 And it's another exciting show of The Economy and You. I love the title of The Economy and You because everybody just gets so excited about that title. I'm Chris Leitham here and today's guest is Barbara Howell with Under the Sea. And welcome everybody, I'm glad to have you here with us here at Think Tech Hawaii. Barbara, welcome to the show, nice to have you. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me. You're a busy entrepreneur, but you are nice enough to come in and talk with us today, so I really appreciate that. Hey, my pleasure. Okay, okay, so now you have a business where you brought a glass bottom boat to Hawaii. And now you're in business. Yeah, but it took a little while to get there. Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. So now doing business in Hawaii of course can be a rather challenging task since there is just a body of regulation here and especially if you have a boat. Right. Is that about right? Okay. So your boat was, so tell us a little bit about your boat. Tell us how you got here and what in the world made you think that you were gonna come to Hawaii and get involved in the tourist business? Oh man, well okay, so I'm a marine biologist, right? And I have been teaching marine biology for years. And I'm not gonna say how many years. But I was in Nevis, on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean in the West Indies. And I wanted to be close to my daughter so I figured, okay, I'll go over to Hawaii. And my son at the time was living in Arizona so it would have been closer to him too. So I got over here and I went, okay, now what am I gonna do? I'm on an island full of marine biologists. How am I gonna stand out? I have always had my own business. Usually involved going out and being in the water and sea creatures and teaching and kids and adults and schools and the whole bit. Anyway, so I tried getting a real job here. And I, yeah, I did, I got a really good job but I was terrible. When you're an entrepreneur, basically I think you're not employable. Oh yeah, that's an interesting thought. You have your own ideas about stuff. Anyway, so I tried that and then I thought that I needed to start a business again. I'd had a business in New England, a business in the Caribbean. And I really didn't know if I was up for starting a business here because of my age. I can't not do it. So there was a boat. Okay. And well, okay, so I figured the only thing that would allow me to compete in a really competitive snorkel tour environment was to have something totally unique and different. And so I had the boat. Yes. And it just happened to be down in the Caribbean. Yeah, well there you go, right? That's just a small problem. Oh, I got stories to tell about that. And then I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get it here and... Well, did you have to go through the Panama Canal then? Well, okay, so it took me a while to find someone who would be able to ship my boat, right? Oh, so you had it shipped? Yes, so the idea was, and I paid premium price, the idea was to get the boat from St. Martin, put it on a ship, sail it through the Panama Canal to Honolulu, it was gonna take 18 days. So I was all excited about that. It was, it was like, wow, this is cool. And being on a ship, it would be cool because it could put it on once and it wouldn't be bandied about and chance of it being damaged would be really small. Well, evidently they missed the ship, the shipping company didn't tell me but there was one ship a year that did that. Oh. And they missed getting my boat on that ship. Oh no. So a couple of weeks later, it's like, why am I not hearing that my boat is arriving? Right. And then they told me and they had taken the boat, put it on a ship, shipped it up to Miami, it got to Miami when the government had shut down and so it couldn't even get through customs. Do you remember that? I remember this was during- 2013. Right, during Obama, yeah. So the government was shut down so it was waiting to get through customs. Then they found someone to trail it from Miami to Long Beach, California. That means you're pulling it behind another vessel. On there, they had a flatbed, I guess. Oh. So they were trailing it behind the 18-wheel. Oh, you mean by land? Yeah, by land. They called it by land. Oh, okay. So after it took boat to Miami, Miami on a truck and the shipping company never told me any of this. So you're thinking it's on the boat but in fact it's, yeah. So now how long did it take to actually get here? Oh, well, okay. It was supposed to be here in October and it got here in December. And it's really funny because along the way, I don't know, the previous harvormaster at Coalina saw my boat and the cops had it pulled over to the side of the road in Arizona. And the reason they did is because they said in order to transport a space vehicle you need two escort vehicles. Oh, is that a state law? That's a state law. Yeah, but I just have a, and so the poor driver of the truck kept having to say it's not a spaceship, it's a boat. And I don't need two escort vehicles. It got stopped seven times along the way. Wow, you just kind of think maybe the police officers could find something else to contend with. When the shipping company told me that, I didn't believe them, but Chuck from Coalina happened to be at the exact intersection in Arizona when he saw my boat pulled over and he goes, it's gotta be Barbara's boat. Yeah, yeah. It's gotta be, because they're so unique. There's just a few. And it looks like a spacecraft. It does. Wow. It is really weird looking. Yeah, yeah. So when the boat got here, now you had some additional challenges. Yeah, okay. So the shipping company that didn't tell me that they were shipping it by land, they sent it on the truck and didn't insure it. When it got to California, it was all broken up. We finally got it down here and got it into Jim Maynard's shop at Pacific Diversified Finishes. Was that mostly hydrolyzed? Had to rebuild, no, actually it's an aluminum vessel, very lightweight aluminum vessel. It's a hydrofoil. It goes up above the water and can go very fast. Yeah, so anyway, it was all messed up. So we had to totally strip it down to the hull and rebuild it. So it's basically a brand new boat. And also before I had it shipped over here, I had to find a harbor to work out of. Here in Hawaii. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Then I thought, okay, well I'll just keep it up at Waianae because that's where I was living at the time. Well, was it easy? So it was quite a challenge to find a skip. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't find any place to put it. And that was, is that because of the size of the vessel? No, it's because there are moratoriums on commercial vessels. So. So there's a moratorium that says you can't bring any more commercial vessels into the Hawaiian islands or just Oahu? Into, each marina has their own allotment of commercial vessels that they will take. I see. And every marina was full. Okay. The only one that wasn't was Koalina. And I went down to Koalina and it was a very beautiful marina. Yes. But you have to be accepted to keep your boat there. Oh. And they hadn't accepted anybody for almost 10 years. I think it was like seven years or something like that. And yet they were the last hope. Exactly. Yeah. And so I went down there and it took a few months for them to make a decision but they decided that the boat was different enough. And our programs were different enough so that we wouldn't be direct competition for the tour boats that are already there. Oh. And we take small groups. We have marine biologists guides. We have, we do Hawaiian cultural stuff. So ours is education plus it's a glass bottom boat. Right. And the glass bottom is, it's curved. So it magnifies everything 25%. Oh. Yes. So when you see something, you get a nice visual. Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So now you had some other challenges with this, okay? Cause you said this boat wasn't actually, before we went on the air, this wasn't a US made vessel. That created some additional challenges. Yeah. The boat is made in Russia. You order, you order one, they build it. We happen to get ours from a resort in St. Martin. So we didn't order one new. But you cannot bring a commercial, a foreign built commercial vessel into the United States to work without permission. Which is also something I didn't know a whole lot about. Yeah. So it's something called the Jones Act. Right. And it's- We are very familiar with the Jones Act here. Oh, you are. Because it's sort of one of those things that be devil growth for Hawaii. Yeah. It creates constraints in all different kinds of ways. So this is another example of another artificial constraint. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and the thing is, there are no foreign, I mean, there are no US built vessels, anything like this. So it's not like I could buy one. Yes. So anyway, I had to go through all of that. And the whole process took about a year from start to finish to get permission to use the boat commercially. So now once you got that accomplished and you had to skip, now you've got to put together a business plan and start to execute and find people who are going to take out on tours on this boat. Exactly. Now we're going to take a commercial break shortly and then I want to go back and I want to talk about some of those unique challenges. Okay. Hi folks, I'm Chris Leitham here with The Economy and You and we'll be right back. Hey everybody, my name is David Chang and I'm the new host of a new show, The Art of Thinking Smart. I'm really excited to be able to share with you secrets on giving yourself the smart edge in life. We're going to have awesome guests and great mentors of mine from the political, military, business, nonprofit, you name it. So it's something for everybody. Aloha, my name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome. We are co-hosts of a show called Keys to Success which is live on the Think Tech Live Network series, weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. We're looking forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Hi, I'm Chris Leitham and this is The Economy and You. Thank you for watching. We were just for staying tuned. Today's guest is Barbara Howell. Barbara has a company called Under the Sea. It's a company where you have people take tours in your glass bottom boat. Right. Yes. Now this is not your grandmother's glass bottom boat unless your name is Nicholas. Well, my grandmother never had a glass bottom boat. Okay, yes. Okay. If your name is Nicholas or Bryce, then it is your grandmother's glass bottom boat. But yeah, it's not like any other and our programs are not like any other. People think when you go on a glass bottom boat, you just get on and you slowly cruise here and there. Now, we whip around from place to place and we do snorkeling and stuff with whales and dolphins and sea turtles and the whole bit. Uh-huh, that's nice. Yeah, but it wasn't easy getting it going. It really wasn't. Well, what are some of the challenges from a business perspective? You know, just like how do you get your website up? And then you had to reach out to tour operators or come people who sign people up for tours and such. Yeah. How did you go about that? What was that process like for you? Okay, the marketing is the most important part of the business, which is a really good product, which that was easy for me to set up because I've done it so much, but at first I had a woman I knew that was big into marketing and she was very, very good, but unfortunately I couldn't afford her. Ah. So then the challenge these days, back when I started my business, you know, I used to do my own marketing. You make up a flyer and you pass it out or you take it out and add in the newspaper. Now it's all social media and your website and all that stuff. So people believed in my project enough to help me with it for free. So my first website was done for free, yeah. And social media was done by my crew. I had photographers and I have young folks, you know. Yeah, yeah. And they know that stuff. So I know a little bit of it, but it changes so much, it's hard to keep up. So being able to find people that could do that was really challenging. And then I had someone working for me who absolutely adored and was really, really good. And he got us into the hotels and he got that whole process started and then he, he... That's a lot of door knocking and hand shaking. Yeah, no kidding. I mean, it was months and months and months and months. And here I'm thinking I can get the boat in the water, you know, and it's like, okay, everybody, we got this boat here, let's go, no. Anyway, I've had crew move, you know, when you're dealing with people that are, you know, it's a lot of military on the island. So if you have crew members that are married to military people, you know you're gonna lose them. Yeah. So anyhow, there was a lot of fluctuation in the marketing aspect. And so then it all fell on my head, which was totally... That's overwhelming, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. That's like, okay, this is not gonna work. So I'm actually still looking for somebody who is really, really good at marketing, who can get me out there. I think I know somebody. We'll talk about it after the show. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so this is a, so marketing is a challenge. And that sounds like that's an ongoing challenge in order to get people to, you know, keep the boat full and make sure that it's, you know, running as a profitable enterprise. Now I'm gonna sort of touch on a little bit here on something that a lot of people don't really wanna talk about too much, but it's a regulatory environment here in Hawaii. Yeah. Right, it's fairly regulated. Now there are some regulations that we need and there's some regulations that maybe are a little over the top. Is there anything that you would like to point out that you think we might be able to sort of tweak the language a little bit and make it a little easier for people who are trying to launch a new enterprise in Hawaii or do business here? Well, it wasn't that bad because it was very easy to get a business license. So that was good. It's just that things are very expensive. A part way into having my business going, the DLNR, Dobor, has, you know, now we have to pay $200 a month for using the water. That's an interesting tax. That's an interesting tax. $200 a month for using water. Well, salt water. Salt water, yes. The salt water tax. So all of us, they make our living working out on the salt water. We end up having to register and pay $200 a month. Now, what does that go toward? Is there any indication of how those funds are spent or why the justification? I have absolutely no idea, but I'm hoping that it goes toward water-based things and maybe pollution, mitigation, and things like that. But to be honest, I don't know. Do you know how many companies would probably be paying this tax? I would be dishonest if I even tried to guess. I have no idea, but I mean, all of us at Collina are all of us that, all the snorkel tours. Is it any commercial? Okay. Yeah. What about fishing boats, maybe? Yeah, the fishing boat. Anybody that actually is out there working on the water commercially, making a living at it? I don't know about fishing. Like a fisherman as opposed to the fishing charters. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't know if that's different. Yeah, wow. So that's, is that a new tax or? I think it's like a year old. It was kind of a surprise, you know? And you had to, the first payment was like $800. And then you had to pay your $200 for the month. So I guess they made the regulation, but didn't tell anybody for a while. Oh, really? And by then it was. I love taxes like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna tax you, but what am I gonna tell you? And then we can charge you late fees because you didn't know about it. Well, they didn't charge you late fees, but you know. So, I mean, you know, I can understand it, but having come from the Caribbean where there's like zero regulation and setting up a business is easy and inexpensive and the people are very helpful. So that's different. It's been way different, very, yeah. A little more challenging. Well, maybe you could, you could share a little bit about the tour that you're doing and what's the name of the vessel? Kalea. Kalea. Which means joy. And it, yeah, it's just really unique. It's 30 feet and it was designed for 16 passengers and it was certified by the Norwegians, because they know their stuff over there. But the U.S. Coast Guard says, no, we have to certify stuff ourselves. So, I can't take that many people. So you can take up to 16 people or up to 14 people. The boat was built to take up to 16 people. And then how many crew do you have on the boat? I have, initially it started out with me and two other crew members, a marine biologist. I was doing, I was being captain at the time. And a marine biologist and a Hawaii cultural specialist. And you know, someone who grew up here and knows the culture, ancient and modern. And so that only leaves 13 people that you could put on the boat to max out for tours. No, no, I can't even take that many. They allow you to take six. Six. Six. Oh, interesting. So six on a tour boat, on a tour that goes out. I mean, and our tours are four hour tours because I didn't want to do three hours. Okay. No, because that allows us to be really be in areas where the other boats aren't. Oh, okay. And it's just a super unique tour. Yeah, we do hang out with the dolphins if they're amenable to it. We're totally, totally sensitive to the animals. Yeah, because they come in when they come in, they're sleeping, right? They're kind of... Exactly. Yeah, so you don't want to disturb their sleep. Yeah, they're either sleeping or they're socializing. So they're out hunting at night and they come in and that's their time to get into smaller groups and socialize so you get like the teenagers that are causing trouble and stuff like that. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, yeah. After a while you get to know what's going on out there. And you get the nursery pods we call them, the mothers and the babies and aunties. And maybe uncles in there, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. And then you get the guys and they're hanging out and then you get the mixed pods. So anywhere from six in a pod up to 80. Really? Yeah. Wow. So they come in and they do a little socialization and then they chill out. That's when they're kind of sleeping, right? Cause what I understand is dolphins sort of shut down one side of their brain. And then they like, that's kind of like they let one side of the brain sleep and then they, it's like, what is he doing with one eye open? I guess, I don't know. It's really cool because they're generally swimming in pairs. And the guy on the left will have that eye open. And the guy on the right will have that eye open. So between the two of them swimming together, they can see everything. They can see what's going on. Right, plus they have a scout. That's right. There's like one or two scouts, right in front. They're usually the ones that are jumping up and spinning ahead of the rest of the dolphins, right? Yeah, and they go on the outskirts between the deep water and the pod and check for sharks or whatever. They're looking for sharks. I've actually had, when I was a guide, when I first moved here I got a job as a guide so I could understand, learn about it. And the scouts get to know you. And so if they want to tell you something or say back off or whatever, they'll come up to you. And you have no doubt as to what they're saying to you. But they may come zooming straight up right at you and then just stop and look at you. And you know, look, these guys don't want to be pestered. Let's just go snorkel over here or get out of the water. Isn't that something? It is, and they're amazing animals. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's very insightful. I had no idea of all the years I lived in Hawaii. Now we have an interesting shot here. Who's this lady on the boat? I have no idea who she is. Yeah, that's me. And that's my other captain, Ashley. She's the one whose husband got transferred. So I totally miss her. Yeah, and so I will have to maybe bring in some video of your boat and some of the excursions. Oh yeah, yeah, I have some really good video. Okay. It's really neat. And we have some online. So we're, okay, so the site is called undertheseehawaii.com. Is that the website? Yep. And then how can people, is there, there's a phone number and all the contact information is there if people want to book a tour? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, and you can go directly online and book a tour. And right now we have 15% off. So there's a code called online 15, which is really creative. Again, you know the marketing thing. Anyway, so if you go to the website and you pick a tour, then you can book it yourself. And you don't have to pay commissions or anything like that. And then you get a 15% discount. 95% of our business comes from direct online booking. Wow. Yeah. Well thank you again for Barbara for being on the show. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me. And folks, I hope you got some useful information out of that. If any of you would like to go on a tour with the Glass Bottom Boat called undertheseehawaii, check out the website. And thank you for watching. And we'll see you again in two weeks right here on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha.