 Welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. I'm Daelyn Yanagida, and we are broadcasting live from the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. You may also subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list there as well. The theme of Business Hawaii is to share with you local stories of local people by local businesses, and our guests share with us how they were able to build successes and opportunities in our community. In the Think Tech studio today is Lio Fujikawa, economic development specialist with the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Wow, Lio, what a mouthful. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. It was wonderful. You know, D-bed. Yes. Likely the best kept secret in Hawaii. It can be kind of intimidating to people, I think. We don't necessarily go out and promote ourselves, but we do our work, and we hope that speaks for us. D-bed is really about creating jobs, creating a diversified economy, and especially jobs that are meaningful, that pay well, or sustainable. So our division, the business development and support division actually is pretty much the public-facing part of D-bed, and we actually do a lot of outreach on one part, and we do other work in terms of export promotion, for example. So today I'm hoping that we could, the first slide, showing that we have all this information that I'm going to be talking about, but it's all on our website, invest.hawaii.gov, and people can sign up for our emails as well, but I'll be kind of giving an overview of what we do at the BDSD. Very nice. What exactly does that mean? What do you do, Lyle? So people tell me, and I do think I have one of the best jobs as well, because I actually get to go out and meet all these business owners, entrepreneurs, and sometimes go overseas to go to those markets as well. But I work in, actually we have two branches, but within the division I do work on what I call our domestic side, which is the business support. We have our enterprise zones program, community-based economic development, but because of my background, having worked in Japan for many years, I actually work on export promotion as well in going into Japan, and a little bit of business attraction and investment attraction. So I get to do work on both sides, but our division is really focused on getting into a place where we can actually support individual businesses. We don't do it ourselves. We work with other partners and we gather resources, and we do so through various programs. So maybe the next slide, talking about our enterprise zones program. This is actually one of the best kept secrets. Unfortunately, people really should be looking at this. It's a incentive program for businesses that create jobs. It's really a statewide partnership with the counties. We are signing up businesses all the time. We become more efficient with an online format as well. But the whole point is if you have an eligible business and you're creating jobs every year, you can actually get your GT waived. If you have a contractor who's doing work for you, their GT can be waived. So you can put that money back into your business and therefore keep growing. We've had huge companies, DR Fortress, Maui Brewing Company, and you can see where they've gone and they were maybe smaller at one point, and so they sell this at an advantage. As an advantage. So definitely, as an entrepreneur, you want to use whatever you can. Everything that I'm talking about is a free service, and so companies really should look at signing up and getting that information because it's available. We also provide an annual resource, the Hawaii Small Business Fair, the next slide. This is just a brochure, but we had this most recently at the Leeward Community College. Next year, we'll be planning at most likely Honolulu Community College. We work with several partners. We have the school, SBA Hawaii, DCCA Business Action Center, SBDC, Patsy Mink Center, FOREVER, FOREVA, HONO, and IRS. What we do is we actually offer over 25 classes and it becomes a broad and it can be deeper as well, ranging from starting a business, business planning, to quick books, to creating a food truck business, or even managing your IP. So we try to capture a lot of businesses there. A lot of small business owners will attend a lot of people with ideas only, and they're looking for resources. They're looking to validate their ideas. This is really going to work. We actually have exhibitors too. I'm going to say about 30 exhibitors. The banks are there for the guaranteed SBA loans. We have, as I mentioned, the Patsy Mink Center, SBA, sometimes the post offices that help us with the shipping part of the business. That is a huge resource to help small businesses get started. If you kind of think about our pipeline, as we're saying, the community and small businesses getting started, hopefully we could nurture them and get them to a size that is big enough to actually begin exporting. So I'll talk about that a little bit later. I don't have a slide for Seabed, but we do have a microloan program. And we actually are working with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. There are loan officer, loan servicing partner. And it can be anything for farmers to purchase farming equipment, for helping with the marketing, all that kind of business support, if you will. We are seeking more CDFIs, Community Development Financial Institutions, for those non-egg loans that we're thinking of, as we were talking about, there's a lot more organizations that seem to be really looking at the social impact and understanding that we need to diversify our economy and we have to support many different aspects of it. How do we target, like you were saying, we really try to see where the needs are and try to put resources there. A really interesting program that has just begun, the next slide, the Opportunity Zones Program, is actually that's the Hawaii Business Fair. So we had all the exhibitors there showing, you know, people consulting. And then of course the idea is to capture them and to get them in the pipeline and service them later as they have more questions and whatnot. Hawaii Opportunity Zones is a result of the Tax Act 2017 and it's a unique program where you have investors with a lot of capital gains that actually can reinvest that into a fund that needs to be created. That fund will then invest in Opportunity Zones and that's based on census tracks that are designated. We have a number of brochures on our website at the Opportunity Zones page talking about where the specific areas are and we are still waiting for a lot of guidance from Treasury and IRS about how things are going to be going. At this point we're trying to work with partners to just gather information and support businesses and I think, you know, the next couple of months we'll see some new guidance and we'll be able to really act. But right now I think we're getting a lot of interest. This will be something I think you might talk about later. The benefit of this is really again taking a resource, the capital, and applying it to this advantage area and it could be a business that needs to be rejuvenated, it could be a building, community center, it could be Greenfield or what have you. So there's a lot of options and people are really excited about this program. The large program that we, large impact program that we do work on is the High Step Program and it's the Hawaii State Trade Expansion program that is partially funded by the SBA and that's actually a very successful program for us in terms of our outreach and also the impact. But exports, you know, as we think about how do businesses grow, right? We have an environment here, maybe you're on an island in Molokai and you're just thinking about selling to your neighbors. You have to think about, of course, selling to the rest of the state. You know, it's about really thinking about what your potential is and our job is to show businesses that they do have, kind of give them ideas that they can do these things. Exporting is not just selling to the US mainland, but it's about really looking at overseas markets such as Japan that have huge affinity, right? And we have a lot of opportunity there to continue expanding. In our lifetimes, it will not end. The High Step Program is probably one of the most interest for me because we talk to so many startup entrepreneurs who envision their business here, but do not think right away at the get-go about the exports. Right, right, right. And so actually exporting, it doesn't have to be just apparel or gift items or food. It could be services, right, architects, engineers. And we're trying to develop that further as a software developer, right? As we have those other aspects of the economy, cleaner, right, higher paying, right, those kinds of businesses, if we can put sort of the Hawaii brand on it, definitely we could promote that as an export. The programs that you folks are creating over at D-Bed, you and your colleagues, simply amazing, I think don't get enough airtime, if you will, but when we come back, I'd like to talk about a few more of them and maybe share some of those success statistics with us on where that goes. So we are going to take that short break. This is Business in Hawaii. We'll see you back here shortly. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m., Aloha. Aloha, I'm Stan Osterman, a host here on Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness here on the island. We are a Hawaiian non-profit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Mahalo. Welcome back to Business in Hawaii. Today with us today is Lyle Fujikawa from D-Ved, huge title, but amazing things that are coming out from your department. When we went to break, we were talking about businesses, entrepreneurs thinking about exports as part of their business model. Yes. Definitely, exporting really should be on people's minds because we have the disadvantage of geography in Hawaii, but it's an advantage because people want to compare the unique climate, being away from everything again. From that, obviously culture and the mix of cultures that we have and then whatever products that can be developed from that have a unique brand value that is highly desired. Whenever someone is thinking about manufacturing, really you should be thinking down the line. Yes, I should be exporting. Starting with the mainland, that's technically shipping outside of the state, but what we're talking about is overseas. This is something where actually all states have their own programs in the SBA, federal funds, they put it together. We have to put a proposal in every year. Luckily, we've been receiving funds and we've been putting it to good use. If you can see on the slide, the metrics, the total impact that we're actually creating jobs, the ultimate measure is really the taxes collected, the sales being done. I'm actually planning a trip to Osaka in July in a couple weeks to take about 30 companies to a department store. They have done a tremendous job of putting together a Hawaii fair. They do this for various regions, but the Hawaii fair is by far their biggest. It's a one-week period, the Hankyu Umeda department store, and 250,000 people will come through. It's all segments. There's hula, there's music, there's food, and they just make it seem as best as they can in Hawaii and creating that environment that people want to buy. It's a really great opportunity for those smaller companies who don't have the capacity to really export per se, but to show up and have a consumer right there. They're selling, they're doing validation, brand billing a little bit, and it's a really good experience. Building upon that, in September, we have our Tokyo International Gift Show, which is our largest. We take about 80 companies every year, and that is really a B2B, your more traditional exporting, finding importers, the distribution, and we've had some really successful companies. Hawaiian Chip Company has done really well. They still have their chips, the very delicious arrow chips, but they realize that the manufacturing of hot sauce would be more economic in the sense of the profit and all that. The application of that, they found food service clients, they realize that they can get the retail and all that. We have some food companies, but we have a lot of apparel companies, and gift items, if you will, soap, and natural products. That's an interesting area that really can grow further. This contention of 30 folks that are heading out to Osaka with you, they came through Highstab? We contribute some funds to the program, to the Umeda program. The buyer actually comes to Hawaii, and we've taken, her name is Sala Lozanshi. We go to Maui, the main Maui County Fair, and find some companies. We're always suggesting good companies for them to feature. The best thing is, she's young, she's a woman, she knows what the target audience wants. We have a great pipeline of showing these companies, and in the end, they know what it has to sell. It has to make money for the company, and everybody will, because it's not only the company itself, but it's the Hawaii brand. It's authentic Hawaii. There's always, like Hawaii, we never get away from that, but we have to always, as much as possible, promote the authentic Hawaii brands that are made here, and have the true representation of O'Lohan and everything. Supporting those brands, and hopefully they can get to a larger size where they can participate in other, become bigger, do exporting. The reason why we do that is because it's manufacturing, wholesaling. Those are the jobs that we hope to create. If you get into that intellectual property of Hawaii brands, we can hire value to mitigate the cost of the shipping, and then being so far away from everything. Also, another export that sometimes is not really thought of as an export is actually the International Student Attraction, which is our next slide. It's actually a tremendous economic engine that we've been focusing on the past few years, but creating almost 500 million total economic impact. I actually, anecdotally, I actually saw this in action. A student from Australia was visiting, I'm sorry, she was studying oceanography at UH, her family came to visit. They didn't just come to Oahu, they went to Maui. They camped out and they spent money there, and they came here to Oahu, and they spent money. You can really see that you have this additional impact. It's a great way to attract, of course, ideas, people who, if they figure out a way to not, of course, you can't remain an student visa, but if you're a creating company, they themselves become entrepreneurs, or bringing capital, not just intellectual, but actual financial capital, to strengthen the Hawaii economy. It's a tremendous thing. I think that's, again, Hawaii as being such a unique place, attracting so many people. It's an obvious solution. So for entrepreneurs who aren't familiar with all of the programming that D-Bed does, where do they start? They really, they can come to our website and just start looking. We're very fortunate because we have a pretty good search engine presence. The last slide shows our website, but we have an email sign-up as well, and we don't do all the work ourselves. We have partners, and so once you sign up and you indicate what you're interested in, definitely we will put you in touch with the right person to help you. We work with HDDC, they're a sister, you know, we're part of D-Bed, but they obviously work on technology. They have their new sandbox, you know, co-working space, but they also work on manufacturing. I saw Staten Oscherman, you know, the energy part is really important. And then creative industries, division, working on, you know, the songwriting, the filmmaking, you know, all those aspects of intellectual development, creative development that can also drive our economy. So we have a lot of different areas within D-Bed as well as working with other partners, but if you say what you need, you know, we can definitely put you in touch. Looking forward to that. Before the show, I was laughing with you about, oh, an economic development specialist, you know, you just bury yourself in analytics and metrics and numbers. We have a division, a research division that does, right, they publish the annual data book, which is a huge resource. They do studies for the ledge all the time. We do studies together. We get all the data, you know, they're breaking everything down and putting back up together for us for communicating, you know, end results. But yeah, it's great because we get to go and meet people in person and really help them because we can see that the results, you know, every year they get better and better. And I'll have, you know, our long phone calls and at the end, invariably, they'll say, thank you so much because I'm giving them a lot of, it's not just this, but it's all my experience, you know, living in Japan and working in Japan. And I always thank them. I say, well, you're doing the hard work. You're the small business and doing all that. So let's work together to find success. So what are some of the things that you would like to create forthcoming for Tibet? Just continue to work, you know, like I said, we focus on certain areas and if we can continue to be integrated, synergistic and find those relationships, finding a way to share information easily, confidentiality is important. We don't ever share, you know, business knowledge or, you know, the results and all that individually. We're very careful about how we work with our company information. We protect that. But definitely that openness of, I might not be able to help you, but this person can or together, you know, like we don't have loan officers or we're working with CDFIs to do loans, just really continue to do that. Because that is the only way we're going to get better, right? So I hope through technology and just continue to work together. Do you think that folks aren't participating in these programs because they just don't know about them? I think so. I think they're so busy. They say, OK, I'm starting my business. And then it's like, you know, from day one, they're just, that's all they're focusing on. What we talked about is sometimes hard to ask for help. I don't know what I need help with, right? We don't know. We don't know. So come see, well, you don't necessarily have to see us. You can go to SBDC at Manoa. You know, go see Joe Burns or the Patsy Mink Center. They can help you structure your business. You know, maybe you need to work on certain aspect of it. You know, is it cash flow? Is it just, you know, your accounting system, right? You know, having those tools available. I was talking to an artist. She's an artist. She creates jewelry, beautiful jewelry. And she's talking about her credit terms. And I'm not even a financial expert, but I say, that sounds too generous to me. I think you need to tighten it up and demand more and step up and say, hey, I'm worth it. You know, and let's work together, right? So because that's what it is, right? It's mutual. You can't just give everything to, you know, somebody else. But it's that kind of thing where people are so focused on one, maybe the business idea, but not seeing how they can expand it, how they can make it easier for themselves, right? But there's so much out there. So, you know, Google search, you can find things. I do want to give our viewers one more shot at how to get in touch with you. Yes, please. So if we could put up that last slide, this is how they can find you? Sure, yeah. Emails we send out periodically. We do a lot of seminar training. We send out notices. We always have news on our website. But once you get in the system, there's other various ways that you can participate in programs. So the main thing is get an email. And hopefully we can talk. Lyle, I appreciate you. I appreciate D-Bed and the amazing programs that you folks work so hard to bring to us. And I'm really excited to hear more about the different sectors in D-Bed. So unfortunately, we are out of time. But thank you to Lyle for joining us today. And we look forward to hearing more about the different sectors in D-Bed and their exciting projects. A really big thank you to the great production staff here in the studio. And if you would like to be a guest on our show, please email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. And we look forward to seeing you here next week.