Hawaii Business Magazine - January 2014

Talk Story with Ben Godsey, President of ProService Hawaii

Godsey, 41, acquired ProService with Dustin Sellers in 2005, with both serving as co-presidents until Sellers left the company at the end of 2013. Born and raised in Ocean Springs, Miss., Godsey has worked on Wall Street and as a biologist studying…

13 Great Things About Waikiki (Plus 13 Awful Things)

A Hawaii Business team of four reporters, four photographers and four interpreters (two Chinese, one Japanese and one Korean) invaded Waikiki. We asked tourists, workers and business owners what they liked and didn’t like about the tourist mecca, and here are the…

Bartering Makes a Comeback

A graduate student trades the bananas he grows to a local café for gift cards. On Craigslist, a beekeeper on Hawaii Island says he wants to swap a Langstroth beehive for a sailboat or greenhouse. Using a bartering network, a freelance…

Waikiki After Dark

Waikiki is the Honolulu Police Department’ssmallest district, but, at three square miles it is also the most densely populated, says Officer John DeMello, who has been patrolling these streets for the past 10 years. I accompanied DeMello one Friday evening and…

Local Businesses Succeed Through Crowdfunding

You may have seen Kathy Sills selling her Aloha Pops frozen treats in front of the King Kamehameha statue or at Honolulu events such as Eat the Street. Her distinctive tricycle is tricked with a cooler packed with dry ice and $3 pops…

Waikiki Present and Future - Extended Version

Panelists: W. David P. Carey III: President and CEO, Outrigger Enterprises Group Rick Egged: President, Waikiki Improvement Association Eric Gill: Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Unite Here Local 5 Hawaii Ernest “Ernie” K. Nishizaki: Executive VP, Kyo-Ya Co. LLC George D. Szigeti: President…

HTA Tries to Smooth Out Boom-and-Bust Cycles

The Hawaii Tourism Authority understands how hard it will be, but it is trying to rewrite the old saying that insists, What goes up, must come down. There are already strong signs that the tourism boom of the past few years has…

Homelessness in Waikiki

Many of Waikiki’s Homeless Are Mainland Snowbirds Just as tourists trade the cold winters of Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities for the warmth of Waikiki, so do another group of visitors. “There are homeless people who come here in the…

International Market Place Closes

The old International Market Place is dead. For more than 50 years, tourists flocked there, drawn to the warren of cheap jewelry stores, kiosks selling kitschy bric-a-brac and the romance of the original Don the Beachcomber restaurant, which opened there…

Editor's Note: A Waikiki Love Song

When people tell me they never go to Waikiki, I wonder why they would want to miss so many wonderful things. Sure I love to play in the ocean and climb our green mountains far from the madding crowds, but,…

Parting Shot: Beach Cleanup

Beach Cleanup Friday, 11:50 P.M. Kuhio Beach, Waikiki Photo by David Croxford A tractor from Mat Hawaii Inc. clears trash and sifts and filters the sand each night in Waikiki. Valuable items, such as rings and watches, are sent to…

5 Steps to Understanding Arbitration Clauses

Increasingly, small-business contracts include arbitration clauses that seek to limit potential lawsuits. Mark Davis, a partner with Davis Levin Livingston, offers these tips to help you understand arbitration clauses and avoid potential pitfalls. 1. Know the purpose of an arbitration clause…

Ask the Expert: Franchising on the Mainland

Question: My business is successful in the Islands. How do I know when I’m ready to franchise on the mainland?   Answer: Here are the main factors to consider when deciding if you are ready for franchising. Built for Other…

Helping Family Businesses

There is no typical family business in Hawaii – they are as diverse as the state itself. But each has at least one powerful strength and one potentially crippling drawback: the family itself. Michael Miyahira, the founder of Business Strategies,…