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Business

Small Business Awards Nominees

Thursday, February 26th, 2015

County of Maui News Release

The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development and Maui Chamber of Commerce are pleased to announce the nominees for the upcoming 2015 Mayor’s Small Business Awards, which will be held on Thursday, Feb. 26 at the King Kamehameha Golf Club’s Waikapu Ballroom.

This year, there are two nominees from Molokai – The Molokai Dispatch in the Exceptional Small Business of the Year 0 to 10 Employees category, and Rawlins Enterprises in the Exceptional Small Business of the Year 11 to 35 Employees category. Other categories include Exceptional Small Business of the Year 36 to 100 Employees, Young Small Business Person of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award and Outstanding Nonprofit Business.…

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Become a Virtual Office Assistant

Friday, February 20th, 2015

UHMCM News Release

Virtual Office Assistant (VOA) Certificate of Competence program will help you develop the necessary skills to successfully provide administrative support services to clients or employers in a virtual setting.  This certificate, available on Molokai, allows you to take advantage of employment opportunities, regardless of where you reside (from the comfort of your own home).

Virtual office assistants do many things, from booking appointments for clients to preparing slideshows and managing databases.  Many industries are turning to virtual assistants for tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll, proofreading, event planning, research, customer services, and many more.

With mobile and internet connections, you’ll be able to take advantage of job opportunities anywhere in the world as a virtual office assistant!…

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Small Business Revitalization Grants

Friday, February 20th, 2015

Maui County OED News Release

Funding for small business revitalization is available for Molokai and Hana, the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development (OED) announced. The grant awards will range from $500 to $5000; nonprofit entities are not eligible for this program. Small Business Revitalization grants totaling $24,000 were awarded to small businesses on Lanai, and applications are now being accepted for a second round of grants for businesses in Hana and on Molokai.

The small business revitalization grants are designed to assist businesses with fewer than 10 employees who do business in Maui County’s rural communities such as Hana and Molokai, which have been identified as the areas hardest hit in their ability to recover from the economic downturn of the past few years.…

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MEO Celebrates 50 Years

Friday, February 20th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Lyn McNeff, CEO, Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc.

This year Maui Economic Opportunity (MEO) celebrates 50 years of service to the people of Molokai and Maui County. MEO began in 1965 as nonprofit grass roots Community Action Agency chartered to fight poverty in Maui County.

For more than two generations MEO has been engaged in this effort through community advocacy and by providing needed services such as transportation, early childhood development, youth services, inmate reintegration back into the community, and micro loans and business development services to low-income entrepreneurs.

Continuing with efforts to expand upon our work in the community, on March 21, MEO will host our 50th anniversary fundraiser dinner “Dancing with Our Stars.”…

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Time Management Workshop

Thursday, February 19th, 2015

KBC News Release

“I don’t have enough time!”  How often have we said this?  What tasks need to be done?  How am I ever going to wade through all this “stuff?”  The Kuha`o Business Center (KBC) is presenting a workshop on Time Management on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. as a way to answer these questions.

Each of us has tasks we need to accomplish for self, work, and family.  Some of the subjects to be discussed are: How to organize your day, how to set priorities, and the importance of information storage and its retrieval.  The workshop will be based on the work of David Allen, who has written three books on the subject. …

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Sweet New Business Serves Up Snow

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

Sweet New Business Serves Up Snow

Molokai residents have the hots for an ice-cold hybrid treat: a flavored dessert called snow. It’s the feature of new business Sweet Evie’s Snow Factory, which opened on Molokai last Monday.

“Snow ice is not ice cream, it’s not shave ice, it’s not frozen yogurt. It’s like frozen cotton candy,” said Kalehua Sproat-Augustiro, who opened the shop along with her husband Maka Augustiro.

Unlike shave ice, which is ground into fine granules, snow is shaved into thin slices that, when layered, have the appearance of wrinkled tissue paper. Instead of adding flavored syrups to the ice, the flavors are frozen straight into the ice itself, a concoction of “fruit and juice bases mixed with milk,” which without toppings, amount to fewer than 150 calories a serving, according to Snow Factory Hawaii’s website.…

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Free Small Business Training

Friday, January 9th, 2015

 ONABEN News Release

Our Native American Business Network (ONABEN) looks forward to returning to Molokai to work with entrepreneurs and provide free training. This small business development workshop will be provided in Kaunakakai at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs/DHHL Conference Room, across from Coconut Grove, at the Kulana Oiwi Building D, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1 to 6 p.m. and Wednesday, Jan. 14, 9 a.m. to noon.

ONABEN provides training and technical assistance to the Molokai small business community as part of a three-year grant with the Administration for Native Americans, and Veronica Hix, ONABEN’s Executive Director, is “Thrilled to return and revisit with so many amazing entrepreneurs on Molokai.…

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The Molokai Business Model

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

How local retail stores are staying afloat in a small market

On a typical day, you can cruise through Kaunakakai’s main street in less than a minute. With three compact blocks of stores and eateries, owners must do business with a special delicacy. As the local retail industry grows, they’re navigating new challenges of unexpected competition but are mining their talents and aloha spirit to survive, and that’s why tools like the ai in retail is becoming more important than ever.

In Molokai’s economy, many customers “live paycheck to paycheck,” explained Michelle Hiro, who opened Molokai Cellular in 2008. Business owners said the key to co-existing in a compact, slower-paced setting is respecting each other’s corners of the market.…

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Family Revives Salon in Maunaloa

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Family Revives Salon in Maunaloa

Growing up, Leilani Kadowaki was bewildered by beauty salons. In her hometown of Maunaloa, there was a salon called Sheer Delight, and when people went in and emerged with new hairstyles, it puzzled her.

“[I said,] ‘What are you guys doing in there, getting your hair all permed up in those curly things? The lady looks scary,’” Kadowaki remembers with a laugh.

More than 20 years later, hairstyling is one of her passions, and she and her family are bringing the beauty business back to her hometown. Michelle and Raymond Hiro, Kadowaki’s aunt and uncle, helped her open a salon on 100 Maunaloa Highway, in the same spot as the salon of her childhood, which was converted into a Molokai Ranch security office and later went unused for more than a decade, according to Raymond.…

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Learning the Business of Farming

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

A group of Molokai farmers were looking to cultivate something beyond bananas and broccoli on Nov. 20: their business and marketing abilities. About a dozen local farmers and ranchers gathered at Hikiola to attend the Agriculture Business Development Training workshop to refine their skills at winning customers and securing funding.

With the county moratorium on genetically engineered crops currently on hold, many farmers are uncertain about the possible effects on their businesses. Although the workshop’s guest speaker, Nicole Milne, didn’t have concrete answers, she said laying out and following smart plans will keep farmers on the right path.

“I feel like people’s goals for their businesses and their farming ideals are fairly secure,” said Milne, associate vice president for programs for The Kohala Center, a Hawaii Island-based research and education organization.…

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