 Hello, and welcome to Adventures in Small Business. The program is a collaborative effort by the Hawaii, the US Small Business Administration, Hawaii District Office, the Hawaii Small Business Development Center, the MINK Center for Business and Leadership, and the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific. The program is to showcase local entrepreneurs and other small businesses and their starts and to hear about their adventures. I am Laurie Hiromatsu from the Hawaii Small Business Development Center and today we're fortunate to have two entrepreneurs, Nicholas Comfort and then beyond Dablan, correct? Founders and owners of Pervet Donut Stop on Kona Street. Welcome, and thank you for being here. Thank you. Could you please share with us your story? We can start off with your backgrounds, how you started and a little bit about each other. Okay, I'm Nicholas Comfort. I'm originally from Oregon. I've been out here about 11, actually a little over 11 years now. Pretty much the whole time I've been here and then even back home was in the service industry in one form or another, from serving coffee houses, from actually serving tables to bartending. Yeah, and that's, we actually met through bartending. Hey, Oregon? Hi here. Yeah. He doesn't make it off the island. Yeah. My name is Breon Zablan, born and raised here. Same thing, work in the food and beverage for 15 years. And everything from dishwasher to manage. Bartending most of my time. Then at that point, I worked at the hotel and that's how I met Nick. So where did you first meet? And how did you come up with this idea of a donut stop? We originally met at the Modern Honolulu, where we both worked, bartending. And then, I mean, we were there working together for four years or so like that. And the idea kind of got sparked by starting a bar, kind of getting out of working for someone else and starting a bar. And then as we dove into that more, it just kind of became obvious to both of us that we didn't want to get further into the nightlife. It was a thing to try to get out of. He's got kids, he's married, those types of things. I'm coming home at six in the morning type of thing. It's just not real fun. And you can only do it for so long. And so that kind of slowly transformed into a coffee venture. And then that slowly transformed into a donut venture, which we still sell coffee as well. So it started off where you first was talking about having, being entrepreneurs, having your own business, and then it went from a coffee shop all the way to a donut stop, right? Yes. So how did it morph into that? And then how did the name purvey? What does it mean or did you come across that? Yeah, so we, like you said, we started off as a coffee venture. Couldn't find the real estate to do what we wanted to do. Being Hawaii, you know, there's only so much land. Yes. We're lucky enough to meet up with Yolani Center and they wanted some kind of food slash coffee or a shot in there or business. And at that point, we're kind of going over donuts and seeing what else can we do besides everybody's coffee. And we had this great idea that we're gonna make donuts. We've never made a donut before in our life, but we're gonna do it. How did you learn? Okay, we're going from a bartender skill set to now a baker, donut maker skill. So how did you learn and what was the process? How long did it take? Part of it was funny because I brought up the coffee idea because I have history working with coffee and those types of things and trying to convince him, say, hey, you know what? I like the idea of going to business. I like this, but we're not doing the bar thing. All right, let's do this coffee. He says, I don't even drink coffee. I don't know anything about coffee. It's the same thing as bartending. It's just a different product. You don't deal with angry drunks. You're dealing with people in the morning and trying to make them happy. It's just a different atmosphere. And then transforming into the donut thing, it was seeing the niche that something, like a product that's been around for hundreds of years, it's proven itself to last. And there's a lot of opportunities with making unique experiences through it, not just the product, but really making a one-of-kind experience that no other donut shop, we believe, has done what we do. So then at that point, we pretty much committed to it and started researching everything. We could watch every YouTube video and we actually linked up with a pastry chef in San Francisco, flew over there. They kind of taught us the basics of at least how to make somewhat of a donut. And then from there, it was more focused on the business side of things and figuring out how to get doors open and all the hurdles that came with that. And then testing things in our machine because it was completely different. So there was a lot of, yeah, a lot of trial and error. So this donut chef or pastry, how did you connect with the person? Just cold called him or somebody introduced you to them? We had a mutual friend, our mutual friend kind of put us in contact. We were up there and we basically had about two days. We stayed there three days and we went through different mixes, different recipes. It's kind of a funny story, but we've made about 200 plus donuts and we're in San Francisco, going to the hotel we're staying at and saying, I just don't want it. To anybody, you just walk in there and asking people to try the donuts. Essentially, pretty much, yeah. Especially the hotel, like anyone, they knew us so we'd take them in and just drop them off the whole staff and get their opinion on them. The feedback, you can change the recipe according to that. So this recipe is now your recipe? Yes. Nice. How did you come up with the name? So the name, we wanted something that's catchy. People don't forget it. Lengthwise, there's a lot that went into thinking of how many letters, how many things you want to do. We really want to build a brand, not just have a name that goes like any other business and stands alone. Pervade, there's a lot of meanings to it to us. There's purveyor, which obviously you're making and selling goods. To purvey is to express a message or a view. So for us, this is our way to purvey ourselves and different things that we say messages or views. And to us, it's just like an environment and kind of a culture we're trying to create. We wanted to purvey aloha as well. Like it's one of our biggest things. Purveying that message of just love and having fun, enjoying life. Enjoying the product, enjoying what you're doing. Exactly, the experience. That was something really big for us. It's important for you both. And then the logo, your unicorn. Did you, how did that come about, idea, and what does it represent? It honestly started from a Dr. Pepper bottle that came in one time and it had a unicorn on it. And we're like, you know, that is really funny. It wasn't this one, but then we just started playing with the idea because we had been working on a logo for quite some time and just trying to find something that fit. Something that tied into Hawaii, all these things. And we'd done islands, we'd done turtles, we'd done palm trees. Nothing fit what we were looking to do. And so this concept really came from, hey, here's something that has nothing to do with donuts, but it makes people smile. And that's the biggest thing. They walk in and this is the first thing they see. That's, it automatically makes them smile or laugh. So that was kind of the idea behind it. And then it just kind of growing from there. It just caught on to all ages, across all different divides. Everybody likes to recognize it's a unicorn. Yeah, yeah. And it's an interesting market that we didn't know the existence of people love unicorns. And I mean, we get people searching out just because the painting we have on our wall, like you want to take a photo, yeah. The selfies, huh? Yeah, yeah. Self pictures. So what has your experience been working with Hawaii Small Business Development Center and how did you register? Can you just kind of walk some of some people who are looking to start a business? What are your experience from? Startup, registering, all the way through. Share some insights and maybe stage advice of what you went through. I would say sort of like starting up, there's, I mean, there's a lot of unknowns. There's a lot of questions. There's a lot of hurdles that you see in front of you where when we got connected with the Small Business Development Center, it just opened doors and put us in connection with people. It's a reliable source that you can trust where if say I need to try to find a banker or a lawyer, I can cold call 100 lawyers, but I don't know which one has a reliable reputation and with the Small Business Center, that's one thing that we were able to get. We went in and said, hey, you need to trademark. Here's three lawyers that we suggest or recommend and from that to funding, putting us in connection with different banks and people higher up in the banks that can help us try to build those relationships. Yeah, I mean, working with you guys has been awesome. You guys, any question we have, you guys are quick to answer, quick to help. And you guys are knowledgeable on it. Us being entrepreneurs and new to this whole thing. I mean, like you said, we worked in bars. Totally different from running our own business. So it was just the resources that you guys provided for us and helped us. Well, I'd say that other big thing. So obviously the grant side of things that you've kind of put, I mean, those are a lot of things that I think they're out there for people to find if you're searching for them, but as you're building a business, you don't really put time into doing those things. So having you come and contact us and say, hey, you know, this grant is available and this is something that you guys could qualify for. And things like that, I think are huge too. I'm glad. I'm glad that the Small Business Development Center is able to assist you and we'll also be here wherever you need it for your journey. Thank you. As you build your business and continue to grow. So what would have, some of the something blocks that you encountered, your biggest challenge in starting up your business and then as you do your business? Multiple. Okay, what is the biggest one you could think of? Top two maybe. I would say trying to get our doors open. We had so many roadblocks in the fact of getting it open and we know there's times that we look at each other and we're like, we're all in. And it's a scary feeling, but it's a leap of faith you gotta take. At that point, every day it's a new, we're learning something new. It may be a new problem. It may be something that we dealt with before, our machine, anything of that sort. I mean, anything you go around, but it's just overcoming that and learning from that situation, you know. Not getting afraid of it, realizing, hey, let's fix this, let's get this going again. What has made you overcome it? What element do you think made you be able to push beyond and go over that hurdle? Just kind of having, I think for us, it's having a bigger vision and having a goal from starting the donut thing, you know, it's all of our friends that are in the bar industry and us telling them, hey, we're gonna open a donut shop. Everyone, and having that picture and everything in your own mind, we knew exactly what we were trying to do and what we were trying to create and then everybody else's mind, you know, it's just like a normal donut shop with some shells and old donuts, and we don't know, you know, it's just, and so just keeping that in the back of your mind that you really are creating something unique and different and when you get those doors open, like those people are really just gonna be kind of blown away, like, oh, this is not what I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, yeah, and then I think the other thing is just realizing through the process that people that you always think know everything, don't know everything, and they've been where you're at, asking for help, finding those people that have done things in business and not being afraid to ask them because most of those people are more than willing to give you advice or help you in any way they can because they've been there. That's important, right? Seeking out assistance early on before it becomes a really big issue. How about passion for your business? Is that something that, you know, is underlying all of that that helps you because you love what you're doing, you have a vision and you're committed to doing it? Is that? Definitely, I think passion is one of the biggest keys in, you know, running a business. If you have passion for it, you know, you're not working, it's not work. It's something that you love doing. We love pervading our message of who we are, bringing forth, you know, happiness, aloha. When people come into the shop and their smiles, working at a bar, you don't give somebody a drink, they get mad. You know, you give somebody a donut, they're really happy. Isn't it funny? Yeah. Well, we're gonna be coming up with our short break, but just to work quickly, you know, so passion, understanding, I guess being able to reach out for assistance and understanding how to break it down piece by piece, is that the way to give the subscribers? Everybody's been there. Anyone that you look forward to or look up to has been there at one point or another, so realize that not everybody knows everything. Yeah, that's a good realization, right? And then so you have other mentors besides SBDC who help you, is that another? Yeah, I mean if we have lots of mentors through, I mean even books and things like that, I consider those mentors. We've had a lot of people that have helped us in one way or another that are mentors. Yeah, we've taken on as many as we can. Always learning, always learning. Gonna go do a break now, thank you. Thank you. Aloha, my name is Duretian. You are watching Think Tech Hawaii. I will be hosting a show here every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. and we will be talking to a lot of experts and guests around sustainability, social justice, the future here in Hawaii, progressive politics, and a whole lot more, so please tune in and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha, my name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. My program airs every other Monday at one o'clock on Think Tech Hawaii. Most of my programs deal with my own life and law experience. Recently, I interviewed Alex Jampel, who I have known for over 30 years, about his voyage across the sea as a lawyer from Tokyo to Hawaii. Those are the type of stories that I like to bring and like to talk about. Human stories about law and life. Aloha. Hi, welcome back to Adventures in Small Business. Today, we have our guests as Nicholas Comfort and Bjorn Zablan from Prevey Donut Stop. Can you share with us what kind of advice would you give to people who are just starting out or considering opening a business, whether it's a donut shop or a clothing store or whatever it may be? Don't open a donut shop, yeah? No. Just keep on going, don't give up. You're gonna hear a lot of hurdles, speed bumps, mountains, everything, but don't give up, keep on going. Seek help, you know, all the way to the business center and just keep up the drive. So if you had to do something differently, what would you have done differently? Looking back to your start. I don't think there's enough time, huh? Yeah. What jumps out at you the most that I wish I had done this a little bit differently and I think maybe we have avoided or helped us financially or why? Honestly, we had huge problems with construction, but I mean that's... That's very common. And that's also what got us to the brink of, hey, we have to open doors tomorrow or we're like, we have no money. Yeah. Yeah, I think a little more due diligence on that side of things could prevent that. Yeah, off the top of my head, that's definitely... That's one of the things, the biggest thing has been the construction understanding, giving us a little more time. Is that what you think people would know or just better understanding of the process? I think a little bit, well, I mean, a little bit of everything, but more so just a little bit more due diligence on the people you bring on to do these and how credible it is and those types of things. That's good to know, so a licensed contractor using all those people. Right, because if your budget is only X amount of money and they say it's gonna be three months and ends up being six months, well, that button, your reserve cash is now gone and so those are the things that disappear pretty quick. So having a cushion is important when you start out, right? A cushion off of a cushion. Yeah, three cushions. Two cushions, so construction period delays and ramp up period for your business as well as additional unexpected delays. Yes, absolutely. What was the pivotal moment in your business that you felt like, oh, this is... We're now getting traction and we're feeling more comfortable about the decision you made to become a doughnut shop owner? I think for me, it was probably when we met the Cal Commies with the Yolani Center. With a new business concept or idea, obviously it's very hard to go sell it to someone and say, hey, let me lease your space. When you have no experience, nothing proven, so it's really selling yourself as an entrepreneur and an idea and saying, you know, we're gonna do this. So for them to give us the chance, that was when it was like, okay, now focus four, we've got a lease, now it's, how do we do this? That's what it was. And then the accounting system, we always talk about as business advisors, we always talk about an accounting software system. You folks have one, you folks have been using one? Yeah, at first we were using, we actually did have a bookkeeper when we first got started just for the fact that you're trying to do so many things at that point. It's the last thing I wanted to try to do. We did take our own books over and we just use a QuickBooks online software which is so convenient and very easy to do. And quick. And I noticed whenever we meet and we talk about, okay, how are you doing? You first really understand your financial statements. How critical is that, do you think, for your business? Very critical, I mean, learning every aspect of your business is critical. From day to day, day to day agendas of what you have to get done to, I mean, even, you know, making sure the donuts are coming out a certain way, the glaze is a certain color, everything is critical, and the financials is one of the most critical things out there. Yeah, I think with the financials, it's understanding percentages of where, you know, your employee cost should be, your product cost, and at the end of the day, your bottom number, what margin are you trying to make and what's realistic, and monitoring those on a regular basis to know if your product cost is a little high, why is it high, you know, your employee cost, things like that, just trying to figure out how to get those numbers and having goals of what numbers you want and how to get there. When you started, did you have a business plan? Projections, right? We did. And it helped you as a road map? Yeah, and even with that, I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of... We can get some back. Yeah, we can get, I guess, is the word. Yeah. With the numbers originally, but we did have people on Eolani's side looking at it that, you know, what they're doing, and they know numbers, and that gave us a very quick sense of how to get, you know, what are we looking for, and it's like, this number's too high, it should be around 25%, this needs to be here, and so just that little mentorship right there gave us a knowledge of, okay, this is where they should be, and how to get there, and yeah. But it is good to have that business plan as a road map, because it is like your blueprint for your business, right? I mean, it's evolving, or it's a changing document, living document, so you can change it up, like with a lender, you change it up accordingly, and then the projections help you budget yourself for the change of time as you launched it. Did that help as you launched your business, the projections and all of that? Yeah, it just gives you, I guess, the ability to grade yourself on how you're doing it, and if you're getting close to there, or if you're not, and then it gives an idea of the potential growth you have, because if you hit your number the first year, then it's like, okay, what's our goal the next year? How do we keep growing without just staying stagnant? You know, many times, having a partnership is good, and has its pros and cons, right? You know, having somebody go along the journey with you, and encountering somebody, be able to overcome some of those in a difficult, but it also presents its own challenges, right? So, would you kind of share a little bit about your partnership, how do you first handle it when you come to a moment of, you know, in-pass? What do you first do, and what kind of advice do you have between keeping your partnership going well? With us, I mean, we've worked together before. I mean, that's a plus. I mean, I know how you work, he knows how I work. And especially behind the bars, one of those unspoken things like, I kind of know what his next step is, he kind of knows what might be. So. And on. Next step. Next step. This is our partnership right here. No, but it, you know, I have full trust in this guy. I trust him with myself, my family, you know, everything. I know he does the same thing for me, he's better. So, how do you keep it, you know, if you have different philosophies or there's a difference in, we should make this type of donate, but under the person's hands, no, it's not gonna pair well with our, you know, line up. What do you first do? How do you first? I think it's just having the conversation and talking through it, understanding each other's views of why I feel one way and why he feels another way. And going from there and trying to figure out, you know, what is the best solution to this? And luckily, we really haven't came across too much to disagreements. It's usually if he feels one way and he's pretty strong about it, then it's like, you know, I trust your opinion on this. And I'm like, it comes with even hiring, you know, there's people that we brought on and said, if you trust him, then I trust him. Like, I don't need anything else besides that. So it's having that trust, I guess, in each other to make the right decision for not only the business, but each other. That is really good because, you know, managing a partnership in itself is as critical and as challenging as managing a business, right? Because it's something in addition to managing your business. Yeah, I think that one thing that I would like to say is that it's also, it could have a lot of downfalls because I think a lot of people find the wrong partners. But if the advantage of having a partner is especially through that initial stage, there's a lot of times that you probably just want to be done with it, where if you have a partner that you can just kind of push each other, it's like, you know, you don't want to wake up, it's like, hey, you know, let's meet, let's go do this, like, okay. Set to wake up. Yeah, if there wasn't that phone call, hey, let's go grab coffee and figure this out. Like, I would maybe just stay in bed. So there's that aspect of it too. I think there's a lot of good things that come if you find the right partnership. Yes, definitely. Interesting partner. That's really, really good. And it's really nice to see how your partnership has really, and I see how you interact with each other. And it's really, really encouraging because you both have a respect and you both understand each other's nuances and inner strengths and weaknesses. So I think you both make a really, really good partnership. I guess what would you share with the audiences as would be the top, would be two, three or five, I guess, behaviors or skill sets that is really important to an entrepreneur that you have learned to rely on? I would say the first things that just realizing that an entrepreneur, all you are is a problem solver. Like, you're gonna have a problem almost every single day, one way or another. Whether it's going through the process of opening the business or once the business is opened, the machine's down, employee calls out, something's wrong. You got an unhappy customer. No matter what, every single day, there's gonna be something to fix. We're gonna figure out how and how do we overcome this. So I think that's the biggest thing is going into the mindset and knowing that that's your job. If something may go wrong, so prepare for it. It will go wrong. Yes, it will go wrong. Two more times, two more times. Really? Yeah, I mean, like I said before, being driven and not letting it get the best of you. A few days after we signed our lease, Duncan Donut did a press release that they're gonna open back in Hawaii. And both of us were just kind of like, ooh. Well, at least we knew that there was a market for it. There's times that when we first open, they can hire in the shop and one person come to the door and they're just like, but don't let it hinder you. Just continue to push on, figure it out. Positiveness. Exactly. Your shop, survey, Donut Stop is number one in Yelp. Congratulations, that was really nice. If you could share with us some of your products here and what is in the future, what is in Horizon for a purvey? Okay, we'll start. This is gonna be our weekly Donut. So it's actually a butter glaze with graham cracker, brown sugar toasted or cream belated on a fresh pineapple. This is gonna be our unicorn butt sneeze and this is gonna be a lemon glaze with fruity pebbles. It's our best seller, everybody loves those. And I see like a, like a, like a lihing, lihing going popular. This is the sunburned holly. We got it from my business partner over here, Nick. He went to the beach and didn't put SPF a million on. And it's gonna be lemon with lihing going on top of it. Yeah, it's another two super popular. They're all popular, but the Hulk smash is gonna be our house mint glaze with Oreo on top of it. So it's like a mint chocolate-ship ice cream flavor or a Girl Scout cookie. Yeah. And then the Killin' Me Smalls, which is your classic kind of s'mores taste that everybody really loves. That's my favorite. That's like a lemon glaze, right? Yes, lemon glaze. We have a graham cracker and then we have a homemade vanilla cream cheese drizzle on top of there. And a lot of people like pink cats, right? Yes. That's gonna be our matcha glaze with cake pat on there. That's our maple peanut butter glaze with a raspberry-preserved drizzle on it. That's a big seller. People love peanut butter, love that one. So your donuts are made to order. So when you go there, it's not like pre-made. You go to the showcase you pick. You have to pick what you want and then you actually make it there for the customers to pick. Right. Yeah, everything's made fresh. It is, I want to scare you, it's not a long process. Usually throughout the day, we're just constantly running donuts, so it's not a, hey, wait for 30 minutes while it gets built. It's really fast. It's in the process. So it makes it unique. We've kind of hit that market where it's a unique flavor profile, but also made fresh to order. There's people that do it fresh, but it's just very basic stuff. There's people that do the very unique flavors, but they're sitting in the case all day. So it's trying to blend the two together and find a way to make that work. Greatest about closing up, but I wanted to share with you what's on the horizon from Purvey and then there's an event coming up, right? That you folks are very proud of, it's gonna be featured. Yes, so Children's Youth Day, we're teaming up with Hoi News now and we're basically giving donuts away for the children. I believe it's October 6th. 6th. We'll be at the 10th at the State Capitol and we're just gonna be handing out donuts for Purvey comes by. All right, great. Well, thank you very much, everybody, for joining us. Thank you, Nick and Rion, for being here with us and we wish everybody, check out their donuts on Kona Street. Have a great day, everybody. Thank you.