In today’s Add To Cart episode, Clare sits down with Bushy to reflect on Bon Maxie’s 10-year journey, from the early days of handcrafting in a sawdust-filled garage to manufacturing internationally. She explains how she’s built a customer-first brand while also shaping her business to suit her family’s needs, rejecting the traditional idea of what a “big” business should look like.

Today, we’re discussing:

• How Clare transformed a jewellery storage frustration into Bon Maxie’s first cult product, and what it took to move from hand-drilled plywood to scaled manufacturing.
• The obsessive product design philosophy behind Bon Maxie’s bags, wallets, and organisers: from strap lengths to zipper strength.
• The reality of outsourcing production overseas: quality control, communication challenges, and why understanding the process before you delegate is critical.
• How Bon Maxie built a fiercely loyal community through authenticity, from late-night pizza box photoshoots to Betty White gifs in Facebook ads.
• Why Clare believes messy, radically honest marketing cuts through more than polished perfection in today’s ecommerce landscape.
• The shift from serving repeat customers to acquiring new ones, and how Clare adjusted her ad strategy, content, and product range to match.
• Redefining success: what it means to grow a business on your own terms, balance family priorities, and design a lifestyle that works rather than chasing traditional scale.

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