 Welcome to Connecting Hawai'i Business on Think Tech Hawai'i. My name is Kathleen Lee and I'm your host for this program. Today we have a very special guest, my friend Marlon Sarmanto, founder and president of White Space Studio Marlon, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Of course. Thank you for being willing, tell our viewers about yourself. Well, I'm originally from Philippines. I moved here when I was seven years old and decided to become an entrepreneur back in 2011 and White Space started in 2017 and the goal of White Space Studio was to be a one stop shop for digital marketing, graphic designs and branding for small mom and pops. So before we were called 50-50 agency and we were only helping established businesses that's been around for a really long time, large organizations and things like that. And we saw the need for a more of a level playing field for all businesses. And we realized that these small mom and pops had a hard time growing their business because they didn't have enough capital, you know. So we started off small by charging very little for websites and, you know, we ended up pivoting into a maintenance plan. So every month a customer would pay $55.99, they'll get one hour's worth of web development service from us and this, you know, ranges from hosting the website, making updates and changes and things like that. That is awesome. Marlon, what is your background? How did you get into web design and digital marketing? Well, I got into web development while I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. At the time I was just a server at Shorebird, Waikiki and I didn't really have any programming knowledge so I just hopped on Google. The first programming language I learned was PHP. I realized shortly after I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. So I taught myself JavaScript, CSS, HTML and I started building systems for other companies. Not really impressive systems but my first year I had about 50 customers that were using it. And it was a CMS, trying to rival WordPress at the time and I wasn't able to keep up with the market when the smartphones came out. So I decided to just go back into the workforce, I became an IT manager and did some IT tech stuff for a while and then I decided to jump back onto the web development service. And the long story short, I did it to help support my mom at the time before she passed away and now I'm doing it to help support small mom and pops. What are there any particular industries that you find seeking your help for your services? Yes, startups who don't have enough capital, that's one, the industry doesn't really matter at that point. We have a handful of retail shops and nonprofits come to us a lot. So for example, Goodwill has been a client of ours for a really long time now. We have the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation. We have a couple of state projects. We also work with or we provide service for the Hawaii Public Health Institute, the Genetics Resource Education and Advocacy Program and Patch Hawaii. I'm pretty sure there's more but I can't really remember all of them. We have clients here in Hawaii, in the mainland Asia and Europe, so we kind of grew from when we first started. How did you do that? How did you expand your reach from just Hawaii to international? Well, it really started from the maintenance plans. I wanted to provide something very affordable that had a lot of value. And at the time, no one really saw the value because I wasn't really selling it well. But when I showed them how it worked, at the time it was $35 a month and I told them, look, we're going to host your website, you can come to us four or five times a month as long as the cumulative work time is an hour, you're not going to get charged for more than that. I was able to get $1,000 within the first month of releasing the service. And we sort of got the reputation from a bunch of customers where they look at us as insurance. If anything goes wrong with their website, they only pay the $35 a month, they don't have to worry about us charging them thousands of dollars. And I kind of like that, you know, it's almost like we're the security blanket. Wonderful. With any business, right, I always think we have to do either one or two things or go, right, be the first or the only one in whatever your business is or be the best. So with that in mind, what makes your business stand out? You've kind of already made some aspects, but I want to learn more. I think one of the things that makes us stand out more is the type of support that we provide. For example, every single one of our clients that are on the maintenance plan, they're on our WhatsApp group. One of the things that gave me this idea to do the maintenance plan was, you know, I researched being a customer by building websites in Squarespace, big commerce, Shopify, you know, things like that. And I put myself in a position where I didn't know any web development, I didn't know how to do certain things. So I would ask the support, and a lot of times, almost actually all the time they would tell me you'll have to get a developer to do it for you, or here's a bunch of links you can watch the video or read some tutorials on how to do certain things. And I'm like, well, you know, if I'm a small mom on pop, I'm juggling a lot. This is one of the last things that I'm able to do efficiently. Now, if I push this on the side, my business is not going to grow. So that's where I feel like where we differ. It's from the support. We have the ticketing system as well. And every now and then we provide support that's not really website-related. For example, sometimes we have clients needing help with their emails, setting it up on their phones. That's definitely not something that we provide, but I think it's just that little extra step that we take that makes us stand out. And this is the reason why we have a very low turnover rate with our customers. How long has your business been in existence? White Space Studio started in 2017. And we had to repivot, or we had to pivot in December of 2018. We went through some financial struggles, and I quickly learned after that that our focus should be on the small mom and pops. We had a handful of large companies, those writing big checks. The problem with that is if those companies decide to move somewhere else, your pocket is kind of empty now, right? It only takes a couple of them for you to really feel that financial burden. So I decided to focus more on volume, and it worked out pretty well. That's awesome. I know, well, some people may not know that you travel frequently, but I think you have a couple of trips coming up, and I know you work hard to get to that point, right? Yes, actually. So I've been taking some time off for the past couple of years, which has been nice because of the subscription plan, and my awesome, awesome team, I'm able to do something like this. We even expanded recently to Canada in Toronto. So I decided to take some time off because I did put a lot of work into this business, trying to make sure it's at the level it is now, and I just want to make sure that it keeps progressing, but every now and then I like to take some time off. So yes, I've been traveling a lot this year. So before that, I've only been going to Philippines once a year, and every now and then in California. This is the only year where I'm really going out there and exploring other places. Where is your next international jet-studying location? Well, it would be Spain, but I had to put that on hold because I might have to go back to Canada to finalize everything at the expansion over there. But I am moving to Philippines in October 3rd, and then spending Christmas and New Year's in Dubai. So yeah, that's one of my bucket lists. Yeah, that's a lot to cover, and again, this has been made possible because you have work hard for everything that you have right now. You mentioned your team earlier. Tell us more about who comes into your awesome team. So there's everybody, I love everybody in my team, but Anish, his name is Anish. He's from India, and he was the only developer that stuck by me when the company was tanking. We lost a bunch of clients. We had to let go of a lot of people, and we didn't have enough money to pay staff. Anish was the only one that stuck by me. He was from India, and then he was raising a family, and I pitched him the idea of doing the maintenance plan. And I guess he had the same mindset as I did where, you know, we're kind of like right there in the bottom, only a way to go is up. We'll see what our efforts, where our efforts will take us, and then luckily it took us where we needed to be at this point. He's extremely dedicated. He takes care of white space as if it's his own company as well, which is why with the expansion, he's going to be a partner for that. And it's going to be a 70-30 split. He takes 70, I take 30. He takes the majority on that side because he deserves it. And I don't mind making 30% on the side. We don't have to just close out that 30% it says, but we know what's going to take you to Dubai, December. We kind of already talked about this, we raised our heart at the last time I saw you. What are some challenges that you kind of stumbled onto or realized when you were starting your business? Or even now, in Hawaii, starting a business or making it thrive in Hawaii? Well, first of all, trying to figure out the right market, at least for your particular industry. It's hard. As I mentioned earlier, we were targeting more established businesses. And we weren't well equipped to maintain those types of businesses. We're not a large agency, we never were. And we didn't have the right staff to make sure that during tough times, we would be able to keep them. So I learned my lesson from that when we lost them. And then I decided, let's not focus on the money for now. I know we need it, but I think I just want to solve a real problem. And trying to find out the problem, I think is the most important thing and figuring out how to fit yourself into that as one of the solutions out there. And the main problem that I saw was, like I said, there's no level playing field between the large businesses and the small mom and pops. They're trying to grow their business, but they don't have enough money to do this and that. And sometimes they don't even qualify for a loan to do things like that. Every now and then, we do provide free website services. We do qualify them. And then after a year, we'll renegotiate to see if they can hop on a maintenance plan, which is only $55.99 a month. And I think that that's the good thing about our business, as long as the relationship between us and the customers is very honest in the beginning. And you establish that trust, Hawaii being so tightly knit with each other. I think that's something to really take into consideration when you're wanting to do business. That's one of the things that I've noticed in terms of the difference between the Hawaii market and the mainland market. Our mainland clients are, let's do it now. Go, go, go, go, go. And we get it done and that's it. They stay with us. Great. The Hawaii market, they really like to have that face to face time. Luckily, now we can do it on Zoom, you know? But there's definitely a lot more of that here in Hawaii, which I don't mind. That is awesome. What keeps you up at night when it comes to your business? If my guys are struggling, they work really hard. And we have a lot of customers. And I kind of spy on the WhatsApp chatter just to make sure everything's all good. And every now and then I might admit that I do micromanage every now and then. But I just want to make sure that my guys are happy because I wouldn't be here without them. And I'm always trying to figure out ways in getting them to this point as well. Because then now they can teach it to new staff, new employees. You know, that's the way to grow. Another thing that keeps me up at night is being a good teacher. I will admit that I don't think I'm the best teacher out there. I'm more of a... You know, people always say I'm very... What's the word? I leap before I float. What is that phrase? So I learned by messing up a lot. But I know that I'm comfortable doing that while others are not. So just trying to figure out how to connect with my staff just so that I can be a better teacher is... That's one of the things that I struggle with. I'm trying to figure out what you're trying to refer to. But I understand it, right? And I think your goal is to just keep moving. Because if you don't try things out, then you're not going to get to places, right? 100%. Yeah, and you want to always figure out how to work yourself into new ideas, especially with chat GPT that came out and the AI services. You know, I just had a meeting with my guys while actually just Anish telling him like, hey, we need to start incorporating some of this for a flight base because it's going to be really important for us. You know, I don't want to be left behind. Yeah, absolutely. For people who are out there who would like to start a business, what would be some advice or tips or anything that you would like to share with them? Don't be discouraged. That's one. Definitely. That's the biggest thing. You'll hear a lot of negative comments. You'll get a lot of rejection. But you really have to be in love or, I guess, obsessed with your business to not give up. You need to be able to handle that rejection and develop that thick skin. Learn to listen to your customers' problems. Because if you don't listen to it, they become your problems eventually. You can't solve every problem, obviously. But learn how to find the ones that you should prioritize. You know, and if you have enough customers, find out what the common problem is and fix it right away. I don't like waiting for a long time just not fixing a problem because by the time you're ready to fix it, you might not have the capability to do it now, right? So those are the tips I would give. Just never giving up listening to your customers. I think those are the important things. I think those are great things. Do you have any particular success stories that stand out that you would like to share? Well, yeah, actually I do. There's this, well, there's a few of them. One is Change is Fitness. He's a psychology-based fitness coach. And I've had him a little, maybe since COVID or maybe a year before COVID. Anyways, we built his website. We did the branding. We did the business cards and all of that. And he was with us on the maintenance plan and we helped grow his business, get more clients and things like that to a point where he was able to start another company called Square One Counseling. And yeah, because he's a brilliant guy. He's a psychologist and things like that. He's also very, very fit. He was my first and only fitness trainer. I went with him for a few months and then after I felt good about myself, I stopped. But that's the type of person I am. I'm not very dedicated with my body, I guess, but I am very dedicated with my business. There's a few others that I wanna talk about. One project that we are really proud of is the Genetics Resource Education and Advocacy Tool. It's a state project. And we basically provided a website that's a resource for people in the medical field and is being used in Guam, paranoia and in the Pacific Northwest. I thought that was really good. We still have Goodwill, which is awesome. They've been with us for a very, very long time. They were one of our very first customers when we first started. We also have Patch Hawaii. I'm not sure if you know what they do. They're a state-wide childcare resource and referral agency as well. So like I said, we do have a handful of nonprofit organizations. That's a great roster of organizations that you just mentioned. In the few minutes that we have left, Marlon, is there anything else that you would like to add or talk about that we didn't cover in this conversation? Oh, wow, no, I'm on the spot. I really don't know. I mean, I guess one of the things I would like to mention is always keep that excitement that you had when you first started your business. Try to remember that feeling because it's the thing that keeps you going. If you always remember that feeling and you think about it every morning when you wake up, you're driven. You're driven. You're not really, I mean, for me personally, I'm not driven to do anything else. But when it comes to this business, yeah, because I remember that feeling. Love that. So it's very passionate. If people would like to get a hold of you or learn more about your business, where do they go? Oh, you just go to our website, which is white-pace.studio-minusign. And they can just contact us through there. You can also Google white-space-studio-honolulu and we're there. Yeah, we're also going to be in Canada, like I said. So we're going to be opening up a second website just to cater to the Canada market. Yeah, I think I told you, I thought it was awesome that your email address was .studio and not .prof. I didn't even know that they made .studio for one site. That was by accident because we couldn't get a .com. Originally, we wanted white-space-studio.com. And then we were just researching and we found .studio and we were thinking, this isn't going to be SEO friendly. But I was like, yeah, you know what, forget it. Let's just do it. It's that instinct again to just leap without knowing what I'm leaping into, you know? Because if it's a wrong move, then I'll fix it really quick. Yeah. And it stands out like I told you, I noticed it. And I think it's awesome because that's what you folks do, right? A couple of final words. Oh, well, I would like to thank everybody that supported white-space-studio, especially those in Hawaii since I'm going to be leaving soon. Every single one of the customers that I personally spoke with are geared in my heart. They really put me in a position where I could do this. And without them, we would definitely be this, we would have been disbanded. I would have been probably working somewhere else, starting a different type of business maybe, but I don't even know how long that would have taken off. But they helped me keep this dream alive. And I really thank them. It's wonderful, and I think it's great that your model and your structure does allow you to do that. So again, Marlon Sarmiento, founder and president of White Space Studio, thank you for being here with us today. No problem, and thank you. Of course, and thank you to Think Tech Hawaii as well, and Jay Fidel for making shows like this happen. Today we had Mike and Haley helping us out. Until the next time, hello. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Check out our website, thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.