 Welcome to Adventures in Small Business, a collaborative effort by the U.S. 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 to showcase the stories of local entrepreneurs and small businesses. I'm Colleen McLooney, from the Patsy Teemings Center for Business and Leadership, and today we have Kimberly Bradley, Vice President of Operations from Titanium Automated Solutions. I'm sorry, I said the wrong thing. Please tell us your title, Kimberly. So I am the Vice President and Director of Operations at Titanium Automotive Solutions. Great. Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. So Kimberly, can you tell us a little bit about your background and your company? So my name is Kimberly Bradley. I am the Director of Operations and Vice President of Titanium Automotive Solutions. We went into business maybe about nine years ago, and we are Hawaii's first luxury auto spa. So we are home to four different businesses. The RIM Surgeon, Coated, Wheel Masters, and Bradley Built. We specialize in room repair, powder coating, room entire upgrades, as well as lifting and dropping trucks. Oh, fantastic. Okay, so this is kind of a new area for me. So can you explain what coating is? So coating is powder coating. So it's a type of, what is powder coating? So powder coating is a type of painted application that's not liquid and it's powder. So it kind of electrolyzes to the metal and it's more durable and stronger than actual paint. And it's environmental friendly. Oh, okay. And I know we're going to see some pictures of that in just a little while. Oh, great. And so that's more of an added feature that people want on their trucks? Yes, because it is a lot more durable than paint. It's a lot stronger. It's not going to fade or peel or have any of the corrosive problems that a lot of people experience on their metal parts. Okay, I see. Great. Thank you. So can you tell us what motivated you to open your business or how your business started? So about nine years ago, I met my husband. He had, he actually started this business. He was literally a small hole in the wall. And I just saw the potential in his business and it just kind of made me interested in growing it to the next level. Okay. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. And so were you ever, were you in the automotive industry or anything like that beforehand? No, I wasn't. So I was actually doing real estate. I was 22 at the time, so I was really young. And I kind of, after doing it for a couple months, I kind of got the feeling that I might be a little young for real estate. And so it just was kind of meant to be that, you know, I took the time to help him grow his business. Fantastic. So you were really learning on the job? Yes, really learning on the job. Oh, that's fantastic. And it must have been interesting to you in order to stay in the company. And now you're the director. Yes. Oh, that's fantastic. So can you share with us a little bit about the hardships of being an entrepreneur? Oh, well, every day is a new day. Everything is always challenging, especially as a business owner, you know, things go up, things go down. You're always left with trying to solve a problem. Yeah. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And what about, are there any personal hardships that you have specifically experienced? Well, in the beginning, it wasn't that bad. I mean, they say when you become an entrepreneur, you leave working 40 hours a day for somebody else to work 80 hours a week for yourself. So the first couple years, I mean, it was just me and my husband, and it was fine. I could stay up all night long and, you know, brainstorm and plan things out. And then I had children. And so I can't dedicate that much time into the company anymore because you have to, you know, dedicate time to your children. So that was a struggle for sure. But it really taught me time management. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay, excellent. Well, there is always that work-life balance that specifically women that I think. I know men definitely have to deal with it. But women do, especially when children are born and you're trying to have that balance between family and work. And especially as entrepreneurs, very challenging. Oh. And how old are your children now? So I have a daughter who's three and I have a son who's six. Oh, okay, yes. You're really busy. Yeah. Definitely. And so do you have any specific challenges in your business that you can think of that you and your husband have overcome? I know you were just recently speaking about your effort in reorganizing your business. Mm-hmm. And what, can you explain a little bit about that and maybe share your experience? Okay. So because we've been in business for quite a while, nine years, we kind of experienced the whole business scale from starting off to really growing and taking off. And then we started to kind of plateau and then decline. So we've kind of experienced everything you can go through through a business. And during that plateau to the decline stage, it was really complicated. It was really complicated. There was a lot of struggles. And that's when I actually reached out to the Patsy Meek Center. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Yes. Okay. That's great. And so do you feel that you are getting back on track now? Yes, definitely. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Nothing happens overnight. Right. So I've had to learn to be patient and understand that. But now, yes, I definitely feel like things are going back on track and turning around. Oh, okay. Yes. Good for you. That's wonderful. So we'll talk a little bit later about your connection to the SBA partners and how that, the help has provided you, what the help has been provided to you. That's wonderful. And so let's see, do you have a specific view on the competition that is surrounding? Are you surrounded by competitors? Are they close by to you in location? Or any thoughts about competition in your industry? So we actually, because we have four different industries in titanium, we have a lot of competitors in different industries. We have about four different competitors in powder coating, rim repair. There's only about one, not too bad. But one of our competitors is actually down the street from us. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay. In the building right next to us. But we're friends. And we share a lot of education and knowledge with each other. Oh, fantastic. Yes. So I don't really worry about competition too much. Right. I think it's a great way to keep striving and pushing forward to make sure that you're always on, you know, always changing for your customers. Right. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. That's great. Nice to have that friendly competition going on. Yes. Oh, okay. Excellent. Excellent. You find that there are a lot of competitors throughout the island in your industry? Definitely. With automotive, there's a lot of tire shops. There's a lot of rim shops. The neighbor islands also has powder coating. A lot of people are lifting and dropping vehicles. So there is competition all across the state. But I've reached out to a few of them and we are friends and we visit each other and we share our knowledge and education. I don't think that competition should necessarily be a negative thing. You know, it benefits both companies and businesses to grow. Yeah. That's a wonderful point of view. Yes. Oh, fantastic. That's great. So can you tell us about the uniqueness of your business? I think just that speaking about competition just actually reminded me of that because you're actually a one-stop shop. So maybe if you explained why you became almost four businesses under one roof, how that came about. Okay. So we originally started detailing out of the back of my husband's truck. And through that, you know, people want to make their rims look nice or they have damaged rims. And he's a welder by trade. And so he knew how to repair the rims. And so, I mean, we just kind of grew by what our customers ask for us. You know, they just, oh, can you do this? Can you do that? Can you do this? And so wanting to fulfill their needs, that's how we grew to offer so many different services. Excellent. Excellent. And so the detailing moved to the rim repair. Right. And then what did that move into? So the detailing moved into the rim repair. The rim repair moved into the powder coating. Okay. And then also with the rims became selling new rims and selling new tires. Oh, okay. Yeah. So rim and tire upgrades, entire changes, and then just lifting trucks and dropping vehicles and modifying them. Uh-huh. Okay. And so you probably, you had to go through quite a learning curve then. Definitely. Every time you opened a new. Definitely. Kind of sectioned. Do you consider all four separate businesses or they consider departments of the titanium automotive solutions? So now I consider them four separate businesses. Oh. But with all of this coming on as we were growing, it was all kind of mixed together and one under one name. But I just kind of got the feeling that it was really hard to market towards each individual industry because it's just so many different services all over the place that don't really relate besides the fact that they're automotive. Yeah. Yeah. So I decided to separate them into four different businesses and really advertise each business separately and treat them as their own entities. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, that's wonderful. Fantastic. Okay, great. So we're going to take a break and we'll be back and we're going to be taking a look at some pictures that we can see some of the repair work you do and some other things. And we'll be back. Thank you. Thank you. Aloha. Thank you very much. I am your host of Out and About where every other week, Mondays at three, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation and world and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at three o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Hey, Aloha. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your coworkers safe, your family safe, keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that, you know, may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because security matters. Aloha. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. I'm live at five every Wednesday where we have entertaining and educational conversations that are real and relevant, both here in Hawaii and across the globe. I'll see you at the Crossroads. Aloha. Thank you. Welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii and Adventures in Small Business. I'm here with Kimberly Bradley of Titanium Automotive Solutions. And we are going to take a look at some photos that Kim has provided for us. And we will talk about how they correlate to her business. Okay, great. So what are we looking at here, Kimberly? So this is a picture of a damaged rim. As you can see, they probably hit a pothole or some type of crazy road hazard. Bent it. It's curved. I don't know if you can see it, but it's probably cracked as well. So we do repair all of that. Oh my gosh. So if you guys have any damaged rims, I mean, we're able to fix anything that looks that crazy. This rim was kind of cracked all the way around. So our welds are stronger than the rim itself. It comes with a lifetime warranty. So, I mean, there's no need to spend a lot of money on a new one when you can just repair it. Right? Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. This is a picture of curb damage. Oh, okay. So you can see on the side of the rim, they hit the whole curve. Wow. Yeah. And so we just get it to look brand new again. Okay, is there one more? Oh. This is a picture of the powder coating. It's on one of the lifted trucks. So they just made it look a little bit fancier. Oh my gosh. That is really fancy. It's super shiny, very colorful. So they can pick any color they want. Yeah, any color. There is over 4,000 colors to choose from. It's another picture of a powder coated rim. People get crazy with their ideas. Oh my gosh. That one has to be my favorite color. Really? Is it? I bet in the sunlight it's super sparkly. Yeah, super sparkly. I call it unicorn poop. That's true. That is great. Oh my gosh. I love that. Oh wow. Wonderful. Okay, so let's talk about what your experience has been with our small business administration partners here in town. So I think you started at the Patsy Mink Center. Right. And so tell us about that experience. So Patsy Mink was actually really awesome for me. I was already in business for maybe eight years before I finally found the Patsy Mink Center. And for me, I didn't have any educational background on running a business. And so we were kind of just winging in and we got lucky to be able to survive for so long. But what Patsy Mink really did for me was to let me step out of actually operating my business and go back to day one on starting a business. So really thinking about a business plan, really creating a structure which really helped in our rebranding. Oh, excellent. Yes. That's great. So you moved on to the SBA program Emerging Leaders. Right. And how did that help you? So after Patsy Mink, I actually got an email from the SBA offering me to go into Emerging Leaders and I thought it was a really awesome program. There's certain requirements that you have to meet to get into that program. Right. But just to further my knowledge, at that time, since we were kind of declining, I was just reaching for any type of knowledge that I could get to help boost my sales and go back to striving. Oh, excellent. Yeah. But Emerging Leaders really helps you understand the daily operations of business and what you need to really succeed. I mean, I always looked at financial statements, but I never really looked in-depth at financial statements. Right. So they really helped you look at how those numbers and what they mean and how they really can operate your business off of the numbers, you know? Sure. Yeah. I learned that. And that is a free of charge program. Is that right? It is free of charge. You have to meet a certain requirement to get in and you have to do an interview. And I think they only accept 12 people. I'm not too sure exactly how much, but... Right. Yes. Oh, fantastic then. That was a great opportunity. Yes, it was. Oh, excellent. And I think that right now they are currently, their application process is currently open for their next Emerging Leaders cohort. So that's a wonderful opportunity. I highly recommend that at the end of the class or the end of the cohort, you actually have this growth action plan that will take you on for the next three years. So they really get you to go into your business and really create goals and visions and everything to them is like bigger, bigger goals, bigger dreams. Right. So it really... They really want to lift your business. Right. Oh, fantastic. So it's really motivating to have that type of support and that type of education. I'm so glad that you got to take advantage of that. Yes. Oh, that's wonderful. Okay, great. So let's see. Could you share with us what your vision of success is? My vision of success? So I feel like as long as you're not being stagnant and doing the same thing every day, you continue to grow and you continue to meet your goals and as long as you're happy, you remain happy doing it, you're successful. Oh, that's fantastic. That's a really great definition of success. That's great. Oh, terrific. Okay. And then what about your future? Where do you see yourself in five years or your company in five to 10 years? Do you have specific goals in mind or...? I do. So in five to 10 years, I'm hoping to own like our own little strip mall that we can actually call home for titanium. Yes. And a really good location right now. We're a little bit secluded and private. So I want to be somewhere a little bit more storefront with all of the business education that I've received from Patsy Meek and SBA. I would like to help future entrepreneurs, you know, start up their business and kind of do things right. You know, for me, I had so many trials and errors and if I could save people that trouble, that would just be so awesome. Right. Yes. Right. Just leave them in the right direction. Oh, okay. Oh, that's wonderful. And where, what area are you looking to do this? What area of the island or part of the island? I'm not too sure. Currently, we're located in Pro City Industrial Park. Because we're so niche, I mean, people will come to us, but I'm thinking somewhere central, so it's convenient for everyone from all over the island to reach us. Maybe have little pop-ups in different locations around town. I'm not too sure yet. Right. Collaborate with some other businesses. Yes. Oh, that's exciting. Little pop-up stations. Yes. Yes. That's really exciting. Oh, great. Okay. So can you share with us your contact information? So your email address, your phone number, how people can get ahold of you. So if you want to get ahold of us, you can email us at onestoptitanium at gmail.com. Our phone number is 808-371-5842. Mm-hmm. You can follow us on Instagram at onestoptitanium. The number one is spelled out. Okay. So O-N-E, stoptitanium. Okay, great. Yeah, that's wonderful. And our website is titaniumhawaii.com. Okay. Oh, fantastic. Yes. Thank you, Kimberly. Thank you. And I just wanted to do a quick mention of Shop Small Hawaii. So Shop Small Hawaii is an initiative started by American Express and supported by the Small Business Administration. And it's for any small business to register and receive support. If you go to Shop Small Hawaii, just Google that or enter it in. The website will pop up and you can register your small business and receive a lot of support that way and especially help for Small Business Saturday, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So thank you so much for being here on Think Tech Hawaii and Adventures in Small Business. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much.