 Welcome to International Hawaii on Think Tech, where we showcase local import and export companies and the trade industry. I'm your host, Indy Matsuki. And today we're chatting with Mark Miahara of Creative Comma Aina. They're an import company and FTZ 9 tenant. Hey, hi Mark. Thanks so much for joining me today. Hi, Indy. Thank you for having me. So can you give us a brief explanation about what your company does, what it is, and how you got started? Okay, I'll start with how we got started. So in 1996, I was working for a company that was the biggest, the oldest, largest manufacturer of window covering in the state of Hawaii. And they just went through like the acquisition of their competitor. And they were having a little trouble with the kind of the synergizing of the two companies. So I got involved with the company. And after two and a half years, they really couldn't resolve the issue. So they just closed the doors in 30 days. They gave me 30 days and set up. They're just closing the doors and we're just going to shut down the operation. I just went to all the employees. Yeah, no, they couldn't. It was really strange. Anyway, yeah, so we, I just got five of the key employees and asked them, you know, they were willing to embark on a new adventure with me and a new starting new company. And that's how we started free to come on. So we specialize in manufacturing custom draperies, primarily. At the time we were doing engaging in every all facets of the window covering on the aluminum blinds, vertical blinds, shades, all kinds of things, but we kind of willed it down to narrowed our niche market to custom draperies. That's where we are now. And did you guys, did it come with all the equipment you needed to get rid of a bunch of stuff? I mean, it was just a turnkey operation. No, we just were in the same buildings. Everything was the same. We just, we just started paying rent. I worked on her, you know, and I was, it was always a dream of mine to only manufacturing company. Really? Yeah, that's always, you know, from the time I was in school, I just, that was something that I had to do. And I just, it was, you know, like I said, my time, my place and 21 years later. Wow. So you were like a business consultant or like a change? And then background. So it was kind of moving around. I just didn't find my, my nature, actually my passion of what I really wanted to do. I mean, anybody tell me what to do? That was my, actually my real goal. I don't know if that was the best thing or not, but it's, it's been fun. It's been a good experience. That's the dream. Yeah. I was, I, when I first heard about your company, I thought it was so interesting because it's one of those companies where you actually manufacture something that you see everywhere, but you just take it for granted. Like, when you go to the hotels, there's drapes. Absolutely. Yeah, but you have to think about, there's actually somebody that makes the drapes. It's more interesting that they all look alike, but every single room has to be measured to be manufactured to the quarter of an inch. So that's a lot more detailed than it actually, you know, from the late persons looking at it a lot. Yeah, you guys did that. Okay. So you think each room is different? Like. Yeah, because, you know, a lot of the buildings in a built square. Yeah. When you look at it on paper, they're all like 120 by 96. When you walk, walk into the room, there's a little variance of maybe an inch or a quarter of an inch, two inches, you know, all the heights could be different. And, you know, talking about light coming in privacy issues. So, yeah, that's a lot more work that is involved. Wow, that is a cat. Yeah, but that's what keeps us in business, you know, it's the customization of products that, you know, as a manufacturer. And that's why we're here. Yeah, that is amazing. That's a lot of work to go in and measure every room in a hotel. Wow. And so did your customers kind of come over with the company? Or did you have to build up your, you know, the company then I was talking about they were there for like 54 years before we, you know, kind of took over but so the customer base was there. And it's, you know, even to this day, we hardly ever advertise. You actually never, you know, we just, it's just worn them off and just do a good job. You know, that's kind of our operational perspective or marketing perspective. If you do a good job, they're going to come in. We've been lucky. That's great. And so maybe do a lot of hotel chain. Do you do like the whole chain or just like the Hawaii properties? Well, no, just different properties. Some of the chains are aware of who you are. I think even within the chain itself, they have their own buying groups and method of purchasing departments. It all varies. We'd like to have one single chain, but then on the other hand, it's kind of scary. If it wants to make a change then you lost your whole group. So it's kind of doing one by one and you get, you know, five or six a year. That's perfect. That's all we need. We don't need to do every one of them, you know. That's true. That is a lot. As an importer, how do you find your suppliers? Like how do you source your raw materials? So on the hospitality side for the, as far as the products are concerned, most of the hotels, they have their own design teams and they purchase the products and they only ship it to their house and will manufacture it. In small hotels, sometimes they give us an opportunity to present a design so we can purchase our fabrics. We'll make recommendations to them, get samples for it. And then once they make their selection, then we just go to our sources and if there is primary China and we get them to make it. And when we purchase, we purchase it from their door to our door so we don't try not to get involved too much with the paperwork issue side, because that's all encompassing in itself. You need somebody that highly, I guess, up to date with the standards so we try not to get involved. We just use brokerages. Yeah, specialty work. That's important. Yeah, too much. Yeah, especially with the changes in the trade and policy and yeah, yeah, there's so much. Especially with China. Yeah, you know, so we try not to get involved with it. We have a very good relationship with our fabric supply in China. And that's what you have to build a company to find somebody that you trust. Yeah, that's how we worked it out. I sent my daughter over there for four months and she was with them. So it's, that was a good thing, you know, because you have to build that trust because prior to that, we went through what I know maybe eight to 10 different suppliers. And the first one was, was okay. And then you have the second, third, fourth orders, then you start seeing the quality changes. You know, we went there, you go and you watch and they send their best seamstress out there and they do it and wow, that's fantastic. And when they start doing the production, then they need to bring in all these other people and they lose that control of the quality. So even for us trying to manufacture large quantities over there, it's, we tried, but it's best to just do it at home. We can control all of that. Wow. So even trying to find a supplier was trial and error, you had to like try out different. Oh yeah. So I'm very, I don't eat a lot of different foods, but having to go to China and breaking bread with different people is like, oh my gosh, but you got to do it, you got to do it. Yeah, that's a really nice good people in there. Oh good. That's what I heard you have to actually build the like a face to face relationship. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of the suppliers that we have today, I mean they, they supply some of the biggest companies, the shooters in the United States and I walk through a factory and go, yeah, can we buy from you directly? Well, you only want to eat with us so we'll make a big exception. It's just building relationships, you know, I guess that's a universal and everything that you think so. Wow, that's amazing. And so for all the different suppliers that you tried out, you would actually go and visit their factory and meet the people that work there. Yeah, you have, yeah, you have to. It's a lot of people that would come here and or send, you know, the email, whatever, you know, they can, they're the mill and they can, they can cut all the middleman and direct or directly with you, but when you go there, especially for the fabric side, there's so many different phases of, I guess, production to get to the finished product. When people say they're the mill, they're not, you know, you have to buy the yarn, you have to buy the weaving factory, the dyeing factory, there's so many things and they're all separate entities, you know. Oh my God. Yeah. And you have to go to each one and this is what we're working with. Okay. And yeah, it took a while to learn and understand what was all about. Because now when I first started with, in very beginning, it was a kind of different supply chain, you know, where the big manufacturers had to work through a converter and then they had territorial distribution rights to different people. And then they sold it to a wholesaler and then we bought it. And there was just so many layers of, I guess, supply, the supply chain is different. So now it's just direct from the manufacturer. Yeah. I think the big box stores are the ones that kind of changed that whole line, you know, because all the national people just went to Home Depot. You know, they supplied Home Depot. So all the little guys had to go and find their own sources and I think in the end it worked out, you know. So we're working with smaller companies and if we want changes, they all adapt and they can make the change whereas people are like, this is what we have. That's what you sell. You know, so it worked out. Stressful at the time. It all works out. Yeah. That is amazing. What was, what has been your biggest hurdle so far in running the business? The biggest hurdle. I think the biggest hurdle in the beginning was actually finding the courage. This is what I'm going to do. And you know, when you first start out, even if we took over from a larger company, you know, financially, then you're on the whole financial tip, you know, you have to put your personal guarantees and lines of credit and those kind of things. So when you're young, you have to afraid of those issues, you have time, you keep looking out. Now, I want zero debt. I won't talk to you. And you know, the customers are more familiar with who you are, the trustee. Yeah, once you're more established. You know, deposits, you know, it's, we're not trying to make money, but everything we order for you is custom. You know, our supplies weren't their money. So, you know, we ask for the deposit and we give it to them and you pay us when we're done. But in the beginning, it's like, no, you put that money up. So, yeah, I mean, that was in the beginning, that was the biggest hurdle. Now is finding the next generation to say, Hey, you got a good thing going and I believe you that too. And I think I can, you know, sustain it. That's going to be the biggest problem for us, how you continue this stuff. I feel like that's been challenging. Like, I mean, some of it's been the pandemic, but I've seen like these family run companies just kind of closed down and they've been running for years and years. And it's like the next generation just didn't want to, didn't want to do it, but it couldn't find anybody. Yeah, so much more difficult to retain people, you know, it's easy, you know, just on the internet now you can go anywhere and, you know, find better opportunities. I don't know. That's true. Yeah, so, I mean, that's the biggest challenge is it's going to find people to Yeah, to look for that. I guess that space for them that makes the most sense. And there's a lot of talented people in Hawaii that want to crafty things and that's our job to go and find them and say, Hey, come here, you know, because we always weird requested. And that's not my, I don't have that artistic mind. So I just throw it in there. We got this figure it out and do it. No, just would just tell them how much and if they're ready to, you know, Yeah, but there are people that that that, you know, that's their thing right that's a thing to do. Absolutely. So it's just finding those people. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. We are going to take a quick break. This is international Hawaii and think to, and I'm speaking with mark me a horror from creative come on and we'll be right back. Hi, welcome back. This is international Hawaii. I'm your host in the city and today we're talking with mark me a horror from creative come on and they do custom window treatment. And I guess other things. We have a question from our viewer one of our viewers they're asking, What is the most popular drapery that your customers request. I would have to say the most popular is the one that are the most budget friendly. And that's the most popular and that's the one that we really are the market that we really want to try and supply and satisfy. And it's mostly for like the rent rental properties we believe delivery are the best window covering product for residential properties because it kind of ticks all the boxes for, you know, privacy noise control and all these other things that are important for having a window You know, a lot of people are kind of moving towards those roller shades but it's more commercial they're thinking, you know, oh, it's so beautiful we can look out there in a day and see the view and when they buy it, what they don't realize is that the light source is outside so they can see outside but at night, the light source is in the inside, but you can see it and privacy issues and so you know, in the hospitality industry, you know, almost 80 90% of them use draperies and it's more reason because in itself, it's more elegant, it breaks up the noise in the room, you know, everything is concrete walls wood flooring vinyl flooring and, you know, just noise bouncing all over the place The draperies of the fabric textiles really break up that echo, you know, so even like going through That's true I never thought about that. These restaurants are all nice and neat and clean but you know, yelling at somebody that's sitting three feet across you is not relaxing, you know, and then that's kind of what is missing they need that softer textile feel that can kind of Yeah, so we really Yeah, that's why we believe that the draperies are the best in the treatments, you know, what's the most popular, you know, for that market, the rental market, it's the more economic one For the people that are looking for privacy and they want more sleep, we have blackout fabrics, that's all kinds of different things, yeah Everybody wants more sleep And that's why it's custom drapery, we kind of listen to what the customer needs and then we try to, you know, give them a solution Nice, has the pandemic affected your business at all? Oh, did you have to change? Definitely, it's negative and positive and negative sign, all in drop, we're going a couple of hotels and right in the middle they just stop We haven't resumed it, they need personnel to staff the hotel while we do our work So, you know, that side of it and affected us production-wise in terms of the residential and the more individualized consultations, you know, that social distancing We try to keep ourselves installed as a way from others and also, it's still hard, you know On the positive side, it kind of opened our eyes in terms of what we need to do to learn how to engage now in, you know, the social media side Or just e-commerce And the state, I gotta put a plug in for the HDDC company or their organization, that agency, they are just wonderful But I think, you know, the formats and the points they try to help, you know, small businesses like us, manufacturers are I don't know, right on point, I just love the work that they're doing and, you know, just in terms of helping us Learn all the intricacies about how to do things on e-commerce and things that I don't even think about, you know, just look at it and wow But I don't understand why, but so, you know, all these little sessions that we get to participate in, it's extremely, extremely helpful Oh, great. That's good. So did you find that you're getting more online business or referrals? Unfortunately, it's not our priority, you know, my priority right now is still working on the hospitality and engaging that side and continuing to do what we do for, you know, our customer base But we are trying to develop that side and, you know, this is, I don't know about our 15 iteration on the website and it's kind of cool though, you know, you just talk to these go to each session and you listen to an expert And can you do that for us? And yeah, it's been really good Yeah, I see you mentioned you have you're launching a new site, alohadrippi.com? Yeah, so alohadrippi.com is our e-commerce platform and we changed the name of it because we wanted to do it I see it potentially as something going on the shores of Hawaii, you know, and then create a combined apart would be kind of, it wouldn't say what we're doing, so we have to include that in every part of it, you know, we do everything with alohadrippi So everything is, it's kind of lining up nicely, it's just a matter of finding the right people to fully engage in that and do their thing, because I don't know what they're thinking In fact, I don't know anything about the marketing side of it, so Got it, so that means you're shifting eventually from creative combined to alohadrippi? No, no, no. And then you'll shut down creative combined? Two facets of the business in one would continue to do that. On the other side, we'll try to develop this e-commerce trade. Oh, got it. You know, the drapery doesn't like this, it's very detail oriented, so we're trying to, so that we can kind of whittle down the options and supply, you know, 80% of the people that are shopping through drapery, you know, they just want privacy and lock up the light and give me the width and height. You know, can we serve that market e-commerce, two e-commerce? Maybe so. But the ones that I want the high end, you know, really designer look, that we still need to have this personal one-to-one kind of interaction. And that's going to be more serviced by creative combined? So creative will continue to be the service entity. Yeah. Okay, got it. That's awesome. What advice would you give to somebody who's looking to purchase a business, since you kind of took over a business? Oh, to purchase a business. What would you, what advice would you give or what, you know, lessons, yeah, lessons learned from your taking over a business. Yeah, I, you know, lesson learned is you really have to have a passion for whatever you're going to do. I mean, there's just going to be so many roadblocks and there's going to be so many arrows shot at you and a lot of hurdles and you have to, you know, just accept it and address it and move on. You can't, you can't just give up. You can't dwell too long on something, you know, especially, I think, if you're going to start something, it's got to be really customized. If somebody can duplicate it, they will and real quickly. You want to be sure of a certain thing somebody will take it away or, you know, so you got to have something that's very to me customized and and do it right and satisfy your customer. You know, that's all I can tell you, we've been doing it 21 years and we have had this, everything is 100% guaranteed, you know, our customers don't like if we take it back. We do it. And that was, that's the biggest challenge to get your employees to think the same way that they're complaining they'll come and talk to me about it just get it done. You know, they're not happy, you're not happy. I'm not happy. We have three people that can't sleep so just take care of it. That's amazing. And your product is hyper customized for each of your customers. Yeah. So yeah, we try to treat it that way. Everyone is highly customized so they, you know, people will talk about, you know, how much it costs and so expensive, but you're talking about an investment and this is what you want. And even how you want it and enjoy it. Yeah, especially for your home. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Lastly, we're going to wrap up but I have one random question. So what has been your favorite pastime pandemic activity? Pastime pandemic activity. Have you had time or have you just been busy this whole time? Yeah. Seven days a week. I'm here. That's all it is. It's not work. It's, but it's just enjoy it. And that's what you need. That's good. You're in business now. Yeah, definitely. I don't, yeah. All right, so we will leave it there. And you've been watching international Hawaii and think tech today. Today we've been talking with creative Kamayana and mark me a hero. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me Mark. And viewers for tuning in. I'm Cindy Matsuki. And we'll be back in two weeks with another edition of international Hawaii. We'll see you next time. Thanks.