 Hi, and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're a show that focuses on success stories in Hawaii, the owners of those businesses, and also the support groups that help those businesses be successful. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 from the downtown studios of ThinkTech Hawaii and Hololulu Hawaii. We are very pleased to have D-Bed, which is the Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism with us today. We've got two of the division chiefs here, or branch chiefs I should say, Jamie Lum, who is the branch chief for business development, and then also Mark Ritchie, who is the branch chief for business support. And so they do a lot of support and events to help small businesses and large businesses for that matter be successful in Hawaii. And they're here to tell a story about D-Bed and T. So Jamie and Mark, welcome to have you back. Nice to be here with you again. Now I was looking at the org chart for D-Bed, and it's pretty massive. I mean there's a lot of branches and a lot of moving parts to this, and we might show that on the screen here in a second, but maybe you can explain some of this to us. I think there's an awful lot of moving pieces here. Yes, I mean D-Bed is a, it's not one of the biggest departments in the state government, but it has a number of divisions and then a lot of attached agencies. And that's why sometimes people get confused about what exactly D-Bed does because there's a lot of different moving parts to it. Jamie and I, we're in the business development and support division. You can sort of see that here on the end from D-Bed proper. But then also there are a number of attached agencies and just to run down maybe a couple of those that are maybe of most interest to businesses in Hawaii would be, maybe we could start out with, for instance, the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation. That's a small organization, but they're basically tasked with trying to bring more financing or venture capital into Hawaii. Okay, so that they help bring that capital, the source of capital into Hawaii that can then invest in the businesses here. To help fund companies and they also invest in accelerators and then they invest in venture funds themselves that are actually interested in funding Hawaii companies. They have plenty of money, right? Well, they're always, I'm sure they're always looking for more, but... They have to go into the legislature and request some funds for here. And then another attached agency is the High Technology Development Corporation and they're tasked with trying to grow the technology-based businesses and companies in Hawaii. And then maybe another one is maybe the Small Business Regulatory Review Board and that's something similar to what you do at the federal level, but basically a review board looking at administrative rules that are promulgated in response to statutes and to make sure that they're as business-friendly as possible. Right, and they meet every month. And I know Tony pretty well and I sometimes go to those meetings. And so it's a pretty dynamic group from all the different islands too. Yes. So that's a great organization. So what else is going on? Well, in terms of the core functions of the department, I mean, we're large, like Mark said, maybe not in personnel, but there's a large span of what we cover because we are the Economic Development Agency for the state. And so creating broad policies for... Generating billions of dollars in revenues. I mean, that's critical to the state. Right, and looking for where the most promising opportunities are for the state to create a good living for our residents. So Mark and I are in the Business Development and Support Division. That's one of the core agents parts of the department, but we also have like our foreign trade zone. And although that's a federal program, but that's very important for companies that want to import and export. And they have services there to help companies. And the trade zone, the foreign trade zone, is close to downtown, right, by the federal building, right? You know, it's right across the street. Right, just across from Restaurant Road. Yeah, and that's a fairly new facility, very clean, very nice, very big. What goes on there? What is some of what the foreign trade zone does? The foreign trade zone actually houses a number of companies. And manufacturers as well. And it's probably of most interest to companies that are importing from overseas inputs and then assembling products and then re-exporting them out of the US. Because if you're in a foreign trade zone, then you don't have to pay customs duties. And even then, if you import inputs and then assemble them into another product, and if that product has lower customs duty, then it can actually come into the US at a lower customs duty. So it actually can save some pretty decent dollars. But they're a good resource too, because a lot of the major customs brokers, the kind of services that companies that are doing imports or exports need are housed down there. So they're a good resource. They also have warehousing facilities for the goods that are being brought in, as well as some of the nice conference facilities that are there. Good training opportunities. And so if there was a company out there that was in Hawaii that had a successful product, maybe here in Hawaii or in the US, if they wanted to explore how to export this, could they go there and learn how to go and what the process is? Would that be one of the uses for it? Sure. I know that the people of foreign trade zone are always willing to go and talk with companies, or companies can go down there and visit with them, learn more about what's available, what the advantages are for being in that facility and really seeing how FTZ can help. And also the Export Assistance Center is located there, and that's the federal government export assistance armor branch with the International Trade Administration and the Department of Commerce. And that's something that I think everybody should at least have in the back of their mind, is because Hawaii is a million, million five population. And there's limits to how much product can be moved and sold here. And exporting would be a natural extension of that. Right. So that is one of the reasons why we have a program that tries to expose companies that are looking for ways to expand to exporting as a way for them to grow their companies. And also part of D-Bed includes other. I mean, I know that I work with Act 88 a little bit, and I do some film credit work with some of the productions. And the film office also falls under D-Bed. And that's another highly visible and very big dollar type of activity in Hawaii, too. Right. That's our creative industries division. And they're responsible for growing the film industry, but also just cultural products in the arts and growing those industries in Hawaii. So it could be music as well? Yes. Correct. Yeah. Visual performing arts and all of that. And they have their creative labs going on where they bring in these people that are creative minds, but they learn more about the business side of growing that part of the economy. You know, there's a little joke that goes around being an accountant. Being a creative accountant a long time ago used to be a good thing. Now it gets you in jail. You know, but I do like the creativity, but don't tell the AICPA that. Being creative, I think, is fun, and it's a special breed of people and can bring some real revenue. And that's a clean industry. Right, right. It doesn't pollute anything. Right, right. And also it's related to the tourism industry, too. Yeah. And I think a lot of those entertainers are working in Waikiki and other resort areas. Yeah. That's very good. Can you tell me a little bit more about, you know, Jamie, what does business development branch do? What specifically are you up to? We, in the last few years, have been focusing, as we talked about, exporting as a way to help companies grow their business. But that stemmed from basically a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration when the previous administration was looking to increase U.S. exports. So they put some money into that. And so states have the opportunity to go after these dollars that SBA puts out. And the whole thing is to help companies that don't know about exporting, to learn about exporting, or for companies that are exporting, help them to grow, find new markets, or, yeah. Well, it can be an intimidating process, but there are, I mean, it's not a new process. I mean, people have done this before for a long time. So it's just a matter of learning what the procedures are to make it all work. And that's where you come in. Right. So with the funds that we have, we do export readiness training, as we call it, through some seminars, a series of seminars that we've been doing with the Hawai'i Pacific Export Council. And then working also with Hawai'i Pacific Export Council, or HPEC, and the Small Business Development Centers, we've partnered with them to help mentor and counsel companies that are looking for it. And we actually have a small business development, SBDC, on every island. Yes. And so this is, you know, we've got rural outreach going in. Right, exactly. So it's not, yeah. Any company on any island can be assisted. Also with a lot of the training, we do live streaming as well. So neighbor island companies can participate as well, and they don't have to fly over here. And how would somebody find out about this information? If they're watching a show now and they go, wow, this sounds all very interesting, tell me more. There's a website they can go to? Our website is invest.hawaii.gov. And there's an exporting tab. You just go to that. And there's a whole section on the high step we call it, Hawai'i State Trade Expansion Program. And it will go through all the links for signing up. All right. And if anybody has any questions about where to find that, they can email me. And I'll be sure to forward any of that information on. And my email address is simply reg at regbaker.com. And so if anything comes in, any interest, I can either respond directly or I can get it to you and you can point them in the right direction. Mark, can we switch to you for a second? Sure. You're in a business support area. Right, yeah. Our lines blur a little bit because we also help with the high step program. But business support, our major programs are the Enterprise Zone Program, which is a state county partnership whereby companies can receive tax incentives for growing their businesses in designated enterprise zones, which are designated by the counties, subject to Census Bureau data showing that those are economically distressed areas. So it's the idea is to address job creation and business stimulation in less advantaged areas of Hawaii. Which is a great, great thing to be doing because I definitely need to have that development out there, job development. But is this a federal credit or a state credit? State taxes. It's state taxes. Basically, you get a GET waiver and then you get a state tax credit. And it's a non-reimbursable credit and you can't carry it forward. So it's really designed for more successful companies because you're really going to benefit from the program if you owe the state tax money. Right. Right. And that's, I guess, always a nice thing to have is to be able to have some sales in a specific area and then have some of the taxes waived. That makes it all the more profitable to be moving resources and job opportunities into those needed areas. And it's a seven-year program. So it starts out with the credit at 80%, and then it declines by 10% each year. And then after seven years, the program is over. But manufacturers and agricultural companies can get a three-year extension, so they can go up to 10 years in the program. That's pretty lucrative for them. That's good. And so other support activities? The other kind of major program we have is what we call our CBED program, which is the Community Based Economic Development Program. And that is, by statute, we have a CBED Revolving Fund, which we can use to provide technical assistance, loans, and grants to nonprofits and for-profit companies that have a community economic impact. So this is sort of the economic development part that is from the ground up. We're looking at different communities, either geographic communities or other types of communities that are somewhat distressed or need this type of assistance. And so we look for projects and types of companies that are going to have a community economic impact. Any size limitations as far as company size, employees, or sales? No, there's nothing by statute that does that. What we're really looking at is what the community wants, and then also if the type of, let's say, would make a loan to a for-profit company, why would we do that? It got to be because that company is sourcing all of its materials locally. So there's a multiplier effect and a particular community in Hawaii. So we see that like the Enterprise Zone Program as helping sort of stimulate business activity and help a community, maybe. And it tends to be more rule-based. Right, well, naturally, yeah. Yeah, we've got enough of that, and down, down a little. We need to push it out a little bit. And the Neighbor Islands, too. All right, well, we have reached a break point. When we come back, why don't we talk a little bit about some of the things that are happening in the near future? I know we've got small business week coming up, and there's a lot of activities planned around that. But this is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here talking with the D-bed today. We're finding about all of the different activities that they've got going on across the state to stimulate the economy and to work at increasing our standard of living here. We're going to be right back in about 60 seconds. Hi, and thanks for watching Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Justine Espiritu, and I host the Hawaii Food and Farmer series with my co-host, Matthew Johnson of Awaku Fresh. Every week, we bring on farmers, as well as all the other individuals and organizations that help support a thriving sustainable food system. In fact, it's interesting to learn what others are doing so you don't have to be a Hawaii resident or producing food on Hawaii to be featured on the show, like today's guest, Wyatt Bryson of Jewels of the Forest and Michael Lab Solutions. Aloha, thank you. It's been a pleasure being on the show. I love seeing what you guys do, and I really support your mission. And it's really nice being back in Hawaii. And thank you again. It's an honor. So you can see guests like Wyatt every Thursday at 4 PM on Think Tech Hawaii. Thank you. Aloha, and welcome back to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. This week, we're talking with D-bed, and we're finding about all the different types of programs that they do statewide to help stimulate the economy and get our standard of living back up to where it needs to be. We were talking a little bit about all the different divisions and branches within D-bed in the first half of the show. And there was one that was kind of highlighted that we didn't touch on yet, and that's the research and development area of Reed. So tell us a little bit about that. Well, we do have our state economist, Dr. Eugene Tian. And he has a staff of economists. But it's important, these kinds of data. A lot of it is based on the census data, or they just gather information about what's going on in Hawaii population, different kind of economic statistics. And a lot of businesses use it for either their own business planning, or some people use it if they're putting proposals together. So it's a very useful resource. So that's just what we want to point out is that the data's available online, and that we want businesses to use it. A couple questions pop up. It is a database, so it's got a lot of different information on it. Is it based on the residents, or the businesses, or both? Both, because it has census. A lot of the information is based on the US census. So there's stuff on communities, and the people, and jobs, but then they're also industry type. They have some special reports, too, that they do on industry specific. So that's excellent. And you said this information is available online, so people can go on to do that. If you just go to the main d-bed website and look for the research and economic analysis division, lots of materials, there are lots of reports. This type of information must be expensive. How much does it cost? It's free. It's free. It's free. Yes. And it can be very helpful in business planning. Of course. It's hard to find that information sometimes. So we've got it right here, right on the website, that people can tap into. I said, that's great. Now, next week is a special week coming up, Small Business Week. I guess this is kind of blessed by the federal government, and they've declared next week, or the first week in May, to be Small Business Week. And so there's an awful lot of activities going on. There is, yes. And Small Business Administration is planning a full week of events, including award ceremonies and various things. We are sort of topping off that week on May 6, which is Saturday, with the Small Business Fair. And this is something that d-bed either does once or twice a year, or one of the sponsors. And this May 6, it'll be at Leeward Community College. And that's on the screen right now, everybody. So you can take a look at that. Yes, and basically there's over 20 various classes that either companies or people thinking about starting a company can take. And they're very much oriented at sort of early stage companies. And so there's everything from just sort of business planning, QuickBooks, import, export businesses, social media marketing, to name sort of a few, and financing options. And also there's a whole exhibitors section. We have about 35 exhibitors. And those are all the banks doing small business loans. It's all the business support services from various state and federal agencies, and then also nonprofits as well. And I've heard that there's some banks out there that are actually looking for people to make loans to. Yes, yes. So come on down, because we've got all, I think we have three officially that will be there. Very good. Well, and it's usually a well-attended event. There's an awful lot of people that show up for this. And they usually get quite a lot of information. And it's free. And it's free. Yeah, you just have to get up on a Saturday morning and get down there by 8 o'clock for the, if you want to do one of the beginning sessions. Well, hopefully the traffic won't be that heavy on a Saturday morning. And I know sometimes they also do this on this side of the island. Yes, we alternate between H.C. Honolulu Community College and Libra Community College. We're looking at some points trying to do West Oahu, and maybe a windward side at some point as well. That's ambitious. That's good. It's good to get that information out there and make it available. Because once people start plugging into this and get a good handle on what's going on, their businesses become a lot more successful. Yeah, about half the people that attend already have companies. And then the other half are people who are just starting a company. So they're starting a company. Yes, very good. And we've been trying to, I think the community has been trying to encourage the neighbor islands to have business fairs as well. Yes, yeah. We also, this one we did on Oahu, but we all, D-Bed is also supporting, for instance, the Maui Business Conference. Actually, it's a Hawaii Business Conference on Maui, which is May 3rd and 4th next week. So D-Bed is supporting that. We are looking to support business fairs on the Big Island. And then also, we've supported the small business fairs on Kauai in the past as well. But, and the Chamber of Commerce next week has their small business academy. That's right. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. And then, I also, I got a call from Bill a couple days ago from Microsoft. He asked me to announce that here in Haluululu, they've got some small business training going on at their store out at Alamoa. So you probably heard that they acquired LinkedIn. And so now LinkedIn is being plugged into all the different integrated programs that they have. And they've, a lot of people are jumping on board and really participating in the small business. It's gonna be a full week next week. It is, there's a lot going on. So I guess this is all part of what D-Bed does. I mean, they just provide an awful lot of opportunity for training. You've got other seminars that are going on after next week. I mean, this is an ongoing thing for you. Right. Again, the High Step Program that we talked about, the Hawaii State Trade Expansion Program. We've been having a series of seminars and we just had one today actually on the legal aspects of exporting. And these are half-day seminars. So we have two more coming up in May, one on financing. Financing. And one on the Taiwan market. So some of them are subject-specific and some are market-specific. So that can be very useful. Right. And then Taiwan should be very interesting. And then in June, we have one on Canada and exporting to Canada. Right. A bit more interesting. One of the markets for companies that are new to exporting, they're encouraged to look at Canada because that's a little easier market to get into. Common language. Correct. Close neighbors. So logistically, in terms of what you'll be spending to send your product there, could hopefully be a little less than doing some of the other. Would I understand? There's no wall being built up. It should be easy to get back and forth. Yeah. They're still friendly right now, but we'll see. Some of the comments that have been made lately, but anyway. And yes. And then we have one coming up. One of the trade shows that we do, and that's another thing that we didn't talk about as far as our high-step program, is we do these Hawaii Pavilions. D-bed selects trade shows that we think will be beneficial for a number of our Hawaii companies. And we buy booth space and we go in as a large group. We recruit companies to be part of it. One of the more popular shows we've been doing has been the Tokyo Gift Show, which is in September in Japan. It's popular because it spans a lot of different types of companies can go in there, but also a lot of our companies want to get into the Japan market. So we're actually doing a seminar specifically geared towards that trade show, gearing up for how to prepare for a trade show, what you should be doing there, how to follow up, as well as just doing business in Japan. So this training that you go through in order to get properly prepared to make it much more effective for you. Right, so that they can get the maximum benefit from being there. And this one in Tokyo is in December? It's the show is in September, and the training is at the end of June, last week of June. And it's just in time for Christmas. So people could actually go. I mean, you could actually sell product at these shows, right? Right, yes. Yeah, that's great. So if there's any company out there that's thinking about trying to get into the Japanese market or maybe already there and want to expand it, this could be a good show to participate in. Now, do they have to apply to go or how do they get picked to participate? So again, if you go to our website, invest.hoi.gov, we have an online application and you send that in. And then we do look at what types of products are. So you want to have a mix? Right, we do want to have a mix. And also companies that are looking at Japan as a all year market. I mean, it's not just to sort of go in and sell one time and then leave. It's basically to find sort of permanent distributors and quarters and things and really set yourself up in the Japanese market. That's good. And does the Taiwan work the same way what you were describing? Or is that more of a lecture series, not so much a trade show? It's right. We're offering, it's going to be basically to talk about the Taiwan market, what the opportunities are, but we haven't, D-Bed has not selected any shows in the Taiwan market. However, we do have another program where companies who have that in their export plan to go into the Taiwan market can apply for financial assistance through our Heistit program that can help them pay for travel, airfare and the cost of doing a trade show, say in Taiwan or doing some of their sales meetings. It's amazing. Every time we talk about this, the amount of activity that is going on within D-Bed just is amazing. All the support that's out there, if people that were just more aware of it to take advantage of it, this is good. And then you've also got shows that you choose to do on the mainland too. So it just doesn't have to be all international. There could be also domestic opportunities too. With the Heistit program, the shows we do on the mainland are internationally focused, but they're on the mainland. I mean, for instance, one coming up where we'll have a Hawaii Pavilion is the Bio International Convention, which is a very large life sciences trade show, like over 16,000 attendees. A lot of biopharma companies from all over the US, Canada, Europe and Asia attend that show. And so we're taking six or eight companies into that show into Hawaii Pavilion and that's coming up in June. It's in San Diego, but it gets a global audience, but a third of the audience is international. Wow, okay. So that's another opportunity for people to just create that higher level of awareness for their product. Yeah, and also trying to help the life sciences industries in Hawaii. I mean, we have a small life science industry here, but we have a lot of good assets, having things coming out of UH and then also the Cancer Center and Japsum, a lot of interesting things, even King Queens as well. Very good. Well, you know, we are getting up to the end of the show. We're gonna wrap up here in a few seconds. Any final words or anything you wanna mention before we close? Well, we just encourage companies that are looking to grow their companies, look to exporting as a possible way to do that and go to our website, invest.hoai.gov and look up exporting. And then, I mean, we have the other programs that are easy to get to. Yeah, I mean, if you're a growing company and looking for space, come talk to us about where the enterprise zones are and maybe we can help you out on that if you wanna start adding a lot of people. It's just a great resource to have. Just tap right in there and you can find out a lot of different things that are available to help anybody become successful. So I applaud your efforts in all those areas. This is Reg Baker, a business in Hawaii. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30. We had a couple of great guests today talking about with D-Bed and all the different programs and services and support that they have for the business community here in Hawaii. We need to do everything we can to encourage the state legislature to continue to fund these programs, to continue to make this small business community as successful as possible. Until next week, aloha.