 Thanks for joining us at ThinkTech Today. This is Adventures in Small Business. This is a collaborative effort of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Hawaii Small Business Development Center, the Mink Center for Business and Leadership, our Hawaii State Women's Business Center, and the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific. This is the program that we offer with the University of Hawaii at Hilo. We're here to talk about small business in Hawaii, how they get started, how things work, and the concepts and strategies that make them successful. Today I'm delighted to have Malcolm Yorkston, the owner and manager of Hawaiian Rainbow Bees, a local honey producer that has done phenomenally well, they've been in business since 2011. Thanks for joining us today, Malcolm. Not a problem. And congratulations on your business, it's exciting to learn more about it. Malcolm was also named the SBA Exporter of the Year for 2018, and that's quite an accomplishment since exporting takes a lot from Hawaii, and he's also won the award for Region 9, SBA's Region 9, which includes all the exporters in the entire state of California, Nevada, and Arizona, as well as from all over Hawaii. We look at where they export, the percentage of product that they do export, how they work with other exporters in the state, and then also how they've overcome challenges they face in this industry. But Malcolm, first I'd like to understand a little bit about how you got started, and perhaps how did you get into beekeeping and production of local organic honey? Well, so the reason why we started was because of myologies. I have really bad allergies, I've had them all my life, but they got better for a while and then they got really bad as they got older. And so I needed to find a way to take care of myologies, and what I did was I went to a local hospital and I was getting shots for quite some time. The allergy shots that most people will take almost for a lifetime. That's right. And that didn't work well for you? Well, the shots, they made me feel nauseous, I didn't feel much better. First of all, it was very time consuming to go down after work and get this shot, and after the shot, then I have to wait around for 20 minutes to see if I react, if I react, then they would have to modify the shot. And then getting home after the shot, so it was a two or three hour process in getting the shot. And the shots didn't seem to mitigate my allergies, they didn't seem to help as much. And I was still feeling kind of sick or low energy. So the shots didn't help anyway, it kind of depleted your energy, so you were seeking something else? So I started to do research, like what could help me with my allergies? And I found in the research that people were taking local honey, that local honey could help allergies. And are there reasons for that or how does that work? Well, so more and more I researched, I found that it wasn't just local honey, it was raw honey. And raw honey has three enzymes in it. It has two enzymes that help with digestion. One enzyme helps break down sugars and another enzyme breaks down starches. And the third enzyme, which is really great and has really helped me, it's curative and it kills bacteria. So it changes to hydrogen peroxide in the throat or if you had it on a wound, that's why hospitals use a hospital grade honey and it actually heals wounds faster because with the interaction with oxygen it's more curative. And so this is, I've been an elementary school teacher for about 22 years and the kids are always bringing me their colds, they're always bringing me their sicknesses. And so one thing that I needed was this raw honey and I thought maybe this will help my colds, this will help me out a little bit. And I can understand exactly what you're saying, I was a school teacher for many years also and I ended up having my tonsils out at like 28 years old because I kept getting sick from everything that the middle schoolers were bringing. And so I can see that that would motivate you both not wanting to get, keep passing infections back and forth. But it really, and you do take it by the spoon, is it just in everything? So the first thing that I did was I started to keep bees and I thought this is something I can do. So I first, I took more and more raw honey and I stopped the shots and I felt wow, I have energy. And so I started again to keep bees and I had a couple beehives and I had more beehives and I thought this is something that I can sustain, I can be healthier. I felt better, my allergies were mitigated, I was not getting as many colds at school, I felt really healthy. So when you started with just a couple of beehives, but now with exporting and the production that you're doing, all the different packaging that you have, how many beehives do you have and I'm sure they're not all in your own yard now anymore. No, so personally I'm running several apiaries on Oahu, but we also source a lot of honey from the Big Island. So at some point going to the farmer's market wasn't enough, people became more and more interested in having a local raw, unprocessed, healthy honey. And it wasn't just that it had to be local, it's any raw honey, any unprocessed raw honey will help you. And so we got more apiaries here on Oahu and some apiaries, a lot of apiaries on the Big Island. And so about 2,000 hives we're running right now. So you have a lot of employees. That's right, a lot of part-time workers, yeah. So up to 2,000 now, that's a big production. How, you brought some examples of the tools that you use, maybe can you talk a little bit about what happens in each one of those hives or what you do? Okay. We have frames and the bees put, build the frames up with wax and the wax is built in a honeycomb pattern and the bees deposit the nectar into the frames and they do this on both sides. What we do is we use our hive tools, we use our brushes, we lift the frames out of the hive and pull them out. We don't take all the honey from the bees, we're only using what we need and then we use our smoker tool to keep the bees calm and peaceful and we extract the honey from the hives. Oh, okay. And so we then cut the face off of both sides of the frame and put the frames into centrifugal machines that spin and the honey goes into drums and buckets and we work from there. Oh, okay. We produce the honey in the hive, you collect the honey and then, so you have a physical plant that you had to put together for the processing and our... So the physical plant here is on a wahoo and we do our extracting there and we do our bottling on a wahoo right near Ward Avenue. Oh, okay. Yeah. And how much are you producing now? I mean... Wow. We're gallons and gallons of honey that we have a lot of honey, so we're in whole foods and some of the low down to earth and a lot of our local stores. We're able, because of our quantities of honey, we're able to rebrand under different names and there seems to be a growing interest over the last five to seven years in health and caring about what goes into your body. So more and more people are interested in including in a bakery, in a brewery, having a local raw honey and unprocessed honey in their products. Not used in their products. That's right. Yeah. So all over a wahoo, you export now, you come out under other labels, but Hawaiian Rainbow Honey, you've got some interesting package and some very distinctive products. So you have three flavors that you, or four flavors that are primary for you? Yeah. So we have four flavors. We have a Christmas Berry, a macadamia nut, a rainbow blossom, which is a multi-fluorol, and we have a lehua, oh yeah, a lehua honey. So these four varietals are kind of our go-to honeys. There's other types of honey that we have here on a wahoo, but to get it in enough quantity, it makes it more challenging to scale. Yeah. And I've been lucky to taste them all, and they all are very, very different and very distinctive. That's right. You know, I don't know if there's one that's a best seller or more than others, but, you know, just in ... Well, the lehua, the lehua is very popular and it does very well. It's a native plant that we have only in Hawaii. It grows nowhere else in the world. So the yohia lehua, it's very special to our islands. It has a sweet, endlessly sweet taste, and so it is very special. But again, all of our honeys are special. Our multi-fluorol is special because it comes from our small island farms and it comes from the rainforest around the farms. And so there are plants in our forest that don't grow anywhere else. You know, all the orchids and the blossoms and the fruit trees. So you, just by being in Hawaii, you're even more unique than anywhere else. And of course, again, there's macadamia nuts, and people come to Hawaii for the macadamia nuts thing. And that's what goes home with everybody, macadamia nuts and macadamia nut chocolate. And why not macadamia nut honey? Makes sense to me, you know. So great products. And of course, lastly, the Christmas berry. It makes a great honey, but it's an invasive plant. So if we eat the honey, maybe we'll get rid of the plant. Oh, okay. I see. I'm not sure about that. But yeah. So, and not only raw honey is sold as the product itself, but one of the things that I found very interesting that you've done is extensive collaboration with not only other businesses, but creating other products and mixes. So I know that your product is used in many, many different, well, restaurants, eggs and things. Yeah, it's a big one. And then also it's used in chocolate and hot sauce. Some of these, you've developed recipes for it. But I think that's really commendable that a lot of other new products with other small businesses around the state have been enhanced by your involvement with them. So why source your honey from somewhere else that it's not raw, it's not unprocessed. It's already, has all the enzymes taken away, it has all the health benefits taken away. They're almost the same as sucrose. Why not have a glucose and a fructose along with that, something that breaks down better in your body with the enzyme. So we have our honeys at Honolulu Coffee Company. They're using it on their acai bowls. They're using it in their baked goods as well. And so different companies are using our honeys in their products to brew, to make honey wine, all sorts of things are being done. And collaboratively, we're working with other companies, even Manoa Chocolate, they're using our honey for a while in one of their bars. So sounds yummy. We'll talk a little bit more about that collaboration, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. So stick with us to learn more about the wonderful healing properties of honey, how it's become a great exporter, and what else Hawaiian rainbow bees is doing here in Hawaii. This guy looks familiar. He calls himself the ultra fan, but that doesn't explain all this. He planned this party, planned the snacks, even planned to coordinate colored shirts, but he didn't plan to have a good time. Now you wouldn't do this in your own house, so don't do it in your team's house. Know your limits and plan ahead so that everyone can have a good time. Thanks for coming back to us here at Adventures in Small Business. We're talking today with Malcolm Yorkston. I'm Jane Sawyer from the SBA. So we're talking a lot about business startup, business growth, the distinctiveness of these products, and so the Organic Honey has a lot of special qualities, particularly because we've got plants that are found only in Hawaii, give it a special flavor. You've made it a special product in so many ways with unique packaging. You've been very aware, as this business has grown and developed. It sounds like it has been an adventure in small business for you, Malcolm, as you've gotten going, and it's grown kind of beyond your wildest dream, you know? But some of those other collaborations, we talked a little bit about having your product used or the honey used in other local products in its unique flavors. And some of the other collaborations, you've also developed some pretty unique packaging. So before we talk about the packaging, I wanted to say that some of the other collaborations that we have are working with a restaurant, went out of business several years ago, and they was a Thai restaurant, and it was called Thai Mix Plate 2. And we really loved their five-spice chicken. So we found a way we could incorporate our honey into their sauce. And so now we're making a Thai—we're calling it tiki-tai sauce, a Hawaii tiki-tai sauce. And so we have now a sweet and spicy sauce that we're making. And we're also making with another company—our collaboration is with Hawaii 808—we're making a hot sauce. So it's a hot and sweet, very sweet hot sauce. So it's kind of original, and this is already in stores. So they can buy it from you, or online, or mostly it's out in the stores, and they can find it, people can find it. So it's in some of the stores, the hot sauce. I believe it's moving into a safe way, surely. And we also have it—I think maybe Times and Foodland has picked that up. But you can go to our website, rainbowbees.com, and you can see our product line. Sure. Okay. I find that very, very interesting in finding all those clever and different ways to get the healing properties of honey into your foods. So it could be—and I'm just amazed—the Thai sauce as well. That's pretty clever. Some of your collaborations with companies have also been to help with distribution and getting your products overseas or to the mainland, because you are now developing all those different channels, so a lot to keep up with. But that's one of the things that was noted in your exporting acumen. So we joined together—we're trying to help another company, Hawaii Paradise Candies, grow into Japan. So we've added some honey into their jams and jellies and their lily koi butter in the hopes that the Japanese market will pick that up. So we're really trying to push other companies along with us to get the market inclusive of Hawaii honey, but not necessarily the Hawaii honey, but Hawaii products. So that's a great thing to be doing, because it's not only just to your advantage, because it'll help with the shipping and all those kind of things, other recognition for Hawaii products, but it just expands the possibility and the frequency. So you're—I mean, you've had phenomenal growth over the last several years, just looking at revenues really jumping year over year for the last three to five years, I guess, and kind of taking you in some different directions. I've been very interested to see not only the social awareness into your product, the health benefits of your product, the economics that you're looking at in distribution and exporting, and then just the packaging, too, is just, you know, you're capitalizing on the Hawaiian source of your products as well, but also taking care of the environment and Hawaii with some of the special packaging that you've introduced. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Okay, so one of our special packages is a pouch. It's a pouch, honey. So with our tiki bottle, we've reduced the amount of plastic that we're bringing into Hawaii, and that's leaving Hawaii. So the traditional bear bottle has more—10% more plastic than either of our tiki sizes. So we've reduced this. Not only does it make it more squeezable to get the honey out, but we've reduced the plastic so the plastic footprint is less. And so then I thought, is there something more that I can do that would be better for the environment than reducing the plastic in a hard bottle? And then I thought, you know, pouches, it's a lifestyle choice. So you can take this pouch to the beach, you can take it camping, you can take it hiking, you can drop it, you can smash it, and you can knead it, and you can get every last drop of this honey out of this pouch. Sounds perfect for my kitchen skills. It's wonderful. And you can't put a spoon in here to take the honey out of a bear or a tiki, but you can get the honey out of a pouch by just rolling it and squeezing it, and every last drop will come out. And so that doesn't have the plastic, doesn't end up in the landfill with the same impact as a bigger bottle or something. So we're looking at reducing our plastic footprint, and then even looking at plastics that will break down easier and faster in the environment. We want to be good stewards of the land. Yeah, that's great, and it's impressive to see as well, it's very distinctive. So with great product, great packaging, good partnerships, obviously you're getting recognized for the product. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the awards that you've been recognized with? So here right here we have our People's a Choice Award. We've also, we win yearly with some of our ribbons here. So we've won many, many awards. And this is not just from, this is not from all the honey on the Big Island, but we're competing on the Big Island for some of the best honey. It's our local, even a wahoo honey, is winning awards and prizes every year. So yeah, we're winning awards at the Big Island Bee Festival. We also have a seal of quality that the Department of Health, they visited our apiaries, they visited our facility, and they see our product is 100% local, made in Hawaii, nothing brought in, and they see that we're working our product well and with respect. And so they've given us a seal of quality for our company. Oh, very good, very good. So it looks like it's just continuing in a very positive direction. What do you visualize happen? Where do you think or where do you want to be in, say, five years from now? What's, what's there? What could happen? Now, in Japan, we're working with a branding company, a company that helps us with our branding. So we're getting our brand name out there. We've licensed our brand to several companies. They're using our honey in cosmetics, they're using the honey in shampoos, they're using our honey in different products. And they're, this summer I'm going to the Hankyu Festival in Osaka, I'll be representing our product for another company. So for Royal Corporation I'll be representing our honey. So it's really exciting to go overseas and to share our product and share Hawaii and say this is Hawaii honey, this is American honey. Would this be your first trade show or trip of this nature? Have you done that before? I haven't done it to Japan before, but we've been, our products have been to the Tokyo trade show as well as, we just went to a trade show Expo West. On the west coast and shared our products there. Our company was picked up this year for distribution on the west coast through distribution of one of the distributors. And so we're in distribution in San Francisco area right now. So did you seek them out? Did they find you? They found us at the show. So it was neat to go to the show and make lots of connections. We even found a products broker in Florida and we'll be then sending our product to Maristown, New Jersey and we'll be distributing across the east coast. Oh terrific. It's exciting. It's exciting. So those trade show activities can really pay off for a small business if you go, did you have any training or assistance in doing it or you just jumped in and... No, so I did have assistance. It wasn't on my own and to tell you the truth, it's a lot of collaboration that has to, it has to happen. And I was working with, I was in a program called Mana Up and Mana Up, it was a group of 10 companies. It was a growth program that through about four months of time, they introduced us to lawyers, they introduced us to designers, they introduced us to all the types of trade. We got to see other companies' workshops and how things are done on a high level. We got to meet trade professionals and really be able to talk about how to scale, how to grow our businesses. So it wasn't even going to the trade show by myself. I was invited in. It was Mana Up was the group and it was... It's a great program. It's brand new this year. I think you were part of the first cohort and several other food producers, local, small local companies with the likelihood of even greater success and growth. So congratulations on being selected and getting through that program. I think they should be looking for probably their second cohort fairly soon too. So folks remember that name Mana Up and you could probably Google them and learn more about the next program or even give our office a call and we'll be happy to help. Another program that helps small businesses with growing and expanding is the Emerging Leaders Program with SBA. We're in our seventh cohort. It's an annual program that we offer at SBA for growing businesses. Maybe I'll have to get you some more information on that. But you could call and check with SBA or look at www.sba.gov and that'll get you some more information about some of the programs we've talked about here. You also went to the SBDC briefly and maybe you just mentioned that you're visiting them again as your business keeps getting bigger and bigger. So I realized that I didn't have much business experience and I don't think anybody does when they first start and they're surprised by growth. So our financials could be cleaned up, our business skills, our leadership skills, our legal skills. Just there's a lot of things that I'm lacking. And I think working with the SBDC or working with other state agencies, it was something that I didn't do and there's so many resources out there that the state has to offer. Not only are they going to help us clean up our act and straighten out how we're doing things, they're going to help us when it comes to applying for a loan, maybe buying new equipment. So we're interested in buying a machine to do some processing instead of hiring many five people to do something. Maybe there's a machine that can help us do that more efficiently in a more meaningful way. And who would have thought that your allergies would lead you into starting this entrepreneurial venture and then also developing into a million-dollar business. So you've done extremely well and we commend you that. We're going to wrap up our program for today. Thank you for joining us and telling us. Thank you for having me on the show. I appreciate it. I know you're a company and the miracle values of honey and I know that a lot of people are looking into probably going to become customers because they're looking into doing something like this, improving their health and also loving local products. Buy local is an important thing for Hawaii. Customers to do, buy at home, buy from local businesses. So make sure you go and check out Hawaiian Rainbow Bees, family owned business and exporter of the year. Thank you again for joining us. Aloha everyone. We'll see you next week.