“The name Bon Bon Vie comes from a song by TS Monk; it’s from the 70s.” Neal said. “Bon Vie means ‘good life’ in French, and so I just thought that it was a cute name.”
Neal, a Chicago native, is a web and flash developer at a pharmaceutical advertising agency. She went to school for journalism with an emphasis in advertising at the University of Missouri-Columbia. However, Neal felt like she couldn’t express herself creatively when working. So she started Bon Bon Vie.
“Basically it started as a little hobby, a creative outlet for me,” she said. “I feel at work I can’t always be creative, and I just pretty much wanted to do my own thing. I used to do a lot of freelance work too, and sometimes when you’re dealing with clients, they let you do what you want, but they always have changes and you do a lot of going back and forth and revisions. I just wanted to do something where I just got to do whatever I wanted to do.”
Neal does a lot of creative things when she can, such as sewing, knitting, designing logos and websites. She said she felt like t-shirts were something that was very accessible to a mass audience. When it was time to get her t-shirts and her totes created, she had money saved up for a few years. She knew she would have a business at some point, she just didn’t know when. When Neal decided on t-shirts, she had the startup money available so she just went right for it when the time was right.
When wearing such things as “Brown Skin Lady” or “Rep Chi” on a t-shirt or tote, you might feel a sense of empowerment or encouragement and that is what Neal wants when people wear her t-shirts. “I just want people to feel confident when they wear my tees.” Neal said.
With having her own business, Neal is learning how to spread her time evenly between her job as a web and flash developer and her own business Bon Bon Vie.
“[Having my own business is] a lot of fun and very rewarding, but it takes up way more time than I ever imagined. I’ve been trying to look at ways to be more efficient with my time so I am not staying up late after I come home from work.”
In the future, Neal hopes to have a lot more designs, and she really wants her designs to be carried in stores and/or boutiques. She definitely wants to see Bon Bon Vie expand.
When it comes to creating a business, Neal thinks about her own experiences and advises, “If you have a dream or a business or anything like that that you want to do, I definitely say go for it, but also make sure you do your research and just know what you’re getting into. Know that a lot of businesses require startup money, so you have to figure out where you’re going to get that from. If you’re going to raise it yourself or find investors, just make sure you know it’s a big undertaking if you want to have a successful business.”
To check out the rest of Shari Neal’s designs, go to Bon Bon Vie.
