I started Kona Impact in 2007 with a dream of making a decent living and raising my family in Hawaii. Thankfully, things worked out well, and Kona Impact is thriving, with a great foundation for the future.
Here are a few things I have learned along the way:
- While many people love to believe that business in Hawaii is way different from other places, the fundamentals are the same. Make great products or services. Take care of customers. Take care of employees. Understand the numbers.
- Have some strong moats. For Kona Impact, this includes a range of specialized equipment that enables us to complete jobs efficiently and to a high standard. Other businesses might have specialized skills, exclusive distributor agreements, or locked-in service contracts.
- Have a superpower or two. For us, it’s a speedy turnaround. Just the other day, a customer said that another sign shop (a small, minimally equipped shop) usually took a month to complete small jobs. When we told her that we typically have a one-day turnaround for many jobs, she was wowed.
- Go where the money is. Within a half a mile of our shop is a $50 million oceanfront home, yet the school district in which it sits has over 60% of its students eligible for reduced-price lunches. The wealth extremes here are huge. It took us a few years to determine where the money is and how to market to those buyers effectively.
- Connect to the community. Join a paddling club, Rotary, or any other interest group. This is the easiest way to meet potential mentors and customers and gain referrals.
- Learn how to say place names and understand some basic local words and concepts. Mahalo, ohana, Kamehameha, kuleana, pono, mauka, makai, and more will help you fit in better culturally and linguistically.
- Establish a supply chain system that works effectively. It cannot be overstated that shipping costs to the island are very high, and lead times are extremely long. If we ship parts or materials via FedEx, the shipping costs often exceed the cost of the parts or materials themselves.
- Give to get. I see a lot of businesses that source everything they can from outside of the island, thinking they are saving some money. Others go out of their way to buy from local farmers, fishermen, retailers, and other suppliers. Guess what? Those who buy locally often see those dollars come back to them from people who live and do business here.
- Learn duct tape ingenuity. We learned to fix our machines early on, since the nearest tech is on Oahu and very expensive. We know of one individual who invested all his retirement savings in a small manufacturing business, only to discover that his machines required constant maintenance and he could not find anyone to keep them operational. He closed with a year.
Some will say everything I have written is just basic good business practices. I agree.
I’d argue, though, that the devil is in the details. If you start a business in Hawaii and then realize that the part you need is week’s away from arriving, and the local repair person doesn’t seem interested in your project or he keeps putting you off, you might regret not having spares on hand and not connecting on a personal level with people in the community who might “know someone” who could help.