Small business is Hawaii’s business. ADVERTISING Small business is Hawaii’s business. Of the 24,923 businesses in the state (2012 Census data), 96 percent of them have less than 500 employees, 94 percent of them have less than 100 employees and
Small business is Hawaii’s business.
Of the 24,923 businesses in the state (2012 Census data), 96 percent of them have less than 500 employees, 94 percent of them have less than 100 employees and 84 percent of them have less than 20 employees.
If you drill down into these figures for Hawaii County, 93 percent of the businesses on our island have less than 500 employees, 90 percent have less than 100 employees, and 80 percent have less than 20 employees.
All these figures equate to one important fact: Most of us on the Big Island work for small businesses — 60 percent of us in fact are employed by businesses with less than 500 employees. This brings the concerns of small businesses down to a very personal level, as what happens to small businesses directly affects the livelihoods of most of us.
Yet the issues of competition in the market place remain the same for all businesses, large or small: how to develop products, attract customers to buy those products, retain employees to serve customers, and hopefully make a profit. So it’s sort of like what was said about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: Ginger had to do everything Fred did, but in high heels and backwards. Small businesses have to do everything big businesses do but with far fewer resources, money, people and name recognition — just about everything it takes to stay in business.
And yet they do.
In 2012, small businesses in Hawaii County (and for the sake of this discussion let’s use less than 500 employees as our definition here – what makes a small business “small” actually varies by industry) employed over 29,000 people, accounted for over $930 million in payroll and pumped over $4 billion dollars of sales into our economy. That’s a hunk of change. And it’s the economic fuel that sustains us.
So what’s a small business to do to continue to contribute to that very important scenario, and what’s an entrepreneur to do who wants to enter into business and compete with the established players on the scene? The business owner or business owner wannabe hopefully knows a great deal about his line of business, but he or she may feel a little overwhelmed and somewhat less than an expert when it comes to the nuts and bolts of planning, financing and running a business.
That’s where the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) comes in — you knew there was some sort of plug coming didn’t you? But this is not a self-serving plug, it’s more of a serving-you plug, because the SBDC’s sole purpose is to serve you, the public, and free of charge.
Hawaii Island has two Small Business Development Centers, one in Hilo and one in Kona, respectively, serving their sides of the island. There are other centers in Oahu, Kauai and Maui. These centers are part of a nationwide SBDC network of over 900 centers, all partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and with the rest of the funding coming from the states they reside in. They are usually hosted by an institution of higher education, and in Hawaii that is the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
SBDCs employ experienced business advisors – former small business owners, banking professionals, management consultants, and academics, who are available to consult to anyone who has a small business or wants to start one. They can provide assistance in a range of business-related tasks, including developing a business plan, securing financing, marketing, government contracting, and business research, and they offer classes on business startup issues.
Except for the classes, all of this is free of charge — our next class, “How to Write a Business Plan” is Wednesday and costs $20.
The mission of the Hawaii SBDC is to “address the needs of business” in Hawaii, and it does that by helping the SBA, commercial banks and funding agencies inject money into Hawaii’s economy so existing businesses can expand, new businesses can start, jobs can be developed and sales can increase. These are the measures by which we are evaluated. And we have been successful!
In 2015, the Hawaii SBDC helped lending institutions and business owners inject over $24 million into the state’s economy, helped 86 new businesses to start operations, assisted in the creation of 419 jobs, and saw the small businesses with which it worked increase sales by almost $29 million. So we’re doing OK, I think.
If you are a small business owner needing some assistance in your business or an entrepreneur with an idea for developing a business give us a call (327-3680 in Kona, 933-0776 in Hilo) or contact us through our website www.hisbdc.org and let’s see what we can do together to help you succeed.
Small business does matter!
Dennis Boyd is the West Hawaii Center director, Small Business Development Center. He writes a monthly column and can be reached at 327-3680 or Dennis.Boyd@hisbdc.org. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
