HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS TOUGH TIMES PERSIST: The news remains bleak on three key measures: jobs, revenue and profi t. In each case, more companies surveyed suffered declines during the past year than enjoyed increases. OPTIMISM STEADY: The outlook for the coming year remains relatively sunny: 34 percent of those surveyed predict the overall economy will improve in the coming year,…
Smart email marketing makes the difference between emails that are read and those that go straight to the trash. Damian Davila, online marketing consultant and CEO ofIdaconcpts.com, explains how to make it work: 1) Short and focused Content is crucial, but your customers will only keep reading if your messages are short and focused. Direct them to your website for…
Q. I set up a Facebook page for my store. What should I do to engage customers and bring them in? A. With more than a half billion active users worldwide, Facebook is the major social-network player. The average Facebook user has about 130 friends, connects to 80 community pages, groups and events, and creates 90 pieces of content each month, according to…
Among the different economic sectors showing signs of recovery this year is the Hawaii market for buying and selling small businesses. Hints of falling prices and other trends have added to the confidence of brokers involved in the local business-for-sale market. But, they say, barriers are holding back many deals, including financing trouble, skittish buyers and business owners unwilling to…
10:00 A.M. Monday, April 18 State Department of Taxation, 830 Punchbowl St., Honolulu Photography by Olivier Koning >> The room handling incoming tax returns was busy but orderly on April 18. That Monday was the deadline for federal returns and many people turned in their state forms, too, even though the deadline was four days later. Note the white…
Problem Hawaii spends $5 billion a year on imported oil, but biofuels that can replace oil usually require a lot of agricultural land. Solution Using its library of algae strains, Kuehnle AgroSystems says it can select, analyze and optimize algae for specific growing environments. Using relatively little land, KAS’s algae can become a valuable biofuel. How it works With funding from the…
What it’s worth? $7,500 Hawaii’s most prized shells, those washed up on the beaches of Niihau and known as Kahelelani, are strung into beautiful lei. Rob Arita’s gorgeous Niihau shell lei can take years to make. In fact, he says, it takes him at least 15 beach trips just to collect enough shells in the right sizes and colors — and that’s when conditions…
Photo: Stock WHEN HE’S NOT OPERATING, selling and overseeing large construction equipment, Bobby Whitworth is likely deep-sea fishing. “Getting out on the ocean is physical therapy for me,” says Whitworth, general manager ofHawthorne Cat in the Pacific. “The ocean is very relaxing. Being with friends and family, talking about current and past events is priceless.” Whitworth learned a lot about deep-sea fishing from his grandfather and…
After his morning surf session at the Cove, Johnson Young heads across the street to Kihei’s Surfside Spirits & Deli, where he and his wife, Vicky, have been serving up great local food and Island hospitality for more than 20 years. As usual, the place is hopping: surfers eat breakfast in wet shorts, business owners sip coffee and kids play ukulele. It’s a favorite neighborhood hangout with a loyal clientele that you won’t…
Fifteen dollars for 18 holes of golf on Kauai’s North Shore? A lot of local residents think that’s a great deal, even though it’s miniature golf. The new business has been running solid six days a week with 75 to 80 percent local customers since opening in January. The course is on a 15-acre parcel in Kilauea, easily visible from the highway with its Hawaiian hale, Japanese torii and Chinese moon gates. It’s the first…
I’m a little scared, and that’s a good thing. In fact, if you have any sense, you should be a little scared, too. I’ll let comedian Chris Rock describe part of why you should be scared and let Andrew Jackson explain the rest. “The nicest compliment I ever got was from Conan O’Brien,” Rock said on NPR’s Morning Edition in…
Greenwood, who has been leading theUniversity of Hawaii for two years, talks about the university system’s broad, new goals. HB: What’s your philosophy on leadership? A: It’s very important to understand and appreciate the organization you’re working in, both the cultural context and the specific institutional context. I first assess and then look at the opportunities of building a team. I’m very…
Dump the D.O.E., Allow Vouchers I don’t believe it’s everyone’s responsibility (“Businesses Help Public Schools,” May). People and businesses meet their responsibilities by paying taxes. Why should parents who are already burdened paying private school tuitions be forced to pay taxes to support an overtly bureaucratic public school system whose performance is mediocre at best and then be asked to…
Welcome to the 2011 Hawaii Business Top 100 Realtors list, based on total sales volume for transactions that closed in 2010. We ranked the top 25 on this page and listed all 100 alphabetically on the following pages. The accounting firm PKF Pacific Hawaii LLP compiled the list using MLS data from the Honolulu Board of Realtors, the Realtors Association of Maui,…
Opeartings manager Dave Griffin, left, and Mark Amber are confident that Weston Solution’s chemical oxidation process can clean up the old GasCo site in Iwilei. The contaminate property is immediately makai of the Home Depot store. Thirty years after it shut down, the old Gasco site in Iwilei is still a vacant lot. For generations, it converted heavy petroleum into…
If only it could be bottled – that special touch that makes a Realtor great, not just for a quarter, but year after year. In the second year of publishing the Top 100 Realtors, Hawaii Business began highlighting the leading 25 Realtors on our list. We have done that each year since and, in that time, only four agents have…
Hawaii’s rapidly changing news media are facing two challenges at the same time: 1. How to gather and deliver news when, where and how people want it; and 2. How to pay for all that. The old ways of delivering news to readers and viewers are not as popular as they used to be, and the new ways don’t pay…
OAHU Price: $22 million This 1.4-acre, beachfront estate on Kahala Avenue has an indoor pool, a helicopter landing area, a tennis court and access to a small boat. It also comes with some history: Its most famous guests include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Clark Gable. Listing agent: Patricia Choi, Choi International Buyer’s agent: Patricia Choi KAUAI Price: $5 million A…
Local television news was once a great way to make money, but now its future is as clear as 3-D movies without the glasses. Revenues from advertising sales are up, but nowhere near what they were in the glory days before the recession. The Internet and mobile devices are areas for growth but pose challenges and costs, and little revenue,…