Claire Watson and Nicole Hairfield became next-door neighbors nine years ago, and with children of similar ages, they spent a lot of time with each other. Hairfield, a former art teacher, and Watson, who came from a business background, brainstormed a bunch of ideas of things to do while their children played, and within six months of becoming neighbors, this brainstorming created Moonlight Makers.

Moonlight Makers is a retail business based in Asheville that sells a variety of products with printed designs and witty phrases. Starting with the idea to work like a local Etsy shop to help other makers sell their products, Hairfield said they didn’t want to sit around and wait at home for orders to come in. A week or two after launching their website, they purchased an old bus for vending at area events.

Hairfield said Watson’s husband remodeled the bus, removing built-in beds and installing shelves. They said it was completely repainted, and they created seating with cute covers and curtains. Having a creative bus instead of a tent for vending at events was more fun and brought more attention to their brand, according to Hairfield and Watson.

Deciding to craft their own products as well, Watson said they started with t-shirts, and their first design was inspired by Hairfield’s interest in yoga.

“We saw the trend of t-shirts saying funny things selling fast, and we thought we could screen print some ourselves,” Watson said. “Nicole thought to print ‘Let that shit go,’ and it morphed into ‘Let that shiitake go’ paired with her mushroom-doing-yoga drawing. We took 40 of those shirts to an event our first summer and sold out, and we knew we were onto something. Now we have 400 designs, and that one is still one of the most popular.”

Attending every event they could go to during their first summer in business, Hairfield said the experience helped them to figure out which were a better fit to return to, what designs made people stop and laugh, and what products people wanted.

“We came up with phrases in a variety of ways,” Watson said. “We’d look at what vegetables or animals were trendy. Nicole would draw it and we work around that. It used to be anything we thought was funny, and it’s evolved into mostly kitchen-related sayings and items.”

Hairfield and Watson said after the first several years of attending festivals and events, a friend with a downtown gallery asked them to put some of their products in the gallery during one Christmas season. After pulling remaining merchandise out when the season was over, the gallery owner recognized the products were popular and asked if they could come back permanently.

“This allowed us to hire our first employee,” Watson said. “We slowly grew as a team, eventually removing the screen printing out of our kitchen and opening our flagship store in Asheville. Someone suggested we sell on Amazon Prime and we dabbled in that, and now we’ve been the number one seller of dish towels on Amazon Handmade for three years.”

“We were also featured in a QuickBooks commercial,” Hairfield said. “It was called ‘Own It’ and told stories of small businesses, showing us moms screen printing in our kitchen and shared the message that ‘you can do it too.’ That led to us connecting with our mentor and also helped us into that permanent space.”

With the help of Venture Asheville’s Elevate program, Moonlight Makers has grown to a “truly incredible” team of 12 and has a retail presence in more than 2,500 stores nationwide with a presence in other countries including Canada, Sweden, and Germany. Their product line of over 200,000 SKUs includes candles, tote bags, makeup bags, socks, wine tumblers, pillows, pins, wall prints, baby onesies, and more.

“We do all of our printed items in-house, and source other items as locally as possible,” Hairfield said. “The candles are poured here in Asheville and are the highest quality. The ink we use is non-toxic and friendly for kids. We make sure everything we do is as local and as clean as we can get.”

Hairfield and Watson said basing their business in Asheville attributes to some of its success. “It would definitely be different somewhere else,” Hatfield said. “We started with such a sweet group of artists ready to jump on board, and the community is so supportive of our business. Everyone is rooting for you and no one is hiding knowledge, and most locals care so much about locally-owned and eco-conscious businesses. We are so proud and feel so much a part of this community.”

Being a part of the area’s women-owned business community lights a fire for their success, according to Hairfield and Watson. 

“We’ve read stats comparing men- and women-owned businesses, and it’s very motivating,” Hairfield said. “Men tend to take a lot more investment and loans to start businesses. We started our business with $5,000, and the business has always paid for its own growth. We have four daughters between the two of us, and we want to set an example for them that there are no limitations.”

“We are part of a group of about 25 other women-owned businesses, and we are all fully supportive of each other,” Watson said. “There is no competition between any of us. We are all queens polishing each other’s crown.”