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Small Business

Ask SmallBiz

Hawaii Business Staff,

Q. I’m told my business would not have been covered if we’d been hit by the March 11 tsunami. But, last year, I added “water damage” to my insurance. What gives? A. I can see why you’re confused. A tsunami is…
Marketing

Blending Old and New Marketing

Harold Nedd,

Tourists have hundreds of ways to spend their money; here's how more than a dozen small companies draw them in. Well-tended tourists in skin-baring dresses and tropical shirts sip after-dinner drinks on the terrace at Duke's restaurant, while a Hawaiian…
Entrepreneurship

Launching a Business

Dennis Hollier,

In November 2009, in the difficult aftermath of the Great Recession, Matthew Bittick left a cozy position as principal broker and sales manager at the Hawaii office of PM Realty Groupto strike out on his own. Now, as his new company, Bishop…
Lifestyle

Innovation: Wearable Ads

Shara Enay,

Wish you could afford to run commercials promoting your company and products all day long? Now you can with Pacific Digital Signs’ sexy new Digital Nametag. “This will definitely stop people in their tracks and deliver a perfect message every…
Lifestyle

Social Media Can Wreck Your Career

Shara Enay,

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried is the latest celebrity to be fired over social media, because of callous tweets about the devastating tsunami in Japan. In February, Rep. Chris Lee, R-N.Y., resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives after stories emerged that…
Finance

Banking Revolution

Hawaii Business Staff,

Choosing a bank used to be fairly simple: People typically selected the bank that was closest to home or work. That was before the Internet. Now there's banking everywhere through smartphones, with First Hawaiian Bank rolling out its app this…
Education

Businesses Support Public Schools

Beverly Creamer,

The new track at Lahainaluna High School on Maui, along with the field and turf, have been made possible because of millions of dollars worth of in-kind and cash donations by Maui businesses and residents. Additional changes are coming in…
Community & Economy

Sorrow & Anxiety

Jolyn Okimoto Rosa,

Local businesses have responded quickly and generously to help the victims of Japan's tsunami disaster. In fact, every one of the dozens of companies contacted by Hawaii Business says it has either launched its own fundraising effort or contributed to…
Community & Economy

Big Box Stores

Jerry Burris,

The critics' story is familiar: Giant stores move into an American community and destroy its small businesses, local values and sense of place. The same story is being told now in Hawaii, as shoppers abandon longtime neighborhood businesses to buy…