to help solve a daily annoyance as we are all lazy at heart and there are so many micro stresses, and if I can find little ways to solve them and help people feel a bit more relaxed and organised, then my job is done,” she said.

But Bon Maxie has also been a blessing for very personal reasons.

Not long into his life, Ms Spelta’s son started having seizures and was later diagnosed with a rare genetic condition.

She had returned to work part time but decided to take a risk on the business so she could be there for him.

“We were getting quite busy and we were packing orders until 1am in the morning and then he would wake up at 3am and I would be a wreck for the whole next day, but I knew all these things were on my terms and I didn’t have to rock up to an office job and perform,” she said.

Her dietitian husband also quit his job to join the business, meaning they could “drop everything” when their son needed it.

The bag that sold $150,000 in just 10 minutes. Picture: Supplied

Since then, the brand has also expanded into leather goods, which Ms Spelta said was unexpected but she was keen to make bags that were more functional as well as looking good.

“They have features that you wish your bags have so I think there is a lot of fashion concepts around in terms of accessories and a lot of function missing as a lot are seasonal, they come in, sell, are discounted and go,” she said.

“I wanted to be intentional about designing products that help people.”

The Sidekick Cross Body bag, which she describes as a “deceptively roomy small bag” sells for $249.

It fits a 600ml bottle and a iPad Mini, has three pockets for things like phones, snacks and lipstick, coffee-coloured lining so you can see inside, wider straps so they don’t dig in and even an internal key clip.

The first version sold out quickly but when the pandemic hit her manufacturer closed for nine months and she couldn’t make it.

“I thought it was dangerous to have a bestseller item out of stock for that long, but I used the time to drum up the benefits and talk about why its different and when the time came we loaded it up and did a VIP prerelease and an hour later we did general public release and it sold out instantly, which was insane,” she added.

The bag sells for $250. Picture: Supplied

It saw the couple make $150,000 in just 10 minutes.

“It just gave me the confidence that the concept was still relevant and needed and our business wasn’t going down the drain after going quiet,” she said.

“So that was a massive relief to not only get funds for reinvesting into the business but we also had the support of superfans, despite a pandemic.”

The 34-year-old still can’t quite believe she turned an initial investment of $300 into a business that has made over $5 million in the last six years, particularly as she controversially doesn’t believe in business plans.

“I have always been an advocate for not having a business plan,” she said.

“We have rough financial goals as it’s nice to work towards something and we still have products in the works for the next six months, but I am always surprised by one little request from one customer or a sudden item I really want in life and that always allows us to shift naturally.”

She also created mini wallets. Picture: Supplied

Bon Maxie now stocks around 100 products including different colours and designs, with their Mighty Mini Wallets also popular.

She said the pandemic was also good for business as people stuck inside looked to “pretty up” their spaces as they were spending so much time there.

For now, she is looking at expanding the bag range and recently released a “weekender” bag that sold out in a week.