Godsey, 41, acquired ProService with Dustin Sellers in 2005, with both serving as co-presidents until Sellers left the company at the end of 2013. Born and raised in Ocean Springs, Miss., Godsey has worked on Wall Street and as a biologist studying rats in a Hawaii Island rain forest. He talks about the growth of the Hawaii Kai-based HR administration company. ProService…
A Hawaii Business team of four reporters, four photographers and four interpreters (two Chinese, one Japanese and one Korean) invaded Waikiki. We asked tourists, workers and business owners what they liked and didn’t like about the tourist mecca, and here are the most common responses. Great No. 1 Safe and Child-Friendly Tanya and Peter Collins and daughter Sasha, 5, are repeat…
A graduate student trades the bananas he grows to a local café for gift cards. On Craigslist, a beekeeper on Hawaii Island says he wants to swap a Langstroth beehive for a sailboat or greenhouse. Using a bartering network, a freelance copywriter sells enough of her writing services to pay for an accountant. This is modern bartering, where people trade their…
Waikiki is the Honolulu Police Department’ssmallest district, but, at three square miles it is also the most densely populated, says Officer John DeMello, who has been patrolling these streets for the past 10 years. I accompanied DeMello one Friday evening and early Saturday to glimpse the darker side of Waikiki that visitors and kamaaina may never see. Friday and Saturday nights…
You may have seen Kathy Sills selling her Aloha Pops frozen treats in front of the King Kamehameha statue or at Honolulu events such as Eat the Street. Her distinctive tricycle is tricked with a cooler packed with dry ice and $3 pops made with fresh fruits and local flavors, such as pineapple li hing, haupia, passion orange guava and chocolate peanut butter….
A lot of changes are happening at the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, but the most important is probably the chamber’s proactive approach to its legislative agenda. This year, for the first time, the Chamber is drafting its own package of bills and seeking sponsors at the Legislature to champion them. “Previously,” says the chamber’s new CEO, Sherry Menor-McNamara, “what we…
Panelists: W. David P. Carey III: President and CEO, Outrigger Enterprises Group Rick Egged: President, Waikiki Improvement Association Eric Gill: Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Unite Here Local 5 Hawaii Ernest “Ernie” K. Nishizaki: Executive VP, Kyo-Ya Co. LLC George D. Szigeti: President and CEO, Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association David Uchiyama: VP, Brand Management, Hawaii Tourism Authority Moderator: Steve Petranik, Editor, Hawaii…
The Hawaii Tourism Authority understands how hard it will be, but it is trying to rewrite the old saying that insists, What goes up, must come down. There are already strong signs that the tourism boom of the past few years has flattened and key numbers have started to decline. “We’re concerned about the initiation of that downturn and we want to…
Many of Waikiki’s Homeless Are Mainland Snowbirds Just as tourists trade the cold winters of Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities for the warmth of Waikiki, so do another group of visitors. “There are homeless people who come here in the winter months, just as tourists who come here when the mainland weather is brutal,” says Colin Kippen, the state’s homelessness…
The old International Market Place is dead. For more than 50 years, tourists flocked there, drawn to the warren of cheap jewelry stores, kiosks selling kitschy bric-a-brac and the romance of the original Don the Beachcomber restaurant, which opened there in 1956. Owned by The Queen Emma Land Co., the market place was a memorial to – if not Old…
When people tell me they never go to Waikiki, I wonder why they would want to miss so many wonderful things. Sure I love to play in the ocean and climb our green mountains far from the madding crowds, but, at other times, I want something different. Why leave Waikiki just to the tourists? One of my fondest early memories…
Beach Cleanup Friday, 11:50 P.M. Kuhio Beach, Waikiki Photo by David Croxford A tractor from Mat Hawaii Inc. clears trash and sifts and filters the sand each night in Waikiki. Valuable items, such as rings and watches, are sent to the city’s lost and found department. Mat Hawaii also sweeps Ala Moana Beach Park. Categories: Media, Parting Shot
Increasingly, small-business contracts include arbitration clauses that seek to limit potential lawsuits. Mark Davis, a partner with Davis Levin Livingston, offers these tips to help you understand arbitration clauses and avoid potential pitfalls. 1. Know the purpose of an arbitration clause In its purest form, arbitration is meant to solve disputes between equally positioned parties by employing a trusted third party…
Question: My business is successful in the Islands. How do I know when I’m ready to franchise on the mainland? Answer: Here are the main factors to consider when deciding if you are ready for franchising. Built for Other Markets In general, the franchising world thinks in terms of “concepts,” which means ideas and business models that have appeal…
There is no typical family business in Hawaii – they are as diverse as the state itself. But each has at least one powerful strength and one potentially crippling drawback: the family itself. Michael Miyahira, the founder of Business Strategies, a Hilo-based consulting company that advises family businesses, understands those family dynamics well. When he retired from Bank of Hawaii 15 years…