I recently participated in a Skype call with a successful midsize 10-year-old business on O‘ahu. It is owned by a committed and ambitious young man who wants to grow his company into a larger and more profitable operation. The owner…
There’s a lot of buzz lately about how to buy a business. A strong economy will do that. Not wanting to miss out on the potential growth and looking for a fast way to expand, business owners often look at…
The issues facing big and small businesses are not always the same. Big businesses generally have greater infrastructure and management depth that allows them to delegate specific issues (like labor law, contracts and taxes) to employees specifically trained to handle…
If you want history to repeat itself, then do nothing and maybe it will. But if you want 2019 to be better for your business than 2018, identify what worked well in the past year and what did not: Consider…
Everything is running great: Cash is coming in, bills are being paid and life is good. But then something happens and you can’t work for a few weeks or more. What happens to your business if you’re not there? If…
When was the last time you evaluated your prices? Does this process make you uncomfortable? Let me share a story about a friend and the surprise he experienced when he increased his prices. My friend and his wife had been…
But how – and how much – is very much a work in progress and it’s important that you monitor what happens next Finally, after more than 30 years, true tax reform has become law. Most small and midsize businesses…
The IRS announced today that it is accepting tax returns, with April 17 as the filing deadline for individuals. The IRS also explained tools and resources that will make the tax filing season a little easier for taxpayers. Here is…
Every owner of a small or midsize business has faced the challenges of finding, hiring and training qualified staff, whether your business is based in Hawaii or on the Mainland. One increasingly popular option is remote workers, which this article…
Now is the time to start planning so next year is better than this one. Start by reflecting on the current year and identifying what worked well and what didn’t. Were the challenges hiring good staff or training them? Making…
The fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick offers valuable lessons for small business owners. From my perspective, Kalanick did not understand or appreciate his limitations and the ramifications of his actions. Both are common management failures. As the owner of…
You have a business that is doing well and paying the bills. Maybe it has put one or two children through college. The kids are working, maybe on the Mainland, and not interested in taking over the family business. Now…
There are good reasons for the old cliche, "You don't ask the bank for money when you need it." First and foremost, rushing to a bank in a cash-flow crisis tells bankers that you are ineffective at planning and management.…
I just finished three days of providing testimony and participating in the national Small Business Administration’s Regulatory Fairness Board meeting. Twenty-two board members from across the U.S. attended and represented their states and regions. I represented Hawaii and served as…
Small businesses are so crucial to Hawaii that they must be nurtured and protected for the overall economy to grow. The federal Small Business Administration has different definitions for a small business depending on the industry, but, if we use…
My last column explained why small businesses are so crucial to Hawaii and that they must be nurtured for the overall economy to grow. This column offers a simple but effective strategy to manage your business to maximum capacity. First,…
The National Kidney Foundation says about 90,000 people in the U.S. need a kidney, and 12 people die every day while waiting for one.
A look at the policy decisions, external crises and social changes that gave Hawai‘i the most expensive housing in the nation.
