New City Business Spotlight: Innovative Pet Care Products

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. The plan behind this series at Patch is to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

This is as much about supporting local businesses as it is about celebrating the places and faces that make our community special. Click here to get to a simple form where local business owners can answer a few quick questions to be part of this ongoing feature.

Our spotlight today is on Eric Bittman.

Business: Warren London
Owners: Eric Bittman
Website: http://www.warrenlondon.com
Address: New City

How did you come up with the name?

I was looking for a classy sounding name and decided to use my middle name Warren and the street I grew up on which was London. Warren London sounded great so I went with it.

Why choose that location? Why start a business in this town?

This is the town I grew up in and thought it would be a great place to start my business.

Briefly, what business are you in?

Dog Grooming Product Manufacture

What’s the most difficult moment or challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

Probably launching the business as everything takes so much longer to get started than you plan. So many items including website, product labels, legal documents, etc. took way longer to complete than I hoped but launching the business was a great feeling.

Were there any challenges that made you second guess your decision to be an entrepreneur?

I have not second guessed my decision ever as I love what I do, but there are moments and very tough stressful decisions that there are times I wish it wasn’t me who had to make decisions. When dealing with a huge decision such as another person’s job status or a product decision that can be a million dollar decision, you have make a decision and live with it forever. I have made a few great decisions and a few that I regret but this is still a learning process and they will each make my company stronger as I go on.

What’s been your favorite moment or proudest achievement since opening?

In my industry, you have two huge players in Petco and Petsmart. To land both of them as current vendors that buy products from me, that is probably my biggest achievement to date. Winning best new product of the year for my patented dog nail polish pens is probably my second favorite moment.

What’s the most innovative idea your employees or customers have had that you put into practice?

Coming up with an all natural vegan based dog coloring that was PETA approved has been a huge hit for us. One of my employees came up with the idea and created her own batch and we went from there.

How do you deal with difficult customers?

For the most part, being patient and listening to them and then trying to solve their problem the best way we can. You are always going to have people who complain or want money back if they don’t like a product so we try to educate the best we can and solve any of their issues.

How does your business give back or get involved in the community?

I have volunteered many times at dog shelters and with Rescue Ink.