Hawaii Business Magazine - May 2013

5 Steps to Starting an eCommerce Business

Maui-based Jennifer Varner is an ecommerce veteran. She started BellaBluMaternity.com, which grew into one of the largest online maternity stores. She sold it in 2006 and, six years ago, founded Pure-Ecommerce.com, which helps people start their own ecommerce businesses and offers ready-to-go…

Ask the Expert: Preventing Financial Fraud

Secure DNA provides information technology security and compliance services. www.secure-dna.com Question: How can I protect myself from Automated Clearing House fraud? Answer: The ACH network is used by financial institutions to process direct deposits, checks, bill payments and cash transfers. Unfortunately,…

Lessons Learned: Launching a New Product

What started two years ago as a healthy vitamin and mineral water to combat jet lag has turned into Aloha Friday Beverages, which are designed to keep everyone healthy, every day. Andrea Gall Krasnick explains the mistakes she first made and…

Starting a Business After Age 50

Ready to move on after decades of experience, but not ready to retire? Consider becoming an encore entrepreneur: someone who takes over or starts a business in a field different from their main career. Many people are doing it in…

Saving Abused Horses

When Betina Parker set up her shelter in Kunia, she didn’t realize how many abandoned, abused and neglected horses there were in Hawaii. If not for her and the Equine 808 Horse Rescue, most of those horses would be dead.…

CEO At The Controls

On weekends, Mark Dunkerley loves taking people for a spin around Oahu to see Diamond Head, Makapuu, the Pali and more. Appropriately, the CEO of Hawaiian Airlines conducts his sightseeing tours at 1,500 feet by flying the plane that launched…

Buy A Coffee Farm in Kona

Kena Coffee Farm sits on a country lane that meanders through picturesque coffee and macadamia orchards. The 4.89-acre farm in Kealakekua includes 1,164 coffee trees, 39 macadamia trees and numerous producing fruit…

Parting Shot: Preparing Papayas

Kamiya Gold Inc. Packaging Warehouse, Laie Photographer David Croxford >> Pat Kamiya washes and sanitizes papayas before packing them at her family’s farm,Kamiya Gold. Within 24 hours of being picked, the papayas are delivered to Kamiya’s customers: mom and pop…

Did You Know: Hawaii Last in Registered Boat Ownership

Hawaii, the only island state, has the fewest boat owners in the nation, both in absolute numbers and per capita. Hawaii’s 14,835 registered boats number little more than half the 28,249 boats registered in Wyoming, a landlocked state with the…

My Job: “Eyes and Ears” of the Store

Name: Doug Jago Job: Visual presentation manager, Neiman Marcus at Ala Moana Center Years of Experience: 40 Starting out: After graduating from the University of Tampa in Florida, Jago worked in the visual merchandising department at Bloomingdale’s in Woodbridge, N.J.,…

State Library 3.0

Today, I learned how to manufacture an oxygen tank. After that, I assembled detailed financial reports for a handful of Hawaii companies. Then, I began a six-week interactive course in Quickbooks. Finally, I created a 10-page draft for a last…

You Can Stay at the Volcano Again

Renovated Volcano House reopens three years after closing. After standing empty for three years, the Volcano House Hotel is gradually reopening on the rim of the still-active Kilauea Caldera at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Photo: Courtesy…

Mobile Networks for Battlefields and Other Hotspots

Pelatron Networking-On-The-Move Product: Networking-On-The-Move is a battlefield-ready networking and telecommunications system designed and manufactured by Pelatron, a Native Hawaiian-owned engineering and technology firm based in Mapunapuna. Senior VP and chief engineer Branson Aken describes NOTM as a mobile, modular “command-and-control”…

Two Versions of Educational Reality

Inside this issue, we explain how public school teachers, principals and administrators are evaluated and held accountable for their on-the-job performance. You already know that students are held accountable every time they hand in an assignment for grading or take…

Talk Story with John Dean of Central Pacific Bank

CEO, Central Pacific Bank Dean, Hawaii Business’ 2012 CEO of the Year, has also been named Hawaii’s Salesperson of the Year for 2013 by the Honolulu Chapter of Sales & Marketing Executives International. He spoke with HB publisher David Tumilowicz.…

Report Card: School Administrators

Are sweeping changes in Department of Education’s leadership enough to fix Hawaii’s schools? New three-part strategy emphasizes student achievement first, followed by improved support and IT systems, and better training/accountability/HR. Don Horner, chair of the two-year-old, appointed Board of Education,…

Fit and Effective Hawaii Business Professionals

Tim Johns Age: 56 Position: Chief consumer officer at HMSA Workouts: Swimming, surfing, resistance training, stationary biking, jogging, paddle boarding, hiking, long walks with his dog On weekdays, Johns says he wakes extra early to fit in a swim before work. “Then I…

Open for Women in Business

It’s all in place: cubicles and copier, conference room and Wi-Fi, a bit of art on the walls and a verdant view of Iolani Palace. The Patsy T. Mink Center for Business & Leadership at the Laniakea YWCA on Richards…

Hawaii's Latinos Defy Stereotypes

Many people were surprised when the 2010 Census revealed that 120,000 people in Hawaii identified themselves as having Hispanic heritage, about 9 percent of the state’s residents. In fact, the Hispanic population in the Islands had grown by 38 percent…

Report Card: DOE Principals

The most important person at a school is evaluated yearly on test scores, creating a good “school culture” and other factors Principals say success depends on building a strong team and creating support within the community Every day at Iroquois…

Accountable for Results

Possibly the best way to improve public schools in Hawaii is to set goals around student achievement and to hold administrators, teachers and principals accountable for results. Here are three report cards on what is being done about accountability in…

Report Card: Hawaii Teachers

New contract says teachers must be rated as “satisfactory” or better to get pay raises A rating of “unsatisfactory” can get you fired Kristen Brummel spends a lot of time thinking about what “teacher accountability” means. In fact, it was…