I’m a self-made multi-millionaire – people told me my idea was crazy

A WOMAN made the risky decision to invest all of her savings into a rug business to the shock of all her friends but it paid of in millions.

Alexandra Tanya Weller, 37, from Sydney, Australia threw in the towel on her day job, made a life-changing decision and now revealed she made £13million in just one year.

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The Aussie entrepreneur launched the online rug company Miss Amara in 2014 and it has stormed to success, particularly owing to their bestselling stain-proof carpet range.

Now, the e-commerce company has branched out from Down Under and into the global market – Hong Kong in 2017, New Zealand in 2019 and then the US in 2020.

Last financial year Miss Amara turned over £13million with help from its inventive products that can either be washed or repel any liquids so remove any fear of stains.

Back in 2014, Alexandra Tanya began to notice how difficult it was to purchase rugs online, while her husband Aaron was witnessing a huge search volume for them.

“The problem was that the experience of buying a rug online at the time was “terrible”, she told Smart Company.

“Our competitors had thousands of SKUs, but they were all product photos, there were no inspiring photos of rugs in beautiful spaces.”

“Most people have never bought a rug before, and they get overwhelmed and put it in the too-hard basket,” Alexandra added.

So with her husband, she took the leap and invested most of life savings of £26,700 into their own company to manafacture and deliver beautiful rugs to people’s homes.

“We both thought there must be something there – the current solution (at the time) was clearly broken,” the couple told the Mail Online.

They started with a small drop-shipping operation slowing using stock from local Australian distributors before growing the business and developing their own ranges.

Alexandra was planning to use washable rugs once she had baby, but she quickly discovered she didn’t wnat to scracfice the look and feel of a rug.

That idea helped her to develop the relatively new luxurious-looking washable range so her kids could have a “soft beautiful landing for their little feet to play on”.

Did they know it would suceed? “To be honest no – we didn’t know if it would work, it seemed like we wanted to attack all the problems of the rug market from all fronts.

“We had so many ideals and it was ambitious,” the founders said. 

“For five years we didn’t take a salary, and used our savings to live. Lucky for us, at this point things turned around.”

These days it’s not unusual for Miss Amara collections to sell out the day they are launched and the company continues to smash its targets.

Their washable, stain-proof and hypoallergenic rugs have a lot to do with that by helping the company to stand out against its competitors.

But the couple believe the key to their success was that “we really listen to our customers”.

“We have whole ranges around the lifestyles and habits of our customers.

“All design decisions down to the characteristics of the very fibres we choose are informed by what our customers tell us they need and stylistically, décor styles they are coveting,” they said.

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