 Aloha, thank you for joining us again today for SBA America where we really focus on small businesses here in Hawaii and I'm happy to have some small business owners with me here today, a woman-owned business started here in Hawaii to help our local businesses grow and prosper. I'm happy to welcome to the program today Holomua Consulting Group. Thanks for joining us today very much. We have Daphne Tong-Pavey and Kanhoy George Fadjo-Glu. George Fadjo-Glu. Spelled differently too, I can't quite get there, but we'll work on that as we learn more about what they do for business. So tell us a little bit, Daphne if you would, you're one of the co-founders of the company. So what made you start this business, where did the ideas come from, and tell us a little bit about yourself. Okay, perfect. So Shannon Eady, who is my business partner, she's also the president of Holomua Consulting Group. She and I worked together for a defense contractor. They were a native Hawaiian organization owned 8A company at that time. Shannon is an attorney and she handled kind of all of the legal matters. She was their general counsel and I handled all of the compliance issues. So obviously we worked closely together and the NHL's mission was to kind of help native Hawaiian businesses. So they would encourage us to talk to people in the community about federal contracting and you know at the time we also helped their sister companies get into the 8A program and we just realized that there was a need in the community for additional and really hands-on assistance to help small businesses not only get into these small business programs but also maximize the opportunities you know remain in compliance and make the best of these programs. So with the support of our former employer we decided to venture into entrepreneurship and in 2014 we started Holomua Consulting Group. We've been doing this full-time since 2015. Kanoe joined us in January of this year and we are very fortunate to have her but you know we really see federal contracting as an opportunity for small businesses particularly here in Hawaii to grow and develop and our goal is to really help small businesses in Hawaii to make sure that federal dollars that are spent stay you know with businesses here. That's a big challenge because federal contracting here is so strong and it attracts a lot of other businesses from outside the state to get a piece of that federal spending right. You mentioned a couple of things that people may not really know that much about the NHO program and also the 8A program so I know that you were kind of getting started working with the contractor the defense contractor as the NHO program is really coming into its own and getting started so NHO Native Hawaiian Organization you work with a very special class of Native Hawaiian organizations. Correct correct so similar to you know other Native groups tribes and Alaska Native corporations Native Hawaiian organizations have a program within the 8A program which is for small disadvantaged businesses. It's a business development program and what this NHO model allows for is for profits in the 8A program to funnel their profits back to the non-profits so they're able to serve the Native Hawaiian community. So as Native Hawaiians Kanoe, Shannon and myself are all Kamehameha graduates we obviously feel very strongly about helping the Native Hawaiian community so it's our way of kind of giving back to you know really helping companies NHOs in particular with navigating and succeeding in the federal contracting industry through this special 8A program. And the 8A program is SBA certification for small disadvantaged socially and economically disadvantaged businesses to help them get a fair share of government contracts. So each one of the businesses there are the for-profit entities have to go through the certification process and things like that but they're 51% or more owned by the Native Hawaiian organization. Yes which is a non-profit organization. So the non-profit organizations and then they move some of their profits back into those the Native Hawaiian organization and they do all sorts of different things to help the Native Hawaiian community. Right right correct so there's a number I want to say they're roughly 20 NHOs and I couldn't be wrong but they kind of vary in their mission from you know education to economic development. One helps I think boys who kind of have they just help with developing young men. What are some others? STEM education. I know there's cultural preservation there's tech education and Maui Digital Bless is one of those programs so there are very you know fish pond restoration they're really a lot of very very worthy projects Hawaiian language all the all different kinds of things can come out of this right they're very very beneficial. Absolutely it's very beneficial I think it's also a great way for the organizations themselves the business owners to feel like they're giving back to their own community and through the organization and choosing their own mission they feel like they get to serve a part of the community that they have a personal connection to so I think that is a huge benefit and I think helps to want to make you prosper your for-profit company as well as the organization because you're attached to the mission of the and I know that not only do they try and funnel profits back into the non-profit organization but they also put a lot of kind of in kind and support you know they'll get out and help clean the fish ponds or I know that Native Hawaiian veterans just did the Wounded Warrior um competition the Fragata the paddle Fragata right um a lot of different things happen along that line and they really do focus on what they're going to be able to do right right so it's a really a great opportunity for the Native Hawaiian community through like you said the 8a program which individuals can also participate in as long as they you know are socially and economically disadvantaged I think a lot of people come to us they think that it's only for Native Hawaiians but individuals can participate in the program if they meet all of the eligibility criteria so it has been uh it is challenging to get into the program so some of the things that you do with companies is help a small business or someone who's interested in getting into contracting take that big step right make those applications right what's that process like I know I hear about it a lot you know it's funny uh so I used to work for Senator Akaka and a lot of people would come to us with kind of questions about it and you know you hear from it like you said if you're not doing it you really don't understand what the process is but now that we've been doing it for you know almost two years plus we definitely see the challenges and unfortunately many of the small businesses um that we work with there's a lot of administrative requirements so your corporate documents need to be in order we also encourage our clients to do a lot of market research up front to make sure they know what they're getting themselves into that there's a market for their services or product so it's it it's steps that we go through with our clients to make sure they have everything in order that the program is a right fit that they understand that it's a nine-year program that has ongoing compliance requirements and that they're committed to that and just kind of understanding as well that it's not a golden ticket that there is work the program is great it's a business development program it provides you know sole source and set aside opportunities so it limits competition and you're able to compete you know in the marketplace because you would you know a lot of large businesses do federal contracting and it's kind of hard to compete against them if you're a small business so there's definitely steps in the process not just with putting together the application but making sure the business is in a position and ready to apply because I think that's one thing that we often see at SBA is that a lot of people would like to apply but they're real the government may not be buying their products exactly you may be in a different or the wrong area you need to be ready to grow right so businesses even before they get into that program they should have been in business for several years and kind of have a good sense of operations you gotta have a little bit of staying power and the likelihood of success you do have to show and document your socially and economically disadvantaged so there are some groups that automatically would fit into that category but then you for the economic or social disadvantage but you still have to show that economic disadvantage as well right so it means doing your numbers right right and we won't get into that because that's extremely complicated but SBA you guys are great with putting on workshops I think monthly you know about the different programs because there's a 8a program but there's also women owned and you know veteran veteran programs so the SBA is really great about educating the community because like you said you really need to go in kind of eyes wide open and be ready to kind of because we do we do ask you know there's no guarantee you'll get the government contracts but it does give you more exposure access to training access to other resources that will help you grow your business exactly and unfortunately we do have some firms that maybe aren't the right fit and get one or two contracts through the nine years but we're still asking them to do their annual reviews exactly you're still going to need a lot of that compliance activity like if you change management if you do some major changes or your business starts to grow and you need to change your business formation right some to you know just your other advisors are going to tell you this is a better way to grow your business right and you may be telling them that right now you have to do a management change exactly has to get processed by the SBA so and sometimes the certification process can be grueling as well it doesn't happen at the local office it goes to the central processing and it can take some time it does it definitely does take a lot of time I think when I first came on with a whole more consulting group part of why I wanted to join this wonderful company is that my parents were actually business owners and they were federal contractors and they were also in the 8a program so I had a different perspective of the 8a program before I came to whole and more consulting group and I still can't say that last night you don't like to blame my dad it's not my fault I was born with it but you know they it was a great avenue for them they grew their business really quickly and I saw firsthand what it takes a dedication that it takes from a small business you know it can also be a strain and resources if you're not ready for it yes and that's why I just want to reiterate exactly what Daphne was saying exactly what you were saying think about it first make sure it's the right fit for you make sure it's the right fit for your company but if you do it the right way and you are committed to putting in the work it can be a wonderful avenue to grow your business I mean there are some amazing businesses that we all are familiar with if you're in contracting or anything like that in in some of the tech or IT businesses here that do a lot of federal contracting we look back at Shintani construction or NAN or Pemco um native Hawaiian veterans Aki Meka they're right you know Pelotron you know these companies have have really grown to be successful and expanded beyond Hawaii right you know exactly and so we do know how to do business yeah exactly so at Hulunmo we we'll help with the application process we kind of we have three I want to say four now avenues of kind of business we help with the small business application so primarily AA but we do do hub zone um we have been assisting with SDVOSB which is the service disabled veteran owned small business program we also help with ongoing compliance as you mentioned even just being a federal contractor you have to comply with a lot of laws and regulations so it can get kind of taxing on small businesses um so Shannon as an attorney provides a lot of assistance with HR related matters contracting um so we help with ongoing compliance we also do training so um we do it for our clients we can create programs for them but we also have been working with the SBA through our nonprofit we have a co-sponsorship agreement with SBA um and we've been doing we did a series when was the last one I think there's one coming up but let's take a quick break okay and then we'll get back to what our schedule is and and what some of those trainings might look like maybe some of the other certifications we deal with uh thanks for staying with us and we'll be right back Aloha I'm Kaui Lucas host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha hi my name is Aaron Wills you are watching ThinkTechHawaii.com I am the host of the show Rehabilitation coming soon you can watch us live at ThinkTechHawaii.com at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays I will see you there. Aloha everyone I hope you've been watching ThinkTechHawaii but I'm here to invite you to watch me on Viva Hawaii every Monday at 3 p.m. I'm waiting for you mahalo. Hello this is Martin Despeng I want to get you get excited about my new show which is humane architecture for Hawaii and beyond we're going to broadcast on Tuesdays 5 p.m. here on ThinkTech Hawaii. Hi I'm Crystal welcome to ThinkTech my show clock talk normally airs at 10 o'clock on Tuesdays but it's going to change to 11 o'clock so don't miss it it's an hour later you can sleep in a little longer come with me and engage in some sensitive provocative discussions on everything it's all good all right women's issues things that people don't dare talk about we want it on the table so join me thanks for joining us again we're talking with Holomua Consulting Group and we're talking about how they can help your business get into doing business with the federal government so definitely you're just saying that you have a co-sponsorship you work with some of my team at SBA yes you're great team yes my great team and helping people get introduced to the idea of contracting or some of the skills they need maybe just how it works yeah exactly so we actually have developed kind of an ongoing series that's a little bit more advanced but I believe beginning next year we might do kind of just basic you know what is federal contracting how do you get into federal contracting so we've been doing training with through the co-sponsorship agreement but we also do it you know on our own and Kanoa can maybe mention we actually have one coming up yes so actually we have started a little series of our own doing a coffee talk what we've noticed with our businesses we reiterate also all the time that it's relationships and a lot of it is the networking portion of building your small business and especially here in Hawaii working together you know primes and subs in federal contracting is a great way to grow your business as well so we have started a coffee talk and it's kind of a networking avenue for people small businesses to get together who do government contracting to get to know each other and kind of talk about the difficulties and strengths they've seen and kind of just share their stories with one another and build those types of relationships and have camaraderie within their fellow businesses here and fellow contractors here in Hawaii so our next one actually is next week Saturday uh the following are the September 24 yeah okay so next week's next week's Saturday I believe yeah it's coming coming up time is going yes very fast and we are actually very lucky to have Carrie Ann Alou she's the president of Naali consulting and sales wonderful yes they are one of our clients and also they have been awarded the fastest growing company here in Hawaii by PBN so they were the number one of the fastest 50 wow yeah I like to hear that yes woman-owned business woman-owned yes it's also a native Hawaiian organization owned company as well but with a coffee talk what we find is we allow for networking and then we have a very small piece of just you know education so we try to keep that brief and as Kanwe mentioned just really on point with issues or topics that would be applicable and the audience would find value in so yeah so and I think with government contracting federal contracting state contracting that networking piece is sometimes really really overlooked because people kind of can often miss the opportunity that they could sub on a job and it's a way to get their foot in the door not just establish a relationship uh with another company that may be a little stronger or you know well positioned financially to kind of mentor them along but it also gives them past performance exactly on government contracting and that makes a tremendous difference even if it's a small piece it does you know yes it's a great way to start looking at that or even create a possibility for a joint venture right for a mentor protege a formal mentor protege program that also comes through the NHO right eight eight programs and soon also all business programs so you know do you see that as an opportunity for yes yeah definitely I mean we highly encourage our clients to network and to look at other opportunities that aren't necessarily prime contracts but also teaming you know like you said through either joint ventures or the mentor protege program as you mentioned the regulations recently changed and it's going to allow for now all small businesses to be able to participate in this formal SBA program because our the SBA program has been limited to eight eight yes and now you don't have to be in the eight a firm to get involved right right which will be great you know I really hope that small businesses take advantage of that I think that's going to be a training opportunity for us as well because we are expecting a lot of interest in how does this work and what do I have to do right what does it what does this mean and that's coming up I think um October you know that the program will actually start running so there'll be lots of information out there and lots of other opportunities for small businesses who've been looking at how do I do this right but meeting perhaps a little stronger partner or or they're a bigger organization who can then get together with your company you know a lot of large companies sometimes it's difficult for them because so the government has small business goals they want to do work with you know small businesses and that kind of filters down to large businesses who have small business goals as well so you know they are looking for small businesses to work with and sometimes it's hard to find companies um you know that have the past performance and the capability to do what they're looking for right so it's it's out there matchmaking exactly so I think we'll see a lot of that happening you know going forward into the new year right as well and so along those lines as I mentioned we kind of have four business lanes and Kanoa if you want to touch on what we do yeah absolutely so as we mentioned networking we think is is very important and you know it's not just marketing to the federal government but it's also marketing to other businesses where you can also partner and become a sub and things like that but a great way of creating those networking opportunities and meeting people are events and it maybe it's not just you know outside events but also maybe building those internal events to help build your team and creating the right team to help your company prosper and we've seen that a lot with our clients is that they are not really thinking of events and these types of avenues to help grow their business both internally and externally or they don't have the right resources and time to kind of dedicate to doing things like that so we have kind of expanded based on the need of our clients to help doing corporate events for them doing planning networking opportunities staff retreats helping with conferences kind of a plethora of events that we've been helping some of our clients and so we decided to kind of expand and open that up to you know the rest of our potential clients do the business development they need internally as well grow your team give them more experience create opportunities there grow your network and identify what you might be doing with other businesses like they'd have an open house and invite subs in or other other firms that they need their assistance or those kind of that kind of work right and we found so we actually just did a grand opening but we find that when it's you know out of business hours and kind of people are more relaxed they're more open to talking and you really foster the relationship you know when you meet someone it might not just result in an opportunity right there it might be down the line but you got to continue to foster that relationship stay in touch because if something does come up you want them to think of you so so you're putting together some of these events for some of your clients yes yeah and so we're opening it up to to not just our clients but to businesses that are looking to have events pretty much in the business of helping small business yeah whatever it takes exactly yeah we've definitely learned that you know we can't just limit it to federal contracting that we're helping these businesses grow their business so you know and part of the 8a business development program is you know you you're going to be doing federal contracting but you also want to grow to make sure that you also have a commercial right portion to your business that you're able to sustain yourself it comes pretty important as you move on right and as you grow you kind of get used to just marketing to the federal government and sometimes you need to take a step back and learn how to market your business in general and diversify right well that's even built into the program where after you get into those develop beyond the development years and you're getting ready to exit the program after those nine years that you have to have that right mix of government contract and other work right people don't sometimes realize that because we want you to be able to make it when you know you're not under you know sbas wing anymore right or having some of the advantages that come with the 8a program exactly so we watch that and one of the other things is if you're not doing enough of that you may not be able to get more government work right so you have to balance that percentage right as you grow in the program so people I can see where people definitely need that kind of support right right and as you mentioned that kind of goes back to education before they get in you know it's like you're not going to be dependent on getting just soul source 8a awards you kind of need to be able to compete and not just get 8a contracts especially as you get into the developmental space so you've got consulting you've got events that you do event coordination yes and you know development within the business or business development the networking activity anything else that or that you're developing or thinking of that we won't be giving away any trade secrets to talk about I think we have a lot in our plate right now so where do you see where do you want to take the business or what do you envision I mean we definitely want to see and I mean this kind of goes back to you know wanting to help small businesses we want to see more small businesses take advantage of these programs both here we are serving some clients on the mainland as well so we would like to increase the amount of small businesses that are getting in we want to have more events we are also looking at our non-profit too and kind of ways to give back through that and all of us have experienced in one way or another being born and raised here in Hawaii moving away and the difficulty of coming home and you know finding a job and having a career and being able to to live here in Hawaii but the cost of living and everything like that so I think we also just are very passionate about making sure that a lot of people are able to go away and come home and if they can't find a job feel that they still have you know entrepreneurship and the avenue of building their own business and that's what we definitely want to encourage both with our for-profit and our non-profit so you you would be working with perhaps individuals who are looking at startup phase or early business phase as well we have been and it's kind of limited but we definitely do provide support I mean we do refer people you know to other resources such as SBDC or the PTAX because they you know they're free resources we actually do have a lot of individuals who are looking at the NHL program so we kind of help them start their non-profit and help with either acquiring a for-profit or you know starting a new for-profit so we kind of have a wide range of of businesses about you know tell me something about your clients or maybe some of their success stories as well or see people you've seen grow or open a new location or add a add a number of jobs yeah I mean as Kanwe mentioned I think you know not Ali has been a great client as she mentioned they were named by PVN to be Hawaii's fastest growing company and they're just doing great work they have an office in DC as well as here I think the successes though have been seeing clients get into the program so we kind of we haven't really seen them grow not Ali is probably one of the ones that have been doing you know great in the program and what type of industry are they in so they do environmental work they also do kind of knowledge base which is it related and they also do base operation okay yeah but we've had a couple of clients recently get in and their applications are moving quicker it's actually really funny because we were just talking about how we enjoy getting the emails even if they're late at night or early in the morning about our clients who just got their acceptance letter the program and their reactions and and everyone has a different reaction but it's always really funny because you can hear the excitement even in the email the yay we got it we did it we did it but that's great yeah so if somebody who's watching us today wants to contact you and get into one of the programs or check out your networking or your coffee hour how do they reach you so our website is hola moa consulting.com I think it's on your screen there it's actually a great resource too we have a blog where we kind of provide you know more specific details and kind of updates on what's going on with regards to the program or regulations schedule consultation we have free consultation there is a link on our website to do so so you can come in and talk to us and figure out how we might be able to help you and kind of figure out whether or not certain programs are right fit yeah and you can also look us up on facebook we do have a page hola moa consulting group and we do post not just you know our opportunities but other opportunities that are happening that we feel our clients or our network would be interested in I would definitely recommend signing up for our coffee talk on saturday the 24th of this month I think it's just a great opportunity to meet other businesses that are doing the same thing that you're doing or are interested and are all in different stages of startup to successful and hearing their perspective sounds like it would just be a great time to go over and have a cup of coffee and see what's going on with small business so remember that if you're thinking about getting into small business you're into interested in getting into government contracting check out hola hola moa consulting group you can google them find out what's going on and check back with them and thanks very much having us and we'll see you next week thanks for being here aloha