Hawaii Business Magazine - September 2011

Ask SmallBiz: Picking an HR Company

Q.   I’m planning to outsource my company’s payroll and other human resource needs. What should I look for when choosing an HR company? A.  With so many providers entering this field, you need to choose wisely. Here is what ProService suggests…

5 Steps to Accessing Capital

Capital is essential to all small businesses. It allows owners to launch their companies and invest in their companies’ growth. Elizabeth Echols, regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, provides tips on how to access capital and make it…

Moving Your I.T. And Data Into the Cloud

Our scribe explains the practical pros and cons of cloud computing, while our artiste tells the same tale as an epic quest for the holy grail of computer nirvana   Arnold Domingo, operations manager of HawaiiPrint, a graphics and textile…

Aloha Tower Clock Maintenance

  Greasing the Gears 5:16 pm, Thursday Aloha Tower Clock, Honolulu Harbor Photo: Twain Newhart >> Hermann Allerstorfer, Jr., oils the gears of Aloha Tower’s clock as his father, Hermann Sr., looks on. The senior Allerstorfer, a retired clock and…

Syngenta Agrisure Artesian Corn is Drought-Resistant

For a farmer, water is king. But rainfall is fickle and even irrigation systems can falter. That’s why scientists and technicians atSyngenta, a Swiss-based agricultural-technology company with seed operations on Kauai and in Kunia, have developed a new variety of…

Editor's Note: Finding Solitude in a Connected World

I work and live in the modern world but know that I need to spend more time in a different place. Please don’t misunderstand me. I love the connected universe and I thrive in it. I’m in the information business,…

Talk Story with Roger Peters, dck pacific construction

As executive VP and GM of dck pacific construction since 2008, Roger Peters has guided the company through one of the worst building climates in memory. With few major projects (except for rail) on the horizon, we ask Peters for…

Hawaii Food and Wine Festival unlike mainland counterparts

Twenty years after the founding of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, celebrity chefs Alan Wong and Roy Yamaguchi are helping organize a major food festival to benefit farmers and the next generation of chefs. They aren’t just selling food but food-system values, and farmers are the stars…

Kukuiula Luxury Development Opens on Kauai

By any measure, Kukuiula on Kauai's south shore has been an ambitious undertaking. When Alexander & Baldwin first proposed the private golf club and master-planned, luxury community in the early 1980s, it…

Hawaii Beekeepers Overwhelmed by Three Pests

When Michael Harris and his sons acquired hives for their Wao Kele Farm in Puna in 2007, the beekeeping industry was much easier. "You'd buy a colony with a queen and hopefully it turned into a productive colony," says Harris,…

Hawaii's Construction Industry by the Numbers

After more than two miserable years, many in Hawaii's construction industry think the near future will be brighter because of the Honolulu rail line, planned hotel redevelopments and other projects. "It's cautious optimism," says John White, executive director of the…

Business Executives Sign up to Lead Nonprofits

As a former top executive at Aloha Airlines, Aloha Island Air, Roberts Hawaii and theHawaii Superferry, Neil Takekawa has had more than his share of high-flying corporate jobs, with their big salaries and big headaches. Now, as COO at the nonprofit Japanese Cultural…

Developmentally Disabled Can and Want to Work

You can see from his face that Miles Hashimoto loves working, whether it's assembling mobile-phone kits or shredding documents. Both jobs are at Goodwill Industries, and Hashimoto is no ordinary worker. Like an estimated 1.8 percent of Hawaii's population – about 24,500…

Cheap Office + Collaboration = Co-Working

On a layover in Seoul, IT consultant Anthony Stanford needed a place to work, preferably with free Wi-Fi and a decent cup of coffee. Instead of Starbucks, he used a “co-working” space where people rented desks in a shared office.…

My Job: Ringmaster and Marketer

Name: Joseph Everitt Teipel, aka Surfer Joe the Auctioneer Job: Owner, AuctionAction LLC Experience: 27 years Start: Teipel got his first taste of auctioneering in 1984: Jewelry and watch broker Hingkie Han hired him to conduct her popular fashion auctions…

Nonprofit Celebrates A Century of Outreach

During 100 years of service at Palama Settlement, the faces have changed. In the early years, the nonprofit helped Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiians. Later, a helping hand went to Filipinos, Samoans, Tongans and Laotians. More recently, Micronesians have been coming.…

Going to a Nonprofit

After seven years as a judge in Family Court and six years as the administrative director of the state court system, Michael Broderick talks about the challenges of running one of Hawaii’s most visible nonprofits.   Michael Broderick President and…

Local Swimsuits Are Globally Inspired

Talk about swimsuits that have been around the world and back: Acacia swimwear is designed on Maui as a fusion of low-cut Italian bikinis with a Brazilian fit, manufactured in Indonesia and then sent back to Maui for shipping. The…

Hawaii Loves Big White

With Christmas only three months away, many Hawaii residents are starting to plan their winter vacations in snow country. “Skiing and snowboarding are the flip side of water activities for people in Hawaii,” says John DeFreitas, product development manager for…

What it's worth: Private Jets

There’s a way to avoid long airport lines and manhandling by TSA security agents, but it’ll cost you. What: Charter a private jet to fly you and your friends from Honolulu to Los Angeles, and you won’t have to arrive…

Pau Hana: Warren Evans

Terrifying Yet Exhilarating Twenty years ago, during his first retirement, Warren Evans tried mountain climbing while on a scouting trip with his sons in North Toronto. “We rappelled down this 100-foot cliff,” he says. “I was terrified, but, by the…

Waikiki Construction Refreshes Hotels

In some ways, construction and Waikiki go hand-in-hand. After all, the pleasure palaces along the beach have provided many of the largest recent private construction projects in the state. By some counts, more than $2 billion has been spent over…