Labor of Love
Building a six-person koa outrigger canoe requires a lot of time and money: about $20,000 for the log and $60,000 to turn it into a canoe. “It’s not an overnight procedure,” says Bobby Puakea, 72, a canoe builder, educator and…
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Big Island Berries
About six years ago, Paul Alston bought 20 acres in Volcano on Hawaii Island. The plot was zoned for agriculture and Alston, who grew up in urban Southern California, had no idea what he was getting himself into. “After we…
Hawaii's Best Small Businesses 2013
32 local companies and champions honored as some of Hawaii’s best Each year, the Hawaii region of the federal Small Business Administration celebrates some of the state’s best small businesses and small-business advocates. Hawaii Business honored the 2013 winners at…
Who Will Control The Manoa Innovation Center?
The Manoa Innovation Center – home to many small, high-tech startups – must find a new location by the time its lease with the University of Hawaii expires in April 2015. UH wants the space for its own programs, but…
Local Incubator Wins Hong Kong Award
Steve Sue, founder of BizGym, a cloud-based rapid-development application for startups and entrepreneurs, can’t say enough about Bee Leng Chua’s program, Hawaii Tech Asia. Below: Bee Leng Chua, HiBEAM and K.O. Chia, president of the Hong…
Products are Glamorous, But Not The Job
Name: Lo Kaimuloa Job: Owner/Buyer, Riches Kahala Years of experience: 30 STARTING OUT: Kaimuloa spent five years learning high-end retail with jewelry designer Bernard Hurtig, then, in 1986, she opened Riches Kahala, an 87-square-foot kiosk in Kahala Mall. She expanded to 200 square…
Microloans Change Lives in Hawaii
Clinton Kala of Waianae is a thankful man. With the help of Kuleana, a local nonprofit that partners with a global microfinancing organization, he is starting his own vehicle-cleaning business. “The things I used to do, I’m surprised I’m where…
For-Profit with a Cause
In many impoverished countries, students are required to wear uniforms to attend school, yet often they cannot afford one. Akin Clothing Ltd. mixes business with humanitarianism by providing school uniforms for those children…
Physical Therapy via Your Phone
Company: Irehab is a Hawaii-based company offering online instructional videos for physical therapists to prescribe to their patients after initial rehab. Product: “Through Web and mobile technology, we provide patients with specific treatment…
Preparing for Hawaii's Next Hurricane
When Iniki hit, many property owners were uninsured, under-insured or covered by a company that couldn’t handle all its claims When a massive storm like Hurricane Sandy strikes, the effects on the insurance industry are felt around the world, including…
Checking a decade of Hawaii's economic forecasts
Hawaii’s economy is hard to predict. Hawaii Business compared a decade of annual economic forecasts against the actual numbers and found most forecasts correctly predict whether key indicators will rise or fall. But the forecasts rarely get the actual numbers…
5 Steps to a successful media interview
Delivering a strong message and making sure it is clear, effective and memorable in a media interview is not as easy as it seems. In fact, many business owners miss opportunities to be quoted because they don’t communicate clearly. Lori…