These Retirees Just Wanted Their Cats to Drink More Water. Now Their Remote Side Hustle Makes $80,000 a Year. This couple wanted to make and sell something from the comfort of their home. Now they're offering up their playbook for others.
By Frances Dodds Edited by Mark Klekas
Say you're retired, living in a "little tiny" agricultural town with a population of 800 people, caring full-time for your spouse who recently suffered debilitating strokes — and you'd like to make $80,000 more dollars a year. As it happens, that would make you a lot like Patricia Farris, who is running a surprisingly lucrative side hustle out of her home in Fort Jones, California.
But the point here — and the one that Farris made to me — is that if she can pull off a remote business like this, with the limitations of her circumstances, "people with more time, in urban areas who could get part-time help, could do a lot more."
Farris is 67 now, and before retiring, she worked in the legal field. Her husband Barry, now 77, was a pharmaceutical rep who eventually went out on his own to invent products for pharmaceutical and medical companies. When he retired, he knew he wanted to make some extra income and put his passion for inventing to use, but he didn't want to deal with all the FDA approvals that go with medical trademark inventions.
So, for inspiration, he looked to… his cats.
"That's when he came up with the idea for the cat fountain," Farris says. "He'd had cats all of his life, and lost a number of them to kidney disease, which is a problem related to cats not drinking enough water. He had a vet who told him that most cats just needed to drink more water."
It turns out, cats — living up to their diva reputation — prefer to drink chilled, flowing water over room-temperature still water, so a fountain that recycles cold water does a lot to keep the felines lapping their liquids. And so Glacier Point Pet Fountains was born.
Today, there are hundreds of manufacturers who sell cheap pet fountains on sites like Amazon, but back in 2009 when Patricia and Barry started this venture, there weren't nearly as many options. And those products that did exist there were plastic and porous, Patricia says, and prone to developing slime and bacteria. The Ferrises wanted to create a higher-quality option, and to this day, they still hear from customers that their fountain is the only one that chills the water, thanks to its mini-fridge component.
Barry did the bulk of the work on Glacier Point until he suffered a series of strokes in 2018 and was no longer able to physically assemble the fountains. Since then, Patricia has taken over most aspects of the business, while caring for Barry.
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Obviously, there are unique aspects to Barry and Patricia's story, like the fact that Barry had experience as an inventor. But Patricia believes many people have good ideas for inventions that they could make at home and sell for some extra income.
If you think about a domain you know a lot about, and a product you've noticed a need for, then you're already thinking like an inventor. Here, Patricia offers her best tips to successfully invent, market and sell a product from home in your spare time.
1. Shoot for the higher end of the market.
If you're making something yourself, in your home, it's likely you won't be able to produce that much of the product. So Patricia says it helps to create something higher-quality, so the price point is a bit higher, and you can make a good chunk on each item you sell.
"We're going for the upper end," Farris says, with the various fountain models going from $120 to $369. "There are a dime a dozen throwaway cat fountains, but we think of these as lifetime investments." The fountains are made from nontoxic, pharmaceutical-grade materials, like high-fire ceramic with antimicrobial tubings and fittings.
At these price points, Patricia says they sell about 300 to 400 fountains a year. But the fountains also have some parts like filters that should be replaced after a while so a decent portion of their business also comes from repeat customers ordering replacement parts they can't get anywhere else.
2. Be prepared for some startup costs.
Some inventions can be made entirely out of existing parts, and Patricia says manufacturing companies will often send you samples, so you don't have to buy everything you try out in the initial experimentation and building phase. "That helps with the cost," she says.
But sometimes you just can't find what you need, and have to find a manufacturer to create a part. "You go out and do the research," Patricia says, "which is what Barry did. He contacted companies to find out if they could make what we needed. And then you build and test prototypes." Some companies let you buy small quantities of the part to keep costs low in early stages until your sales increase.
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"There was a lot of work that went into creating the initial product," Patricia admits, and recommends that people be prepared to spend somewhere from $6,000 to $20,000 on the product development phase.
"But since that period, we just have all the component parts shipped to us, and I do the actual assembly — plus the final glazing of the ceramic basins," she says.
3. Source in the U.S. and make sure customers know.
"We source all of our parts from U.S. companies, which is a major selling point for many customers," Patricia says, "There are two parts we use that are sold by U.S. companies but made in China, because no one makes those parts here. But otherwise, all the parts we use come from, Los Angeles, Colorado and New York. I've been told over and over and over that people are looking for something that's made in the U.S., and that they want to support small businesses."
4. Hire a marketing agency.
For a long time, Patricia says, all their business was word of mouth and organic Google searches. But in 2019, she heard about a marketing software agency for small businesses called ActiveCampaign and signed up for their services, which cost her $63 a month.
"It was just so helpful because they created these automated emails, and if it was left to me to do that stuff manually, it would not get done," she says. Their emails remind repeat customers when it's time to replace a filter, or offer assistance with purchasing decisions. They also capture information from customers who visit their website. "That information has been invaluable," Patricia says. "Like, how did they find us? And you know, how many pets do they have in their home? That way, if we know where our leads came from, we know where to target our efforts."
Overall, Patricia says, she's just really proud of how sustainable the business has been.
"We started this 14 years ago, and a lot of small businesses don't last that long," she says. "But this is something that is still scalable, and we have a lot of repeat customers who've been using our product for over 10 years and they just come back to get replacement parts. It feels good to know it's something people want, and I'm committed to keeping it going."
