Ask SmallBiz: Selling a Business
Q. Our children have no interest in taking over our business, so my wife and I have decided to sell it. How should we proceed? A. Selling your business is one of the most important things you will ever do. Here…
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5 Steps to Creating a Mobile App
Just when you thought you had perfected your company’s website, many consumers are turning to mobile apps for information, interaction and convenience. Brian Dote, the founder of Tapiki, a mobile-app development firm, provides these tips to help create an app…
Ukulele Boom Generates Global Sales for Hawaii Companies
Four or five times a year, Mike Upton closes the door in Petaluma, Calif., and flies to China to check an operation that’s making several hundred-thousand Hawaii-inspired ukuleles a year. Originally based in Hawaii, Upton moved to California but maintains…
Innovation: Oceanit’s FLASH Improves Battlefield Awareness
Problem: “Where did those shots come from?” Even on today’s high-tech battlefield, it’s often hard to tell. That’s why Honolulu-based Oceanit developed FLASH – Fast as Light Assessment of Snipers and Hostile Fire – which uses infrared sensors and high-speed processors.…
Nurturing the Next Generation of Local Leaders
What looks like can’t-miss, all-star potential often turns out a few years later to have been all potential and no actuality. But baseball scouts and managers have to keep looking because they need new players all the time to replace…
Talk Story with Bob Iger of the Walt Disney Co.
After nearly three years of construction, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, opened in September at Ko Olina. In an exclusive interview with Hawaii Business at the resort, Disney’s chief executive talks about Aulani’s role in the global conglomerate, about planning…
Feedback - November 2011 issue
Solitude can pay off big Your September editorial was well-written and right on point (“Editor’s Note,” September 2011). In sympathy with your comment that “One problem with solitude is that it looks unproductive,” I submit the following anecdote: The CEO of…
The Cost of Cosmetic Surgery in Hawaii
Plastic surgery is a growing business in Hawaii, with thousands of local customers and others flying in from the mainland, Canada, Japan and South Korea for procedures, say two of Hawaii’s top specialists in the field. Dr. Robert Peterson, chief…
Unique Scholarships Give Second Chance at College
Jasmine “Tita” Kuhaulua never thought college was an option while she was in high school. After graduation, she had three children in quick succession and the possibility of college receded further. But, the Waialeale Project has changed everything for the 25-year-old, part-time…
6 Great Small Nonprofits and What Makes Them Succeed
Hanahauoli School The first rule of not-for-profits,” writes nonprofit consultant Peter Brinckerhoff, “is mission, mission, and more mission.” Mission, he points out, is a nonprofit organization’s legal reason for existence. It’s why the staff works long hours, often for a…
Hawaii’s Natural Energy Laboratory fuels innovation
Next to Kona International Airport, at Keahole Point, sits a potential gold mine that is home to some of the state’s biggest exporters and groundbreaking research being done nowhere else in the world. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority…
Not Made in Hawaii
When was the last time you went to a luau and enjoyed deep-fried onion ring chips with your squid luau and lomi salmon? Never, that’s when. But Tim’s Cascade Snacks doesn’t care. The Washington-based manufacturer makes a lot of money…