Until recently, I was an “Amazon Associate,” listing a couple of books from time to time at the bottom of the left column of this blog. If someone clicked on the books and bought from Amazon, a small pittance would be paid to me by Amazon. Because of legislation introduced to tax internet sales in Hawaii, Amazon has canceled my associate account. At first I was a bit upset (even though I have really never made a cent in the program). But now I understand and fully support Amazon’s cancellation of all associate accounts in Hawaii.

Continue reading ‘Latest on Hawaii Legislature’s Attempt to Tax Internet Sales’

This is not particularly inspirational. In fact, the sight of this empty Island Chevrolet lot is extremely sad. Alan Clark is a great businessman, a family man, and a real community leader. So sorry to see his business fold up like this.

Someone has done a fine job of PR work in getting the word out about the proposed Bigeye Tuna farming operation that Hawaii Ocean Technology, Inc. will be undertaking off our coast. Here’s the local Honolulu Advertiser story. Just “google” “Ahi Farming” and you will find several similar articles.

Continue reading ‘Ahi Farming’

Recently I received notice that I was selected for an award from the Small Business Administration (Hawaii District). The award is in the category of Small Business Advocacy - Financial Services Champion, for the County of Hawaii. Governor Linda Lingle and Mayor Billy Kenoi were on hand for the presentation in Hilo (my award happens about half-way through the video at bigislandvideonews.com), and then a second ceremony for all statewide honorees was held last week in Honolulu. The write-up was in the April 24th issue of the Pacific Business News yesterday. Although unexpected, I must say, a little recognition is nice. Mahalo to Don Mende and Amy Bircher of American Savings Bank for nominating me.

I am one of those people who will spend hours looking online for the best airfares and hotel rates. My wife constantly reminds me how counterproductive I am when I obsess about finding an extra $10 savings. Well, I am hoping this new online company called Yapta (an acronym for “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant”) is the answer for me. I came across a recorded interview with the co-founder of Yapta (yapta.com) at StartupNation.com. Yapta allows you to input your desired flights and hotels and receive notices when the prices drop or go on sale. Thus, you don’t have to keep checking back-and-forth among airlines and/or discount airline services (ala Kayak.com, Orbitz, FareCompare.com) to try to time the purchase of your tickets. The Yapta service will let you know if you can apply award miles to the trip, and it will even notify you of your eligibility for vouchers and credits when the price drops below what you actually paid. I haven’t tried its service yet, but I am excited to give it a try for my upcoming mainland trip. I will let you know if it saves me money — or more importantly, time. I am also interested in Yapta from a business standpoint. It represents a niche internet business, created in a field that I believed to be overcrowded, with no more room for innovation. The recording gives some good insights into how the founders were able to identify their niche and implement their business plan, all on less startup money then I would have anticipated.

The other day a client of mine went to a local bank to inquire about an SBA loan. My client had learned about the new SBA loan incentives stemming from President Obama’s stimulus plan. Unfortunately, the bank had not even done its homework and did not know that, for instance, the SBA has increased its loan guarantees to up to 90% to give its lenders greater incentive to make SBA loans. SBA-backed loan fees are also waived. The actual SBA News Release is here. Some ideas for approaching your application process are: 1) Contact your SBA District Office and ask about the various programs; 2) For loans under $50,000 Check out your local SCORE chapter for the best resources available for Community Express Loans; 3) Check out Hawaii’s SBA Small Business Resource guide for local information, including a list of Top Lenders and the types of loans they sponsor; 4) Ask your District SBA Office about any upcoming SBA Resource Days that are planned in the community; 5) Check out programs and resources that may aid you in your SBA process through the Small Business Development Center Network.

Problems with our economy - particularly with our local Kona economy - will no doubt force business owners to seek creative low-tech and less expensive means to meet certain objectives. As I walked down to the pier to paddleboard the other morning, I walked by Pacific Vibrations, the quintessential surf shop in all of Kona. I say quintessential because the store has been a fixture on the Kona waterfront for as long as I can remember, and when you visit the store, you find it is jam-packed with surf stuff, making it just a fun place to browse about. The owners, the McMichael family, always give a significant discount to local residents. For some years, the store had a parrot mascot named “Simmy Bird” that would talk to passers-by and customers. Over the years, the store has been plagued with break-ins. Finally, in 2005, the unimaginable happened when a group of teens broke in to steal items and in the process killed Simmy Bird. The community was truly sad, and no doubt the McMichaels were heartbroken.

Continue reading ‘A Low-Tech Security Solution’

Incredibly, State Representative Henry Aquino (D-Pearl City) and State Senator Clarence Nishihara (D-Waipahu/Pearl City) have introduced a joint bill that would require all new businesses with less than 10 employees who register an LLC or Corporation to take mandatory business management classes. This is about the most ludicrous and inane bit of stupidity I have heard of. The story is well reported in the Pacific Business News at this link so I will not take too much time with it. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs wisely opposes the legislation. The mandatory classes would be “free” the proponents say (meaning taxes will eventually have to be extracted from business people to pay for the training). A few simple questions are sufficient to expose the idiocy of this type of legislation: (1) What about businesses with eleven employees (or more)? Aren’t they just as capable of mismanagement? (2) What if the LLC is simply to hold a parcel of land? Why would business training be required as a “one size fits all” remedy? (3) Given the option to form a business in another state (e.g., for an internet-based business) would not this requirement drive businesses away? The Pacific Business News article goes on to quote Senator Nishihara who says “Maybe when hearings are held I’ll be told that I’ve got it all wrong…We’re trying to find out if there is a problem and at least have a discussion on it.” Well, it seems to me if you are not really sure yet that there is a problem, maybe you should not be introducing legislation for the purpose of seeing if you can find one. Legislation should be precise and targeted at a known problem. And now we know why Hawaii government is perceived to be so unfriendly to small businesses.

I do a fair amount of presentations to professional and community groups. I do my own PowerPoint(TM) presentations; however, I will be the first to admit that sometimes they are uninspired. A year or so ago I attended a three-day legal seminar in San Francisco and many of the presenters used PowerPoint. After two days of dry, boring PowerPoint, Professor Samuel A. Donaldson from the University of Washington blew us all away with a PowerPoint presentation that supplemented his speech with sound effects and talking characters from The Simpsons to demonstrate tax issues relating to when to use an S-Corporation, C-Corporation, or an LLC. I recently came across what I believe to be one of the best blogs on professional and creative presentations - PresentationZen.com. The blog author, Garr Reynolds, is a former Apple Manager of Worldwide User Group Relations, and now is a professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. His recent review of a presentation of D-PAN’s video was quite favorable, and the video provides an idea of how a message can be effectively presented in a simple and powerful (and beautiful) way. I will be visiting Presentation Zen frequently, and especially just before my next presentation. Enjoy the video clip.

I added a couple of companies to ”Hawaii Startups I Am Watching” panel on the right sidebar.  One of them is Hawaii Life (hawaiilife.com).  We are in a completely downer of a real estate market in Hawaii, and real estate concerns are cutting back in general.  However, I see that Hawaii Life is, yes, hiring, according to the company’s blog.  This caused me to think that a real estate-related company that is expanding in this market has to have something unique.

Continue reading ‘HawaiiLife.com…I had no idea!’