If you’ve heard about the social-media site Pinterest but are wondering if it’s worth your time, consider these statistics from the social marketing company Piqora: The average order value generated by Pinterest is $169, compared to $95 for Facebook and $71 for Twitter. That makes Pinterest another free tool worth considering for your business, especially if you use high-quality pictures to draw in customers. Pinterest calls…
The world will always need people trained in traditional fields such as education, medicine and law. But many college students today are looking to emerging fields where the number of jobs are growing, not shrinking, or careers that seem more meaningful or more fun than the average 9-to-5er. Hawaii’s colleges and universities have responded with innovative majors in fields such…
For a week in February, a team of 28 volunteers helped heal some of the poorest people in Tuguegarao and the surrounding region of the Philippines. The visitors from Hawaii’s Aloha Medical Mission and their local partners saw 1,300 patients, performed 22 major surgeries and 67 minor ones, conducted 275 dental extractions, and dispensed drugs and medical advice to those who could…
Delaney launched HiHR in 2009 and the company has made the Hawaii Best Places to Work list in every year for which it was eligible – four straight now. In the same time, HiHR went from revenues of $6.1 million in 2009 to $123 million in 2013. Delaney doesn’t chalk up all that success to being a Best Place to Work, but he knows…
The list is based on a confidential survey of employees and an extensive questionnaire about benefits and working conditions. Large Companies (250 or More Hawaii Employees) No. 1 HawaiiUSA FCU U.S. Headquarters: Honolulu www.hawaiiusafcu.com Employees: 322 (Hawaii) This credit union not only offers free movie nights for employees and their families, it sponsored a “Harlem Shake” style video contest with…
GMO has been a divisive issue on the Neighbor Islands. Is there a further role for GMO agriculture on Oahu? I want to preserve as much of our agricultural land as possible outside the urban growth boundary, and I want to see more food grown on Oahu for local consumption. Ultimately, it’s a security issue. We are dependent on shipments of…
Twenty years into a high-powered career as a hospital executive, Murray got tapped for the opportunity of a lifetime: Overseeing the $70 million opening of The Queen’s Medical Center’s 17-acre campus in Ewa Beach, on the site of the former Hawaii Medical Center West. She talks about the challenge of creating a community hospital in the fastest growing part of Oahu. You…
Problem: After years of attending weddings, birthdays and baby showers, Sara Smith had reached a tipping point. “I was feeling the weight of all the rubbish that was created by gift giving,” the Maui resident says. So she founded Wrappily last year and offers a product that is gentler on the environment: wrapping paper made of newsprint and created on local presses….
From July to December, customers crowd a classroom-size room at Kahuku High School where almost everything is red. Kahuku.org, which has made over $1 million in revenues since 2001, sells Kahuku High T-shirts, hats and hoodies while also teaching students how to run a business. Five community members founded the store in 2001 because people were making and selling T-shirts that…
Question: I want to open my own restaurant. How do I pick the right location? Answer: For many people, there’s no more romantic notion than opening a restaurant. While the business is a lot less glamorous than it appears on the outside, there’s a seemingly endless stream of entrepreneurs and chefs anxious to try it. Perhaps you do make…
Public speaking is a great way to build your business by educating the community on how you can serve it. Motivational speaker and speaker trainer Annette Lynch shares these steps to help you overcome nerves and engage your target audience. 1. Prepare Mind and Body Being prepared will give you confidence, so have your presentation completely ready and rehearsed, and…
Before the young business leaders from Hawaii started their intensive three-day journey to Japan, they did not get an ordinary pep talk or briefing. Instead, Glenn Furuya, founder of Leadership Works, talked to them about “Leading from the Heart.” To be a good leader, Furuya explained, “You must lead yourself to happiness first.” Being happy and fulfilled revolved around three…
Name: Karen Hashimoto Job: Certified dog trainer Experience: 27 years START: As a teenager, Karen Hashimoto spent summers volunteering at a dairy farm in Waianae, cleaning the milking parlor and feeding calves. So when she enrolled at UH-Manoa, she intended to become a veterinarian. But, for a final lab credit, she took a class studying dolphins and cognition, and decided…
About the time this issue reaches you, I will be emerging from a digital detox center known as Haleakala. My daughter and I will have spent four days hiking in the crater without our phones, laptops or any other devices that would connect us to the outside world. We will be experimenting with a radical means of communication that’s called…
Blogging has evolved as a writing style that conveys intimacy and immediacy on any subject imaginable, from travel and childcare to national security and economics. Now add to the list: Hawaii- centric legal blogs. Four attorneys with the Honolulu law firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert blog regularly on their areas of expertise. Robert Thomas, Mark Murakami, Anna Oshiro and…
Young professionals often think volunteering is something they’ll do later in their careers because they’re too busy now. But James Chan, a Realtor, a partner at Prudential Locations and a Big Brother, says, “Do it!” and he means now. “Maybe people think they want time to hang out with their friends,” he says. “But there are people who need them…