Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Custom Cat Furniture Revolution!

     Greetings cat lovers! Allow me to introduce myself, and tell you a bit about what I do.  My name is Ken Yuzva, and I am the founder of Hollywood Kitty Company.  For over 14 years, I have been working toward creating what I consider to be "a revolution" in the pet industry.  In 2003, I created a simple, yet profound mission statement: "To design & build the most well-built, unique, and amazing custom cat furniture in the world, and work toward the goal of making these products affordable for almost everyone."
     The last part of this goal is going to be tricky and take a few years to make happen.  So, for now, our products are more costly than most cat furniture out there.  But, more about making our products more affordable later.
     For now, let's get to the things that make Hollywood Kitty Company's hand-made products custom, unique, and well-built.  For starters, we offer the greatest selection of any company in the world, in the category of themed cat furniture products.  All of our products have customizing options on our website, and we offer more carpet colors than any other company.  In addition, if a customer has a special request that is not shown on the order page, they need only ask us for it.  If it is possible to fill the request, we will make every effort to accommodate.
     Now, for the really exciting part.  We offer 100% custom.  And, this is no understatement.  What this means is that if you can imagine it, we will do our best to build it for you.  If you have an idea, sketch, concept, or just a vague notion of wanting something that is unique to you, we can help you to develop the concept or idea into a one-of-a-kind creation that you and your cats will absolutely love, and it will last for years, if not several decades, before needing to be replaced!  The possibilities are almost endless, and we work toward expanding our repertoire of techniques, skills, and equipment to allow for even greater possibilities in the near future.  What's more?  We also build for dogs, and will soon expand to fish, birds, rodents, and reptiles!
     We use only the best materials and craftsmanship to build out products.  We will NEVER use cheap "particle board" (aka "pressed wood") to make platforms, for example.  We use only plywood, and sometimes OSB (oriented strand board), if the budget doesn't allow for the costly plywood.  Our posts are solid pine, rather than hollow cardboard tubes.  And, we use only high-quality plush carpet to cover our products.  To attach carpet, we use a mixture of glue and staples to ensure that our products will last as long as possible.  We don't "cut corners", either.  We go the extra mile to ensure that each and every product we build is a work-of-art that you will want to show off to your guests.  To make our scratch posts, we use thick 3/8" sisal rope. We have developed our own techniques for wrapping and attaching the rope to the wooden posts, making them last for several years without ever coming loose or unraveled.  And, if a part of one of our products needs to be replaced, we can often send you replacement parts that are relatively easy to install.
     Now, regarding making our prices affordable to most pet owners, this will require a lot of time, development, and capital to realize.  I am not a proponent of paying workers minimum wage, as skilled workers deserve far better pay rates.  And, I do not want to outsource to other countries, as "Made in USA" is very important to me.  However, paying employees more money means that the cost of the products must also increase.  So, making the products more affordable will require the use of automation to eliminate much of the labor required to build the products.  This could theoretically allow the products to be built faster, more efficiently, and without flaws.  The goal would be to improve quality, while reducing costs.
     We invite you to see our products for yourself at www.hollywoodkittyco.com.  We guarantee you will be impressed!

More of this post coming soon!

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Wrapping Up The Ohio Years

As much as I planned to leave Ohio, and journey back to Los Angeles before the end of March, it seems I may need to push the date back just slightly.  I have 3 projects to complete before I can leave.  And, I haven't even begun to start packing up for the move.  But, come hell or high water, I will be in California within the first week of April!  I keep getting orders from ebay, and I need to keep the customers happy, even though the sales are for small dollar amounts.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Details: #HollywoodKittyAwards #HollywoodKittyOfTheMonth #HollywoodPawsOfFame

Any past or present Hollywood Kitty Customer may enter their cat in our upcoming "Hollywood Kitty Awards" contests.  We are now accepting entries for future contests.  Voting for the "Hollywood Kitty Of The Month" contest goes for the first 28 days of each month, beginning on the 1st of the month at midnight PST, and ending at midnight PST on the 28th day of the month.

The coolest part of the contests is that they will be LIVE on our website for 28 straight days, and voting is open to the entire world!  So, if your cat is in the current contest, all you need to do is to use social media to share a link to the contest page and get your friends to vote for your cat.

Each time a vote is cast, the IP address is recorded, making it impossible to vote a second time that month from the same device.  So, cheating is virtually impossible! With each new vote, the percentages of votes are instantly recalculated and the current polling statistics are displayed on-screen in real time!

Each month, there will be 6 cat "nominees" competing for the title of "Hollywood Kitty Of The Month". The winning cat for that month will automatically be entered in the "Hollywood Kitty Of The Year" contest in January of the following year, in which the 12 "HKOM" winners compete for the grand prize for the "HKOY" contest!

All "nominees" will be commemorated in our upcoming "Hollywood Paws Of Fame" section, along with their awarded honors.  Also, customers may nominate any pet to be featured in our upcoming "Hollywood Paws Of Honor" section.  However, for non-customers, there will be a small fee associated with this online honor.  This fee will cover our time for creating and archiving their pet's "HPOH" entry.

More information about the "Hollywood Kitty Awards" contests coming soon!  If you are a present or past Hollywood Kitty Company customer who is interested in submitting your cat's photos and story for future contests now, please email Ken at hollywood_kitty@msn.com.

In order to have 12 entries for the "HKOY" contest, the 1st "HKOM" contest will officially commence on January 1, 2018, at 12:00 am, PST.

Thank you for your interest, and please check back for information about prizes for the winners and runners-up!

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Countdown To California

The date to return to California approaches.  There is much work to do to tie up business in Ohio and make the journey back to Los Angeles.  The goal is to arrive in L.A. by the end of March.  I will write an update if the time needs to be pushed back at all.  But, I will be doing my best not to let that happen.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Greetings From Hollywood Kitty

Welcome to the Hollywood Kitty blog!

This will be where we tell the story of Hollywood Kitty Company to the world.

So, stay tuned, and learn all about HKC's past, present, and future!

Thank you for your interest & we hope to see you back soon!