How Testing Small Helped Build an 8-Figure Product Brand
- Harvest Growth
- Mar 18
- 28 min read
In this episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare sits down with Andrew Reist, founder and CEO of Valley Pets, to share the story behind Belly Guard — a pet recovery suit that started with just 26 test units and grew into an eight-figure brand. Drawing from his background in engineering and product development, Andrew explains how a personal problem with his own dog led to a practical innovation that now helps pets recover more comfortably after surgery.
Andrew walks through the early stages of building the business, including why he intentionally started small, lost money on every unit at first, and treated those early sales as a way to buy learning instead of immediate profit. The conversation highlights the value of product-market fit, low-risk validation, and why founders should focus on learning quickly before scaling aggressively.
The episode also explores how Belly Guard expanded beyond Amazon, broke into Chewy, and grew by adding sales channels instead of immediately broadening the product line. Along the way, Andrew shares lessons on hiring contractors, using freelance experts strategically, managing the transition from founder-does-everything mode, and making the leap from a full-time job into entrepreneurship.
If you’re building a product brand, testing a new idea, or trying to scale without overcommitting too early, this episode offers practical insight from someone who grew steadily, learned fast, and built a category-leading business through smart decisions over time.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
How Belly Guard was inspired by a real problem with Andrew’s own dog
Why Andrew started with just 26 units instead of a large inventory order
How losing money early helped validate the product and reduce long-term risk
What founders should learn before worrying about short-term profits
How Belly Guard got into Chewy and why that accelerated growth
Why expanding channels can sometimes matter more than expanding product lines
How Andrew used contractors and freelance experts to grow more efficiently
The realities of leaving a full-time job to run a business full time
Why a great product makes marketing easier — but never replaces it
And so much more!
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Want to connect with Andrew? Visit ValleyPets.com or TheBellyGuard.com to learn more. You can also search for Belly Guard on Amazon.
Interested in launching or scaling your own product? Visit HarvestGrowth.com to book a free consultation and learn how our team has helped generate over $2 billion in product sales.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review — and we’ll see you next time on the Harvest Growth Podcast.
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
[00:00:05]
Jon LaClare:
He tested just 26 units, lost money on every sale, and today
it's an eight figure pet brand. In this episode, the founder of Valley Pets shares how
Belly Guard broke into Chewy, early scaled through smart channel expansion. And
why? Focusing on learning not profits changed everything. If you're building a product
brand, this one is required listening.
[00:00:27]
Announcer:
Harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we
share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now, here's the host
of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare.
[00:00:43]
Jon LaClare:
Over the past 20 years, our team has helped launch and
grow hundreds of consumer products generating more than $2 billion in revenue for our
clients. On this show, we break down what actually works in product marketing, real
stories, real strategies, and lessons you can put to work in your business right
[00:01:00]
away.
[00:01:00]
Jon LaClare:
Whether you're getting ready to launch or you're looking to
scale what's already working, you are in the right place. Let's jump in. Well, Andrew, first
I wanna welcome you to the show today. Thanks for taking the time to join me.
[00:01:11]
Andrew Reist:
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me as a guest.
[00:01:14]
Jon LaClare:
Absolutely, and I'll do a quick introduction.
[00:01:15]
Jon LaClare:
So Andrew Reist is the founder and CEO of Valley Pets. They
are the makers of the Belly Guard product, which you may have seen if you have a, a
dog, especially, uh, especially it's been prepared for being spayed or neutered, et
cetera. I'll let him walk through exactly what the product is, uh, but it's been very
successful both in B2B channels as well as B2C, especially on Amazon.
[00:01:37]
Jon LaClare:
We're gonna walk through the success, some challenges that
he's learned along the way. And really hear the behind the scenes story directly from
Andrew. So let's, let's jump in. Andrew, can you talk about what is the belly guard? What
does it do?
[00:01:51]
Andrew Reist:
Absolutely. And thanks for the introduction. You, you got
my last name, right?
[00:01:54]
Andrew Reist:
Uh, rice. That's a very, very rare, most people say Reese,
so I appreciate that. Um, yeah. So the belly.
[00:02:00]
guard is the, the way I like to
describe it is, it's, it's kind of like a, a onesie for a dog. That's the simplest way to picture
it. Um, so I'm holding it up right here. For those of you who can't see. Um, really do
imagine a, a baby onesie.
[00:02:14]
Andrew Reist:
It has like a collar around the neck, some arm openings,
um, as well as an opening in the back for the tail and some snaps to close it around the
dog. So it's really an alternative or supplement to. A, a cone of shame. We like to call
her an eco for a, a dog that is recovering from, from surgery, mostly from from spay or
neuter surgery.
[00:02:38]
Andrew Reist:
So this is just a more comfortable alternative for them to,
to relax and, uh, have a little bit less stressful of a recovery experience.
[00:02:48]
Jon LaClare:
And it's, uh, there are other products in the market that are
somewhat similar, but yours has a couple unique advantages. So how is it different and
better from other similar products in the market?
[00:02:58]
Andrew Reist:
Yes, absolutely.
[00:03:00]
Great question. Um, one of
which, so I have a little dog dummy here that I'm, that I'm showing, uh, with the belly.
AndrewReist
guard on. I think it's a Pomeranian, maybe cute little guy. Um, so one of the, one of the
challenges with the recovery suit is that. The, the dog has to go to the bathroom. Um,
and if, if they're like my dog every time they, they want to go outside, uh, you have to,
you have to either take the product off, uh, unsnap it, un-clip it, it can be quite the
process.
[00:03:27]
Andrew Reist:
And so with ours, we actually designed, um, we made the
process as simple as possible. So you, you kind of take the product off at the back here,
see if I can do this with one hand. So what I'm doing is removing the rear part and we
have a little snap that clips up at the neck just like that. And so, um, the animal is able to
go outside, go to the bathroom, do their business without having to remove the product,
and it's a very quick, easy, simple process.
[00:03:56]
Andrew Reist:
Um, that's, that's one of our real key differentiators.
[00:04:00]
Jon LaClare:
How'd you come up with the idea originally?
[00:04:03]
Andrew Reist:
So, uh, great question. It's, it's really born from, from
personal experience. My dog Bailey, uh, had a rash on her stomach that just would not
go away. Uh, this is back in, in 2017. It's almost 10 years ago now. But, um, we, we tried
everything to get this rash to go away 'cause it was clearly bothering her.
[00:04:23]
Andrew Reist:
She was licking at it. We thought maybe there was, uh,
some kind of. Something in the grass. 'cause we had the yard treated. We thought
maybe she was, it was diet related. Um, and nothing was working. So our vet, uh, gave
us a, a medicated cream that, that finally did the trick. And so the rash was starting to go
away, but there were a couple problems.
[00:04:43]
Andrew Reist:
At first of all, she was, she was licking at the. At, at the
ointment, which I don't think she should be ingesting. And then also that's kind of, um,
you know, causing it to be ineffective. Uh, so that was the first problem. Um, and then
we ended up putting her in a cone. So she couldn't, she couldn't lick at
[00:05:00]
the,
the, this cream and she was just absolutely miserable.
[00:05:03]
Andrew Reist:
She was running into furniture. Um, when she wasn't doing
that, she would just lay down and kind of refuse to refuse to move. Um, it just was not
working for us. And so. Actually, we went back to the vet and I asked if, if they had
anything else that we could use. 'cause she had to be in this cone for, it was like two at
least weeks.
[00:05:24]
Andrew Reist:
It was like two to four weeks, I think. We were already a
couple weeks in. And, um, he suggested we use a baby onesie. Thankfully she's kind of
the size of, of a baby, of an infant. Um, and it actually worked pretty well. And so that's,
that's what gave me the idea, um, for, for a, a product that, um. That somewhat
resembled a baby onesie that is more tailored to, to a dog and to, you know, multiple
different sizes of dog.
[00:05:50]
Andrew Reist:
So, um, I have a background as a mechanical engineering
degree, but background in product design, um, and development engineering. And so,
um, kind of
[00:06:00]
right at my alley to, uh, to, to prototype and, and, uh, launch a
product.
[00:06:05]
Jon LaClare:
You know, and since that day, you know, fast forward many
years to today and it's a multimillion dollar, very successful business.
[00:06:12]
Jon LaClare:
But what I love about your story is from day one, you didn't
AndrewReist
start that way. Nobody knows how successful it's gonna be when you're first starting off
a new venture. And I'm, you know, grateful to see that. It's been fantastic for you. But
your first order was very small, the number of units that you brought in, and I laugh
'cause it's, it's not normal.
[00:06:30]
Jon LaClare:
A lot of people think they have to order tens of thousands of
units. You know, this is gonna be a massive home run. But you don't, I I know, I, I, I, I
would love for more people to follow your example. Can you talk about that? So how,
how many units did you first buy and how did you first test to make sure there was
something there before you really invested more time and money into it?
[00:06:46]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, it's a, it's a great point. Um, I actually bought
units, just, Um, and so, you know, after, after my experience with the product, I, I was
like really excited. I was like, man, this,
[00:07:00]
this really worked awesome for us,
but I just wanted to verify that experience with some other people, um, before, you
know, making a huge commitment.
[00:07:08]
Andrew Reist:
And like you, like you said, buying, buying 10,000 units.
So. Um, I actually used a, I found a lo local manufacturer. It, it was actually a huge
challenge 'cause I had to source everything, uh, the materials, the snaps come up with,
you know, all the instructions for how to do it. It took, it took a while, I think it was
actually over a year for us to make just those, those first 26 samples.
[00:07:28]
Andrew Reist:
And they were, uh, way more expensive. They cost way
more than we sold them for. Uh, so I lost a lot of money on them, but it was really just
the idea of how can I. Uh, quickly, or maybe in this case not so quickly, but at, but at
least inexpensively prove if this is viable in the market. And, and that's what really those,
those first few units were able to do.
[00:07:51]
Jon LaClare:
And how did you go to market? How, how did you actually
sell those? Was it on your website, on Amazon, or what, where did they get sold to?
[00:07:57]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, we, I started on Amazon, so I had limited
[00:08:00]
experience, um, in college actually selling some, some college textbooks. And so I had
a, I had an account and so I was vaguely familiar with how Amazon worked, and so I,
um, yeah, I listed 'em on Amazon.
[00:08:13]
Andrew Reist:
I didn't really know too much about what I was doing. Kind
of learned it as I went. And then actually the other thing that helped our first sale came,
we, we actually bred our dogs. And so they had a litter of puppies. And one of the
people that adopted one of the dogs, um, actually was we, I told them about, you know,
the product that I developed.
[00:08:32]
Andrew Reist:
And so, uh, they, they, they bought one. It might have just
been a, a, you know, a pity purchase 'cause they, they liked us or something like that. I
don't know if they ever used the product, but, um. But it was really exciting. I felt really
good.
[00:08:45]
Jon LaClare:
That's great. I want to go back to a point you made where
you lost a lot of money, relatively speaking, on e, on every single product.
[00:08:52]
Jon LaClare:
So first of all, before I say that though, many people might be
listening, how do you even source 26 product with this, with a sewn good like you have?
That's, you know,
[00:09:00]
that's a little easier than if you have to have a mold made,
et cetera. You know, every product's different than what the minimum order might be,
and it might be a thousand units, you know, for, for another product.
[00:09:08]
Jon LaClare:
But finding out, you know, how low can you go in that
minimum first order to save on cost, prove the concept. 'cause the other council I always
give is sometimes, hey, it might be a home run idea, but it might need some tweaks,
right? You probably, you might find problems with the snaps or with sizing or with colors,
or.
[00:09:24]
Jon LaClare:
Whatever it might be. So starting small, you get some
learnings in market before you really start to scale it up. But back to the, the cost piece.
So you talked about how you lost money and I love, I love that. I love that you brought
that up because we counsel our clients a lot on, you know, when you do that initial
order, again, 26 units or a hundred or a thousand, or whatever your cost per.
[00:09:44]
Jon LaClare:
Is actually gonna be a lot higher than it will be long term. So
always, I always say plan for long term costs. You, you can figure out what it's going to
get to on talking to bigger manufacturers, et cetera. Even though if you're not making it
there, 'cause making 26, it's gonna be very expensive, it's manual, et
[00:10:00]
cetera.
[00:10:00]
Jon LaClare:
But you learn, okay, it will, I make money. I may not make
money now, but I'll make money when my costs come lower. Is that kind of how you
were thinking about it?
[00:10:08]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's, it's, it was expensive. Like from
a profit margin perspective, we were negative. We lost money on every unit we sold.
But from just a, the, the, the way I think about it is, is how much is it gonna cost to learn
what I need to learn?
[00:10:22]
Andrew Reist:
And I needed to learn if I could manufacture the product
and really if, if there was product market fit, if people were gonna find it on Amazon and,
and, and purchase it. Um, and, and so, you know. Buying 26 units, even if you're losing
money on 'em, is gonna be a, a lot, um, more cost effective than going to a big
manufacturer who's gonna have MOQs and they may have sampling costs and, and all
these other, uh, costs associated with it.
[00:10:50]
Andrew Reist:
And your point about the, the iterations is, is great. I mean,
I can't, I don't even know how many it might've been. Probably 10 different, um,
[00:11:00]
iterations of product where we'd, we'd continually improve over time. And so
knocking out a big chunk of that work early on, a few units really, um, expedited the
process and, and saved us a lot of headache down the road.
[00:11:13]
Jon LaClare:
Yeah. Love that. Great example. And so in the very early
days of your business after the 26 units, I'm sure, but one of your first big successes
outside of Amazon was getting into Chewy. So can you talk, how did that, first of all,
how did it come to be when you were still a new, you know, a brand new business,
relatively speaking.
[00:11:30]
Jon LaClare:
How did you manage to get into such a big retailer?
[00:11:35]
Andrew Reist:
So that's a, that's a, a fun story. Um, the first, and, and
honestly some of it is, uh, is, is failure and rejection. Um, the, the first time I reached out
was, was in 2019, and so I had had some, some initial conversations. I kind of just used
their, uh, I think they had, they have like.
[00:11:54]
Andrew Reist:
A new product didn't take form, something like that. And so
I filled it out. I was able to get a call with
[00:12:00]
one of their, um, their account
managers, which, which went really well. We had exchanged some paperwork, um, but
then I was, I was kind of ghosted. I didn't really hear anything back. Um, in hindsight it was right around, this was actually around 2020, so a couple years in and, and I think,
you know, 2020 you couldn't get anything like the stores were out of toilet paper and,
and I, I think what was happening is a lot of their suppliers were, were out of goods, and
so they were kind of like all hands on deck, like, let's just get.
[00:12:30]
Andrew Reist:
Our, our product in stock for the, for the vendors we
already have. We don't wanna worry about bringing on new vendors. Now, that's my
theory at least. Uh, 'cause I never really heard back, so I kind of sat on it, um, for, you
know, for about a year or so. And then I, and then I tried again. Um, and I wasn't having
success contacting the, that account manager I talked to a year ago.
[00:12:51]
Andrew Reist:
Um, but I, I finally got a response from someone who
turned out they were. Taking over the category. And so they were newly put in
[00:13:00]
charge of the, the. Over the counter, uh, category that my products fall into. And, um,
and so they act, they asked me, they said they were interested, and they asked me to, if
I was gonna be in, uh, at the Global PET Expo in Orlando, which was, which was like
that weekend.
[00:13:17]
Andrew Reist:
It was like four days. Um, and I was like, yes, absolutely, I'll
be there. And I, I booked a ticket, um, after the fact and, and. Uh, was able to, to meet
them there, uh, in person. And that's kind of what, um, what, what got us, what got us
listed.
[00:13:34]
Jon LaClare:
And once you did, how did that help get your business really
off the ground?
[00:13:38]
Jon LaClare:
How did, how did being on Chewy help you grow?
[00:13:41]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, I think it gives a lot of reputability is one thing. Um,
it's certainly a lot more challenging to, to get onto a platform like Chewy than, than it is
Amazon where really, you know, you could, any, anyone could kind of. Launch a product
on Amazon. Um, they, they certainly have some restrictions, but, um, it's,
[00:14:00]
it's
a lot easier.
[00:14:01]
Andrew Reist:
Um, it's, it's pretty much like an open source, open
marketplace to anyone who wants to sell anything similar to like eBay. And so, um,
there's some reputability there. And then just giving, it also unlocks a whole new
channel of customers is a lot of customers since we have a pet product that really only
shop on, on Chewy for their pet products.
[00:14:19]
Andrew Reist:
And so having a just. That option for those customers, I
think helps us reach, reach an untapped market.
[00:14:25]
Jon LaClare:
Yeah. And in our last conversation, you mentioned something
that I really, I liked and I wanna bring attention in our discussion here, is you, there's
really two ways to grow a business once you got some success, I mean.
[00:14:38]
Jon LaClare:
A a thousand ways, right? But, but two kind of, two kind of
buckets of ideas. One is either expanding your product line, right? So selling more
similar products or expanding your channels, right? So if you're, once you max out a
certain marketing channel, if that's Amazon or Chewy or whatever, okay, now it's about.
[00:14:54]
Jon LaClare:
You chose in the early days at least, to expand your
channels, meaning sell broadly, the
[00:15:00]
same basic products, and talk to us, I
guess, why you made that choice, and if that's true, and, and how that helped.
[00:15:06]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, that is true. I mean, it was a very, my, my. It was
really kind of tied to the timing of when we launched the product.
[00:15:14]
Andrew Reist:
So, um, and actually to back up real quick, you know, at
first I, when I was, I was doing initial research for, for a product that I was kind of
prototyping. I didn't see anything out there. At one point in time I did stumble upon
across a product, uh, that was based in Europe, but that had some distribution in the us
and, and at first I was.
[00:15:32]
Andrew Reist:
I was like kind of devastated 'cause I was like, oh no, like
it's already been done. It already exists. But the more I thought about it, I realized like,
hey, this is actually just proof that it's a good idea because someone else is doing it and
they're having success in the market selling it. So, um, so that was, uh.
[00:15:52]
Andrew Reist:
That was a kind of a, a cool realization. Um, but there were
very few players in, in the market and so really it
[00:16:00]
was a new product, a new
product category. And so my thought process there was to really, um, before launching
new products, really I saw that there was a huge opportunity with this particular.
[00:16:10]
Andrew Reist:
This particular product, um, you know, everyone is used to
using, uh, you know, plastic cone. I probably, a lot of people listening to this maybe
didn't even know that this type of product existed. Now, today it's, it's, it's becoming, it's
starting to become more of the norm. Um, and, and primary. Kind of product that you
use at least for certain applications.
[00:16:30]
Andrew Reist:
Um, but it's, it's still kind of on that path of, of, um, gaining
traction, um, and momentum and awareness. And so, um, I identified that, that there
was really a huge opportunity to. To grow and to get into other channels and to increase
distribution for this particular product. And so that was really, um, where I chose to focus
rather than looking at launching additional products on Amazon.
[00:16:55]
Jon LaClare:
And you mentioned the cones. I don't know if dogs get
embarrassed, but if they do, they, they would definitely get embarrassed by
[00:17:00]
wearing those cones. And, you know, yours is such a much more appealing and friendly
to the dog, right? Like you joke about being embarrassed, but just more comfortable,
right? They can live their normal life and stay protected after a, after a surgery like that.
[00:17:12]
Andrew Reist:
Absolutely. And, and the, and, and it's a lot of it's the
people too. Like, you know, I've heard some vets say that, you know, sometimes the
dogs, they get used to the cone over time and they're fine, but the pet owners do not.
Um, and I don't think that was the case with Bailey. She, she, I don't know, I don't
believe she would've gotten used to it.
[00:17:30]
Andrew Reist:
Uh, maybe if I gave her a few more days. But, um, but it's
also pretty miserable for the. For the pet owner too, to just see your dog look so
stressed and, and uncomfortable. Um, and so, you know, we really believe if, you know,
if we can reduce the amount of stress and discomfort that the dog's feeling and they can
just kind of feel themselves and relax normally, that they're actually gonna heal quicker.
[00:17:52]
Andrew Reist:
Um, and a lot of times they. They don't even, they aren't
even bothered. Like with the cone. They're running around, they're trying to get it off.
They're, they're smashing
[00:18:00]
people's ankles. Right. Um, and so it's, it's, yeah.
It's just, it's a challenge for pet and, uh, and pet owner for sure.
[00:18:07]
Jon LaClare:
Yeah. No, that's a good point.
[00:18:08]
Jon LaClare:
It's a, it's a better experience for the pet. You, you, sometimes
you forget about the pet owner, right. But they're the ones that are, are also impacted
and they certainly do get embarrassed or they feel bad for their, for their dogs that they love and it looks uncomfortable, like as you said, they get, the dogs get stressed and
discomforted and, you know, no pet owner wants to see that.
[00:18:23]
Jon LaClare:
Um. After, especially after a surgery that they've gone
through. So you have, um, you know, transitioned out of, or I'm sure it's a, I shouldn't
say completely out of 'cause we always are, always, we're always transitioning or
growing our businesses, but in the early days you were very much in founder mode
where you did everything I'm sure, or many of us do.
[00:18:41]
Jon LaClare:
Right. And over time, how have you. Gotten away from that.
How have you been able to grow the business without having to do everything in the
business?
[00:18:52]
Andrew Reist:
That is a great question. Um, something i, I kind of still
working through and, and wrestling with,
[00:19:00]
um, but it's, you know, it's really
important to me. To, you know, work hard to grow this business, but also to have time
for, for family, um, and to, to have some type of boundaries there.
[00:19:13]
Andrew Reist:
You know, I, I wanna run a business. I don't wanna have a
business that is running me. And so I think, um, you know, part of the determination
there is realizing that like, there's only so much I, I can do only so, uh, I can only be so
busy and, and be effective. Um, and so. I think over time I've tried to almost create, uh,
a job or a role for people that.
[00:19:40]
Andrew Reist:
That makes sense. It is really challenging at this stage.
Um, and especially, you know, earlier stages. 'cause you know, there, there aren't any
full-time roles really. It's like a lot of the roles only require a certain amount of hours, uh,
per week. And so I've really survived off of contractors, having contractors that, you
know, may be two 10 et
[00:20:00]
cetera, hours per week.
[00:20:01]
Andrew Reist:
Um, and so that's been a great fit. But, um, yeah, it's, it's
been hard. Not from a idea. It's, I've been actually been really excited about handing off,
um, some of these responsibilities, but it's been, um, more challenging than, than
expected to kind of like craft those roles and positions. There's a lot of times they're,
they're multidisciplinary and so you have to find someone that is good at.
[00:20:26]
Andrew Reist:
Several different things, um, in order for them to kind of
have like a full, uh, a full-time role. And that's really hard to find, like talk about finding
someone that's good at, really good at, you know, their job. And then also, um, has the
capability to learn a few other other roles and responsibilities.
[00:20:45]
Jon LaClare:
You mentioned contractors, and we still use that in our business.
[00:20:48]
Jon LaClare:
You've been, we've been doing this for 20 years, but they,
they can work very well. So we've got, you know, several full-time employees here in
our Colorado headquarters office, but we have a couple of overseas employees or
contractors that they don't work full-time. It's
[00:21:00]
like you said, 10 to. 20 hours a week.
[00:21:01]
Jon LaClare:
Uh, both of them, so Stanley and Daniella are both overseas
and they've been with us for over five years. I will tell you before them we've tried
others, right? And it took time and finding the right fit, and it, it was, you know, a lot of
work and like, why am I even doing this? It's so much work to manage these peoples.
[00:21:17]
Jon LaClare:
It, but it's like anything. It's, we're about finding the right
person. And both of them have been with us so long that now they're a part of our team. And frankly, when we get new employees in our office, our overseas people are, are
coaching them, right? They're helping our internal staff because they've been with us for
a while.
[00:21:30]
Jon LaClare:
So they are, there are good contractors out there. It takes
effort to find them, coach them, get 'em up to speed. But once you do, they're a, you
know, that could be a very integral part of your team and less expensive, right. Than
bringing you on full time.
[00:21:41]
Andrew Reist:
It really does. Um, I'm curious what, like, what. Uh, you,
you use to find, to find the right people.
[00:21:48]
Andrew Reist:
I was gonna, our, my kind of system of process is a book
called, uh, the A Method for Hiring. I'm blanking on the author, but, um, essentially the
big takeaway is like, hire
[00:22:00]
someone that has a proven track record of doing
what you're hiring them to do successfully. 'cause if they've done it before and they can
prove that they've done it before and prove that.
[00:22:09]
Andrew Reist:
Um, you know, they were, they did a great job then that's,
that's how you're gonna have the most confidence that they're gonna be able to do it for
you. Uh, that's the 32nd version of that book, but a lot more good stuff in there.
[00:22:20]
Jon LaClare:
No, that's good. Um, and we, so for us, we've, we find our
contractors in a couple ways.
[00:22:25]
Jon LaClare:
So our short term contractors, which we use for creative
needs, et cetera, Fiverr, I know you use it or have used it as well. It's a great, it can be a
great tool, but like you said. Vet, make sure they've done exactly or similar to what
you're asking, to do these two long-term contractors. We use an agency that is only
specialized in finding overseas talent and they helped us vet them and we went through
a couple of different agencies that, you know, gave us lackluster results.
[00:22:48]
Jon LaClare:
Once we found these guys though, they, uh. They've been
fantastic to work with, to help coordinate 'cause they help with some of the
communication and they, you know, make sure that their employees, uh, they're
employees to them, right? So they're contractors for us,
[00:23:00]
that they're trained,
they know how to work remotely effectively, and they've done it for others, uh, as well.
[00:23:05]
Jon LaClare:
So that's, that's what's worked for us. I like, you know, in a
past conversation as well, you also talked about finding freelancers on websites like
Fiverr or Upwork, and then. Buying some of their time. So I Can you talk about that?
Like I think it's such a cool idea so that you learn from them in short buckets of time and
then did some of it on your own.
[00:23:24]
Jon LaClare:
I think especially in the early days.
[00:23:26]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, that's, I mean, that's, if there's a hack that I
implemented that's, that's probably it. Using those kind of freelance freelancer websites,
Upwork was kind of my. Uh, platform of choice. I know there's a bunch out there, but,
but basically I was able to find like, you know, a trademark attorney, uh, someone that
helped with, um, patent filings.
[00:23:48]
Andrew Reist:
Um, and so these are professionals that know what they're
doing. Um, in this case they were based in the US and, and both. Uh, professionally
certified with, uh, practices, but, but they just kind of on the side do a little extra
[00:24:00]
work. Um, and so it worked out really well. Um, but there's also, so when we
were trying to get into, kind of dip our toes into the, the B2B world, which is primarily to veterinary offices, it was brand new and, and I really had no idea what I was doing.
[00:24:15]
Andrew Reist:
I didn't know what. What vets looked for, if they stocked
inventory, if they didn't keep inventory in practice, where did they purchase from? And
so I actually just for one example of what you mentioned, I would hire a vet. This was
kind of also during COVID, so there were some people looking for remote remote work.
[00:24:32]
Andrew Reist:
And so, you know, they might charge, you know, like $50
an hour or something. But I would hire them for 30 minutes. So you're paying 25 bucks.
And I basically got to like pick their brain for for 25 minutes and just ask 'em questions
and, and. And, uh, get really amazing feedback that I otherwise would not have access
to.
[00:24:49]
Andrew Reist:
I think Upwork now they have like a, you, you have to do
like a consultation call. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's still a great option, um, if
you're looking to
[00:25:00]
kind of learn about, um, a new industry. Uh, the other thing
is before hiring people, a lot of times 'cause it was affordable, I would just.
[00:25:07]
Andrew Reist:
Hire three people, um, for like 30 minutes at a time and
just talk to them. And then I would kind of figure out from there who I was gonna actually
move forward with. Um, so I, I really utilized that a lot, in a lot of different areas of the
business.
[00:25:21]
Jon LaClare:
And I, I appreciate that. I'm sure the people you worked with
also appreciate it because so many times that people call into us as agencies and
they're trying to get free information, right?
[00:25:29]
Jon LaClare:
Like find out all our strategies, how we make it work, and
then do it on our own, on their own, which is fine, but if you're willing to pay a little bit for
their time, whether it's through Upwork or hiring, you know, going out to an agency
directly or whatever, you know, you showing that you value their time.
[00:25:42]
Jon LaClare:
For one, it's kinder to them, but. Maybe more importantly,
you're gonna get better information. 'cause now they're, it's not just like trying to sell you
or you know, answer just enough to hopefully win you as a client or whatever. But you
know, they know both parties know what they're getting or know what they're, you know,
what's being given and received.
[00:25:58]
Jon LaClare:
So that way they'll deliver
[00:26:00]
better value when you're
paying for, Hey listen, I just wanna. By a half an hour, hour of your time and you'll get
better information because of it.
[00:26:05]
Andrew Reist:
Absolutely. And, and I mean, a lot of those people I'm still
in contact with, I mean, it's not very frequently, but maybe every few months, you know,
we'll have a call or I'll, I'll check in or just shoot 'em a question and they can just bill me
a little bit at a time.
[00:26:17]
Andrew Reist:
It's, it's really worked great and a lot of those relationships
have turned into more long-term, um, kind of agreements and contracts. They're
probably still the same contracts that we opened in like 2020 or 2021. Um, but yeah, it's,
it's worked out amazing for us. The
[00:26:32]
Jon LaClare:
last question I have for you is you eventually were able to
quit your full-time jobs, right?
[00:26:37]
Jon LaClare:
So when this started, you're ordering 26 units. It's really
small. You don't know if what's gonna happen. Again. Fast forward, it's become a very
successful business, but at some point you had to stop. Working your day job and transition full time. And then you've got an interesting story about when that happened.
[00:26:52]
Jon LaClare:
I think it was the following week you had, uh, something, a
hiccup in your business, let's say. Can you share that story with our audience and how
you overcame it?
[00:26:59]
Andrew Reist:
Yeah, I
[00:27:00]
mean that, that, I, I always remember
that day like walking, driving home and, and walking into the house for, I guess the last
time from, from my full-time engineering job.
[00:27:09]
Andrew Reist:
Um. It's like just a complete mix of emotions. For the
longest time, I, I was doing my, you know, my engineering work and then trying to, you
know, run the, run the pet business value pass on nights and weekends, and it just, at
some point kind of gets to be too much. And I was in a crossroads and I was like, Hey, I
don't think there's necessarily.
[00:27:30]
Andrew Reist:
Um, I just had to make a decision. I had to go. It was like,
you're in the middle of a road. Someone told me it's an analogy and you, you, there's a
bus coming and you just can't stand either. Gotta go left or right, doesn't maybe matter,
but you gotta get out of the road. Um, and so that's kind of where I was at and so I
chose to, um, to, to quit my job.
[00:27:47]
Andrew Reist:
Thankfully I had, this was kind of years in, of slowly
building it over time, which is another real great thing that personally I would
recommend. It's like, man, if there's no better time to. Try,
[00:28:00]
uh, you know, an
entrepreneurial endeavor or start building a business, then when you have, um, I guess
like some, um, financial security of a, of a, of some other type of income or full-time job,
which is awesome.
[00:28:13]
Andrew Reist:
Um, but yeah, I, I'll always remember quitting, I think it was
the next day or later that week, I had, uh, just a massive invoice too for inventory, the
biggest, um, invoice that I, I had yet to date. So, um. I just remember the world where of
emotion of like quitting your job and then, you know, like the, the bank accounts just like
drained.
[00:28:37]
Andrew Reist:
'cause like I said, this, this massive bill happened to be
due. And I was like, this is really poor timing. Um, 'cause you know, you're getting all
those thoughts of like, what did I do? I don't even have a job. So, um, but uh, but hey, in
hindsight it was, uh. It's definitely the right call.
[00:28:54]
Jon LaClare:
And you know, whatever stage you're at with your personal
career, making that leap to
[00:29:00]
entrepreneurship, it's always gonna be stressful.
[00:29:02]
Jon LaClare:
But every entrepreneur I've spoken with, myself included,
when you look back, oh man, it was worth it. But there are those stressful days.
Hopefully it's not like the following Tuesday. Like you, you're like following week like it
was for you. Right. But it's gonna come, like there's, there's always stresses that
happen, but there's stresses in the day jobs too.
[00:29:17]
Jon LaClare:
Right? It's just part of, part of work, part of living. For sure.
Well, Andrew, this is, has there been anything I didn't ask you that you think would be
helpful for our audience?
[00:29:26]
Andrew Reist:
Uh, I did have a couple thoughts just even on what you
were just saying. 'cause there really are, you know, it's such an exciting adventure and
journey, which I think is why it's appealing to so many people and the freedom, but it
also is really tough.
[00:29:37]
Andrew Reist:
And so I think you, you gotta really be passionate. Um,
about whatever it is you, you are doing, you know, and, and kind of know your why.
'cause that's what's gonna get you, you know, push you through. Um, for us it's, it's less
stress, more joy. And, and that's what we're all about for, for, for me personally, for, um,
for all those that are involved with the business for, for the
[00:30:00]
veterinarians
taking care of our, our pets, uh, the pets themselves, and then for, and then for owners.
[00:30:05]
Andrew Reist:
So that's, that's really what we try to. Achieve. And, and it's
funny that, you know, in some ways it's funny, I'm on this podcast 'cause I know a lot of
it's fo focused towards marketing and, you know, his, I I'm an engineer, like I'm
technical. I, I would not necessarily describe myself as being a talented salesperson or
marketer.
[00:30:23]
Andrew Reist:
I think I've come a long way over the years. But really, like
our approach has been, um, to develop a great product and then, and then to really
eliminate. A lot of those stressors, which a lot of time is friction for people. So if we can
have a great product and it's easy for them to find and it's easy for them to purchase,
um, and we're able to provide great customer service, like that to me is the heavy lifting.
[00:30:47]
Andrew Reist:
My approach has kind of been like, Hey, the product will
sell itself. Um, and in a lot of ways it has. We're, we're definitely doing some marketing
things as well, which are super important. But I think if you have kind of, you know, your
why and you've got a great
[00:31:00]
product, um, it sure is a lot easier to, uh. To do
the marketing piece.
[00:31:06]
Jon LaClare:
Yeah, well said. It doesn't, nothing replaces marketing.
You've, you've gotta make sure people know about your business, but marketing works
much better when you've got a great product behind it, in part because you get satisfied
customers, they're gonna share with others, they're gonna be part of your marketing,
frankly, and you've certainly done that with, with your product and your business.
[00:31:25]
Jon LaClare:
So I appreciate you explaining your story and, and talking
about your product today. For our audience, if you are interested in learning more about
this product, you know, even if you don't have a, a pet that might be going under surgery
to get spayed or neutered or other surgeries that might impact them, you may know
others that are, or if not, if nothing else you wanna check out Andrew's business just to
see what he's built and what he's done.
[00:31:48]
Jon LaClare:
There's a couple ways to do that. So, uh, one is valley
pets.com. As always, these are in the show notes, so if you're driving, you can always
check it out on any of the podcast or YouTube. Platforms where this
[00:32:00]
podcast
is, is housed, or our website, of course, harvest Growth podcast.com, valley pets.com,
one place to go belly or the belly guard.com as well.
[00:32:11]
Jon LaClare:
And of course, these products are available all over Amazon.
If you search for belly guard is probably the easiest thing or to search for to find it in
Amazon. Is that right?
[00:32:19]
Andrew Reist:
Yes. Yep. It'll come right up.
[00:32:22]
Jon LaClare:
Fantastic. Well, for our audience as well, if you wanna take
the next step in growing your business, please visit harvest growth.com to connect with
our team, book a one-on-one conversation focused on your business.
[00:32:36]
Jon LaClare:
Well, thanks for listening today, and we'll see you in the next
Podcast_HG_AndrewReist 031126.rtf
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