At Kona Impact we work with four hundred or so businesses a year. This includes off-island companies, some of the largest employers on Hawaii Island, and a lot of small, single-person businesses. At times I learn a lot from all my clients. I also get to share a lot of what I have learned from […]
We hear the same old tired complaining yearly about the IRONMAN in Kona. Here are the complaints I hear every year: “The athletes don’t spend any money here.” “Many businesses have to close on IRONMAN day.” “IRONMAN is a huge business, and it takes advantage of the goodness of the people of Kona.” “The athletes […]
I came across an interview with Lee Paterson of Hula Daddy Coffee on YouTube a few days ago. The gist of the interview is how Hula Daddy went from inception to one of the world’s top-rated coffees in just ten years. What’s even more striking to me is how he wants to improve the level […]
Ok, here is how deep, dark secret of Google, Bing and Yahoo work: They index content on the internet. They analyze that content. When someone searches for something, the search engines match the search with content. The better the match, the more likely it will be shown high on the search engine results pages. An […]
The modern internet is now about twenty years old. The internet certain goes back longer than that, but the web, the graphical HTML-based internet of which we are all familiar is about twenty years old. I have been building websites and doing online market for about 17 of those years. Like everyone, the one consistent […]
At Kona Impact, we ask a lot of new businesses to describe what they do, who they are, and how they are different from other businesses. The conversation often goes like this: Client: We will excel at customer service. Us: How? Client: We will listen to and communicate with our customers often. Us: So, can […]
We had a state holiday last Friday and the weather over the weekend made hiking and going to the beach inadvisable. So, we had what I would call three “rainy days,” days that are perfect for working on organization and long-range projects that seldom get done on normal business days. Here are five things I […]
Most of Kona Impact’s clients have a love-hate relationship with social media and review websites. When they get a lot of positive reviews, they are, of course, happy. When a customer or client writes a bad review, they are not happy. When a competitor plays dirty, they are furious. How do competitors play dirty online? […]
Think about any sport you have played. Now think about how you became good at that sport. Your path to becoming good probably included about 90% participation, playing, and 10% “other”, which might include reading rule books and watching YouTube videos. Now think of starting a business. For certain, you need to spend time researching […]
I heard an interview with a termite tenting company on Oahu this morning. His business seems to be much like Kona Impact’s in that we are a provider of quality, professional services, and we almost never use price cuts as a ruse to get clients. The pest control guy had some great observations: Will the […]