 Welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. I'm Dalen Yanagida and we're broadcasting live from the ThinkTech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com and you can subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list at that site as well. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people and our guests share with us how they were able to build successes in our challenging environment. In the ThinkTech studio with us today is Colleen McColney, McColney, the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership, or more commonly known as MCBL. Colleen is the program manager for MCBL and we want to thank you, Colleen, for joining us again. We've been blessed to have you on our show a couple of times previously with Teri and we're very excited to hear about all the new things that are going on with MCBL. But for our viewers who missed that episode, why don't you go ahead and tell us about MCBL and what the good work that you folks do there. Okay, thank you. Thank you for having me today, Dalen. I really appreciate it. So the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership is a women's business center that was established by the Small Business Administration, the YWCA, Oahu, and a whole lot of community partners. We are the only women's business center in Hawaii. There are 114 across the country and our mission basically is to help women but also men who want to start their own business. So we're very, we help people at a very base level who want information about how to start a business. Nice. I know that you folks actually have a physical location at the YWCA. Yes, YWCA Oahu downtown on Richard Street right across from the palace and our offices are located on the ground floor lobby. And it's a great resource, a great place for folks to go, right? Definitely. There are all kinds of resources right there in that space, is that right? Yes, definitely. Yes, so our center focuses on two main programs. We have leadership programs and small business programs. And before I get started on that any further, I wanted to just show you our proclamation for Women's Small Business Month that Governor Igay signed just recently for us. Congratulations. I'm not sure if you can see it. And so we're really proud of that. And then also in about a week and a half, we'll be at his office again when he signs our shop small Saturday proclamation. So we'll get into that later. But anyway, regarding our programs, our leadership programs focus on helping women specifically build their leadership capacity. So we're most known for our Patsy Teen Mink Leadership Alliance, which is focused on mid-career women who are looking to increase their leadership capacity and who would like to make the next step in their career. And we help support them with a 10-month program that we're currently on our cohort three and our cohort four will start receiving applications for that in April 2019. Wow. So that's really exciting. Are you able to share with us some of your success stories from your earlier cohorts? Well, so our cohorts are actually very corporate oriented. And so it's interesting because that's kind of a different point of view than our small business point of view at the Mink Center. So their successes are that they are getting promoted in their jobs and they are gaining knowledge and being able to incorporate what they're learning into their everyday workplace and with their teams. They actually do have to have at least five years experience in leadership before joining the cohort. So we have had some wonderful successes. It must be nice also for those mid-career level women to be able to have a forum in which they can share some of their experiences and their struggles and their challenges. And then they can also dialogue about the things that have taken them to the next level. Oh, definitely. Definitely. That must be an amazing conversation. They really appreciate each other and that's what they look forward to the most is helping to build a network of support for themselves and each other. That's been one of the best outcomes of the cohorts for sure. And so do the corporate entities nominate there? They do. Okay. And when does that application process happen? So that usually happens in April and May. And then so our current cohort just started in August. So cohort four applications would be April and May of 2019 with we do one-on-one interviews with them and that's usually in June or July. And how many in a cohort? So this year and last year we had 21. And the first cohort was 14. It's pretty big. Yeah, we're finding 21 is a little large. So we had so many fantastic candidates and applicants that it was really hard to pair it down. But the ideal number would be 15, but we're getting by with the 21. It's fantastic. They're a wonderful group. So what is the format? Is it you meet on a weekend and go through leadership development? No, they meet once or twice a month for like a nine to two day. And they meet with a facilitator on that day's topic. Then they do a recap session on how they're going to implement that or what ideas they have to implement, what they learned between today and the next session. And then the next session they'll open up with their experiences, their positive negatives, what worked, what didn't work. And then they'll go into the next session. How did the leadership cohort concept come to fruition? Was it by demand or were folks? Well we have a fantastic advisory board at the Patsy Mink Center. It is a separate board from the YWCA board. It's advisory and wonderful passionate women leaders in the community who really felt that there was a need for a very specific women's leadership program. So we are the only women's leadership program so far in the state. And so we've got, we've had so much interest because of that and it was basically driven by them so very grateful for that. How do you select your mentors? So our advisory board helps to bring them in so it basically has to do with their expertise. Fantastic. There's a completely other side. There's another program. There is. I'll just touch on one more thing regarding our leadership. We have our youth leadership. So we have what we call our Girls Summit and it is a one day conference that high school girls come to. They attend for like a nine to three day and we have a keynote speaker. We have workshops for them to choose from and we focused on STEM and leadership the last couple of years and we also have a wonderful mentoring session. And so we bring in our advisory board members. We bring in the facilitators we've used for the leadership alliance and some of our cohort members as well. And they mentor during lunch and afterward for like a ten minute speed mentoring that lasts an hour with rotating facilitators that they love. And then we do a little advocacy at the end just so that they understand how their voices can be heard. So we're actually having our first Kauai Girls Summit which is sponsored by Wilcox Medical Center in Hawaii Pacific Health in about two weeks so we're very excited about that. So which high schools participate? So let's see on Oahu we have the Priory, we have Farrington High School and McKinley High School have participated the last three years. And then on Kauai we have Kauai High School, Waimea High School, Kapa'a High School and Island School. So we usually try to get at least one private school and pair with public schools just to have a nice mix of networking for the girls. Sure. Wow that's amazing. It is. And there's also a small business side, yes definitely. So our small business side we're most known for our free business and legal counseling and we offer that, we're able to offer that through our, because of our grant with the Small Business Administration and it's like I said before it's a very basic how, what do I do? Our clients they come in, what do I do? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing and they want guidance. So it's very nice because we usually serve about 80% women, 20% men and our counselors are women and it's a very nurturing environment, very safe, very nurturing. So they always come back. So that translates, the business counseling translates to our Launch My Business classes. So we have a Launch My Business start for people who just have an idea, it's a one day class and then how to develop that. And then Launch My Business Grow is a seven week, 45 hour class for basically for companies that have already been in business up to a year or two and they're looking to take that next step and grow their business. So is that a cohort model as well? It is, we're currently on cohort 13 for Launch My Business Grow. Okay so share with us some of those success stories and the businesses that have come up. So we have some wonderful business, a lot of them actually are food. So we do, they do a lot of food, just food trucks maybe or we have had a couple of brick and mortars. We've had, we have, let's see, Sarah who has a bra shop. We have, she's a Buxom Beauty, she's especially for the larger busted woman. We have, gosh, I'm just trying to think, sorry, a number of different businesses. But yeah, so it's actually starting your business is very difficult. So of course the biggest roadblock is funding, right? So most of our, because our clients are at such a basic level, most of what we do is help them in what they need to know to get started and then they'll, once they have that established and they can try to get some sales under their belt or open their business and get going, then a lot of times they'll move up to one of our SBA partners like the SBDC Small Business Development Center or go directly to SBA themselves to have more access to funding and finding that. So your cohort participants start from ground up then. They come to you in the pure infancy stage with the idea and you folks guide them through perhaps loan application, finding that funding, how to. Or even what they need to do to get to the loan application, right? Because many, many traditional banks need a business plan. So even getting them to write that is very, it's kind of overwhelming for them. So we try to get them to get to that point and just keep counseling them. It's a very long process. It's interesting where entrepreneurs are concerned because you either have somebody who just dives in and they quit their job and then they say, I'm ready to start my business. And you're like, no, no, no, don't quit your job yet. Or you have the people who just take years because they've had this idea percolating for so long and they just take their time getting going. And it must be scary to go all in and say, okay, this is it. I'm chasing my dream, right? So the mentors for that program, are those folks from the community or are those? We actually have a hired counselor. And she's actually our instructor also. And so she has her own family business and that she's run for 30 years. But we also have a lunch by nonprofit because we have a number of clients come who want to start a nonprofit. So she has also done that herself as well. So she's very experienced in that. So in fact, we have a lunch by nonprofit class coming up in December. Fantastic, yes. And so, but that's not an application process. No, it's not. You can just go to our website, which is mcblhawaii.org. And you can click on our events or programs and find that there. Fantastic. MCBL is also involved in quite a few other things with some very large partners. And we're going to go to a quick break. But when we come back, I want to talk about your partnership that started with the American Express. And then we'll we'll see all that's coming up for you, folks. Excellent. We are going to take that short break. This is business in Hawaii, and we'll see you back here shortly. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, where we motivate, educate, empower, and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 PM. And we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Welcome back. Today, Colleen McAloney. You got it. Keep doing that. Is joining us from MCBL. And we're super excited to hear about the partnership that started with American Express. And it's going to roll us into the holiday shopping season. That's right. That's right. So what happened was in 2011, American Express established Shop Small Saturday, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving as small business. Shop at your small businesses. So it's Shop Small, Shop Local is the tagline. And that was 2011. And then a year after that, the Small Business Administration partnered up with American Express to promote Shop Small Saturday. So fast forward. And the SBA partners wanted to get involved also with their clients in Shop Small Saturday and Shop Small Hawaii was created. So our director, Teri Funakoshi, she has built a website and helped to get the program up and running. And we are very excited for the next couple of months because we have a number of events coming up celebrating Shop Small Hawaii. But the way you can get involved is, well, first of all, let me back up. It's Shop Small Hawaii and Shop Small Saturday are basically a platform for small businesses to be able to be recognized in a bigger way and also for customers to connect with them. So that's why we have a number of events coming up. And we wanted to support our clients who are small businesses and, of course, a number of other clients that are associated with our partners and support everybody in the community who has a small business to Shop Small Shop Local. I think to give some background to Shop Small Hawaii, we have a few pictures here that you shared with us OK, great. Yeah, so those are actually a lot of our partners. That's the Shop Small Hawaii kickoff. We have Susan Nutsugi from Central Pacific Bank. There's Central Pacific Bank is a sponsor, the main sponsor for Shop Small Hawaii this year. And that's Teri Funakoshi, our director, and then Senator Glenn Wakai, who's always a supporter of small business. He looks excited to shop. He is, yes. And then Pony Askew, who is from Honolulu Night Market, who we're also partnering with. And then, of course, Mellie James from Mauna Up, who is another partner for Shop Small Hawaii with MCBL. Yes, and then those are SBA partners. Right, so we have Jane Sawyer on the left, who is the Hawaii District Director for the Small Business Administration. And Dennis Kwok and Victoria Anaylaiti from the VBOC, Veterans Business Outreach Center. And then you have Laurie Hiramatsu from the Small Business Development Center. They're all SBA partners. Very nice. Yes. Do we have one more there? Yes, so this is the Women's Farmers Workshop at Kahuku Farms that I got to attend last week. And they're holding up our proclamation there for Women's Small Business Month. And so they had a workshop for women who own farms and who are wanting to do added value production or added value products out of their farm production so that they can increase their income, of course. And our partnership there is with Oahu R-C-N-D, who helps farmers with establishing their farm, with making sure that they are using their water, not accurately but appropriately, also that they have a conservation plan for their farms to make sure they don't have too much soil erosion and to help from too much eroding soil. So we've partnered with them just recently, very excited for that. Very nice. So there are a number of events that are coming up that are going to ramp us up into that holiday shopping season. And of course, the most important thing is how it promotes the small businesses and supporting those small businesses. Everybody knows Black Friday, the large retailers, but really bringing it back to shopping local and keeping it Hawaii and for our small businesses. So we have some flyers for your upcoming events. You had an event already that kicked it off. So that was the Shop Small kickoff that was the first pictures with the partners there. Yes, that was in September. Let's take a look at your upcoming events. OK, great. So this one is on October 27. This is at Kamakana Ali. And with Noeow designers, they are a store that has all Hawaii. They represent all Hawaii made and local craftsmen, crafts people, crafts women. And their store is fantastic right there at Kamakana Ali. So they're having an all day Shop Small Hawaii event. And they have a gift with purchase for anything that's purchased of $50 or higher. You get some kind of swag. I believe it's a bag, a Shop Small Hawaii bag, which is really cute. So that's going to be one of our kickoff events. And so is that one mainly apparel or is it? No, it's actually gift items. Oh, very nice. Yeah, they have a number. I think they have over 30 crafts people that are represented in their store. Yes, it's a fantastic store. Very nice. Lots of parking out there. That's going to be great. You have another event coming up after that one. Right, so the Mana Up showcase, that is, so we're partnering with Mana Up. And our director, Terry, has been a mentor there. And we will be having, MCBL and Shop Small Hawaii will be having a table at their showcase for their clients and their up and coming small businesses. So we're very excited to help support them. And they will have a marketplace open as well. That event you can find on Event Bright if you would like to register to attend that. Tell us a little bit about Mana Up. Mana Up is an incubator, small business incubator. And they have two cohorts a year. It's an application process. I believe that their criteria is that you are already have revenue of 100,000 or more per year. And it's definitely a big ramp up for those companies. This is their cohort, too, that they're on right now. And they just do so many wonderful things for their cohort. It's fantastic. Just everything they can do from marketing, promotions, just teaching them what they need to do to step up their business. And this showcase is one of the great things. It's going to be at DFS in Waikiki. So it's a wonderful venue. Right, I believe that's November 2. And so it features the participants in their cohort and those businesses. And all of their products. Yes. Fantastic. What an opportunity. OK, and I know we have another event after that one as well. Yes. Oh, OK, so this is actually our MCBL event. This is called Downtown Uncorked. This is our fifth annual Downtown Uncorked. It's a beer and wine tasting that we have at YWCA O'ahu. And it's not a huge fundraiser for us. It's actually more of a thank you to our community and our partners and our clients. And we have a lot of fun. It's a very fun event. It sounds like it. And it's great because we can showcase our Launch My Business graduates. And actually, we have a current cohort right now if they feel like they're ready with any kind of marketing materials. So they really don't sell anything there, but it's more of market research so they can interact with our attendees. And our attendees can ask them questions and just starting to get them ready for real business. Right. Yes. So it's very exciting. And then one other thing about that one is we'll also be supporting the VBOC, the Veterans Business Outreach Center, in having their annual awards ceremony and kind of embedded in our Downtown Uncorked. So that's going to be exciting. Very, very nice. And that's right at the YWCA in that courtyard. That is at Fuller Hall. Oh, I've seen beautiful events. Oh, yes. So beautiful again. Yes. Very convenient. Then we have some other small events. Right, there's more. That's great. Right. So this is on December 2nd. This wraps up our events for Shop Small Hawaii. And this one actually is sponsored by OHA. We received a grant to produce Make It Hawaii, Celebrating Hawaii's Cultural Makers. And we are also incorporating Shop Small into the event. And this one is going to be fantastic. There are, I believe, over 20 local crafts people, in addition to the Noao designers' crafts people in their store. And it is a 12 to 5.30 with workshops. There's cultural workshops on how to make some different things. I'm not quite sure what those are going to be. But I think there's like a lahala. There's a lei. I'm not quite sure what else. I've been to one before. It's very fun, live Hawaiian entertainment. And then actually Kamaka Peely, who is Aloha Authentic, he is one of our Launch My Business graduates. Oh, wow. And so he's going to be emceeing the event. So it's going to be really exciting. That is really exciting. So this is not the first rodeo for Shop Small Hawaii. Right. So tell me about the turnout, the attendance at these things. Well, we've had some, our kickoff had some wonderful attendance. That was really fun and great. We actually had that in our lobby at YWCA Oahu. A lot of fun. We're expecting, I know that Mauna Up is expecting quite a large crowd. They're a big draw there. So we're excited to be a part of that. And of course, we're hoping that as many people as possible can come to the Kamakana Oliii events. We do have two more events that are actually on Shop Small Saturday. So we are partnering with the Night Market, Honolulu Night Market, at Salt Kaka Ako that night. And we will be having a large area for Shop Small Hawaii and small businesses. And we will be giving away quite a bit of Shop Small swag. My pin here is one piece. But we have our bags. We have refrigerator magnets. We have stickers for hydroflasks. And a lot of fun, a lot of fun things. So make sure and look for our orange tent at the Honolulu Night Market. Fantastic. So I know that a lot of people are ramping up their holiday shopping right now. There was a lot of information about a lot of great events and opportunities to do that shopping. Where can they find all of this information in one place? Right. So where Shop Small Hawaii is concerned, you can go to ShopSmallHawaii.com. That will give you all the events and all of the fun things that are associated with Shop Small Hawaii. And it's also where small businesses can register to become part of Shop Small Hawaii. And then the last thing is you can also go to the Shop Small Saturday website, which is the American Express website, to sign up as well and become a neighborhood champion. And then American Express will send the retailers free Shop Small Saturday swag. Fantastic. And it's not too late for them to do that. No, I think it's still available. That's fantastic. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with your viewers before we wrap up for today? Let's see. Please come out and Shop Small and Shop Local and support all the small businesses in Hawaii. And please give your feedback to your small businesses, especially at the craft fairs and at the small gatherings that Shop Small Hawaii has, because any kind of feedback to small businesses is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for joining us. MCBL does such amazing work for the community and, of course, to support women in business. And we're so appreciative of what you do and the contributions that you make. But thanks so much for joining us. And I'll see you at some Shop Small events. Thank you for having me today, Dylan. We are out of time. But thank you to our guests and our wonderful production staff here in the studio. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 PM. And we are looking forward to seeing you here next week.