My dog, Jack, is a Bichon Frise. Bichons often get tear stains under their eyes — nasty discoloration that dyes their fur a reddish, rusty color. Jack had them, and my wife and I could never get them to go away. After a vet visit in 2013 to get some shots, the vet brought Jack back to us in the waiting room, and his tear stains were almost totally gone.

Shocked, we asked what they’d done. A vet tech showed us a small comb from a specialty vet supplier. Made of surgical-grade stainless steel, the comb worked incredibly well to remove tear stains, she said. I know a lot of Bichon people. So I immediately knew there would be huge demand for the comb if it was marketed to the right audience. We had no idea how to create a product, but we were about to get a crash course.

A few days later, I reached out to the comb’s supplier, Jorvet, a small, family-owned company that has been around since 1965. They sell everything you’d find at a vet’s office, from surgical supplies to dog acupuncture needles. I told them we wanted to white label the comb — a process where a manufacturer makes a product and a different company sells it under their own brand. Think Trader Joe’s — almost all of the store’s products are actually made by giants like PepsiCo and Synder but are sold with Trader Joes’ own branding and packaging. We worked out the specifics of pricing and sent Jorvet just over $1,500. In a few days, we received a box with about 600 combs.

Now, we had to transform them into our own product. Bichon people often call their dogs’ tear stains “eye crusties” (charming, I know). So we brainstormed names based on variations on “crusties,” “stains,” and “gunk.” To test them out, we bought Google Ads with each name as the ad title and looked at the click-through rates to see which was most popular. This technique — championed by Tim Ferris — is a great way to get real-world feedback on a book title or product name. The clear winner was “Crusty Comb,” so we went with that name.

#side-hustle #ecommerce #tech #amazon #pets