Survivors
It’s Sunday morning and the aisles of Kauai’s Kukuiula Market are empty, save for a middle-age man scoping out the beer selection and a teen devouring a giant acai bowl. As a six-pack and a Spam musubi land on the…
Small Business
Making and Re-Making Beds
Richie Stewart builds 15 new platforms a day at the Green Bed Factory, a division of Ross’ Appliances and Furniture. The frames take the place of traditional boxsprings (though the company calls them by that traditional name, “boxsprings”) and are…
Repurposing With Style
Ross’ Appliances & Furniture was founded in 1975 by Ross Wigney, an Australian who served as an electrician’s mate aboard Jacques Cousteau’s ship Calypso. “He met a girl on the Mainland, and when the Calypso pulled out of port, Ross…
Five Things to Know About the Trump Effect
“Change is ahead for your small business, and how do you prepare?” Jane Sawyer, Small Business Administration Hawaii district director, asked a room of more than 100 people at the YWCA Laniakea on Thursday. Jane Sawyer,…
His Formula for Success: Fail, Fail, Fail, Prevail
Kalin Uluave didn’t let business failures stop him. Good thing, because the fourth succeeded, and the fifth and sixth are on track, too, with a seventh on the way. Uluave, a business-management major at BYU-Hawaii, topped three other contestants to…
Kainoa McGee’s Company Named Startup of the Year
Kainoa McGee’s life always revolved around the ocean. In middle school, McGee was already making surfboards. He would buy a stock board, reshape it and seal the board with Sunday newspaper comics and wax. The board didn’t stay sealed, but…
Myth and Reality
Entrepreneurism is hip and it seems that everyone has a plan for their own business. It also appears that, more than ever, there are resources to support startups, both locally and nationally, including accelerators, college courses, government programs and more.…
Local Couple Creates Teas From Own Recipes
ORIGIN: Married couple Bella Hughes and Harrison Rice have been tea drinkers since college. “My first present to him nine years ago was a very fancy loose-leaf tea,” Hughes says. Hughes, born and raised in Hawaii, knew the benefits of…
A Taste of Canton
Seafood chives gau is one of 35 types of dim sum served at the Happy Days Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Kaimuki. The owners say they serve an average of 1,000 trays of dim sum every day. Siu mai (pork hash)…
A Treat for Your Ilio’s Teeth
ORIGIN: David Pang has been creating pet products for years, first when he owned a chain of pet stores in Taiwan and then after he opened Pet Spot Ward at Ward Warehouse in Honolulu. So he launched a company to…
Sweet Paradise
Richmond “Rich” Chang always wanted to own a business. “I was a finance major at UH and, when I graduated in 2000, I didn’t know what sort of business I wanted, but I knew I wanted to buy one,” remembers…
Wong's Drapery Shoppe
The drapery shop is on Beretania Street, across the street from where the original store opened in 1947. Mel Wong has been working for his family’s drapery business since he was in high school in 1969. “I was working at…
LocalKineBiz: Activewear
It’s like a sickness. It’s very addictive,” says Sandra Kamiyama, giggling as she describes her frequent shopping visits to Mahiku Activewear in Haleiwa. “Their clothes are so comfortable, it’s like they’re made just for my body shape! I can wear…
Breaking Up is Hard to Do (In Love & Business)
Charletta Wilson was 18 months into a lucrative consulting contract when she realized the firm that had hired her was engaged in unethical accounting practices. She didn’t like it, but wasn’t sure what to do. Could she really walk away…
Transformative Therapy
“Metamorphose means to change or transform, and I wanted to use the verb- rather than the noun- for the name of our yoga studio, because it’s much more action-oriented,” explains Carol Dumeyer. “We’re all capable of changing or transforming.” The…
Made in Hawaii
Iolani Sportswear president Lloyd Kawakami remembers when aloha shirts were only made in Hawaii. Today, they are produced cheaply in Asia or sold under labels such as Tommy Bahama, which have no connection to the Islands. That competition has put…
Bubbie-licious
A worker crafts frozen treats at the headquarters of Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream & Desserts. Sadly, the original store makai of UH Manoa is no more, but you can still buy Bubbie's famous mochi ice cream and other desserts at…
Still Rolling Along after 105 Years
"Riding bikes is fun, and going to Eki’s makes me feel like a kid again!” raves Gene Christmas (yes, that’s his real last name). The 59-year-old quality assurance inspector at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard has bought more than 20 bicycles…
Japan is a Large Growth Market for Hawaii Entrepreneurs
Eric Rose can’t forget the day a year and a half ago when a group of Japanese businessmen walked into Morning Glass, his trendy coffee house in Manoa, and suggested taking the concept to Japan. “They came in out of…
Super Eats
Hard-working Angel Le Tran goes back and forth between Kaimuki and Chinatown nearly everyday to provide her loyal customers with the food of her homeland “Sometimes I’ve gone there multiple times a day. I love their food that much,” Brian…
Farmers Find Paradise
Life and business partners Scott Buske and Megan Collins have adventurous souls that led them to an overgrown orchard on the Big Island and a whole series of tasty foods they are selling to locals and the world. “I always…
Nothing Ugly Here
Jeff and Karon Chang have come full circle. When they opened their first gallery in a former house along Kamehameha Highway in Kaneohe in 1996, the couple had three goals, recalls Karon, co-owner of Jeff Chang Pottery & Fine Crafts.…
Man Up
More men across Oahu are turning to upscale barbershops for an experience beyond the traditional in-and-out haircut, with two high-end shops recently opening in Honolulu and others expected to follow. Yes, you can still get a simple trim, but options…
“Magic” + Science = Fun
"Cosmic Kelly" Ferreira is an expert on kids. “Growing up on Maui, I was the oldest in a family of five, so I was more like a second mom to them,” she recalls. “And I was always an extrovert, not…