 Aloha, and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker, where I show the broadcast every Thursday at 2 o'clock from 2 to 2.30 on ThinkTakeHawaii.com. We highlight positive stories in Hawaii of companies and individuals that have accomplished, I guess, a lot depending upon the different negative stories that you hear. But they've overcome the obstacles. They are successful, despite the challenges, and they share some of their secrets and how they've done that. And we have a lot of good stories to share, and we have for the past year. Today, I've got Dennis Wong, who's a Senior Vice President over at Hawaii National Bank, and we have Guy Akasaki, who is the owner of Commercial Roofing and Waterproofing in Hawaii. Both of them have success stories to share with us today, but we're going to probably hear a little bit more from Guy this time, because we've had Dennis on the show before. So welcome, Dennis. Guy. I'm glad you could make it today. Thank you, Reg. All right. Why don't we just start the show off a little bit? Dennis, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and Hawaii National Bank? And you are the one that really wanted to bring Guy onto the show and highlight his accomplishments. So, you know, what's the relationship there? Well, this is my second appearance, and thank you for having me on the show. I'm always a pleasure and enjoy it, because I have a passion and care for the people of Hawaii and also to assist business owners with their success stories. I'm Dennis Wong from—I work at Hawaii National Bank. I'm the Senior Vice President. So I basically oversee all the branches on the Island of Oahu. We have a niche that caters to the locally-owned, closely-held businesses in Hawaii, and the businesses will consist of all different type of industries anywhere from manufacturing down to retail. So in my 39 years of banking and a privilege of working with many businesses throughout the years, I've come across a very special friend and a client of mine, and I wanted to share his success story, which I thought was very unique and encouraging and uplifting to everybody. And that's Guy Kasaki from commercial rofina and waterproofing Hawaii. Very good. Well, that's a lot to live up to there, Guy. It's amazing what $22.50 we'll pay you after. That's a Starbucks cup of coffee, I think. But Guy, welcome to the show. I'm glad you can make it. Can you give us a little background on yourself? Just tell us where you grew up, what you've done, and how you did it. I was a military brat. Age six, my dad got drafted into the military. Well, actually, that draft that you got put in there used to be one of the stewards, like so to speak, for the plantation. So he got him drafted to get the trouble make around. So hands from age six all the way, we lived in Washington State, California, Texas, Okinawa, Germany, Massachusetts. That's a good experience to travel like that. And then went to high school in Okinawa. And that's basically where I came before I came here to Hawaii. Supposedly to go to school, but my major was surfing. And after six years of college, my dad said, you're going to have to learn. And then one day, then one day when it was time for that check to come, it never came. I'm going, oh no, I've got to go over. What awakening? Well, a rude awakening. But from what I understand, you're still working on that surfing degree, right? You're still surfing every day? You know when you're young, you're all guts, no brains. But as you get older, you have all brains and no guts. It's more fun, you know. I wish I had less of a gut, but go ahead. So now, OK, so right out of school, how did you get into what you're doing now? Well, actually from junior high school into college. My aspiration, my inspiration was Frank Lloyd Wright. So I'm a field architect. I'm a field architect, if you could say that. And going through college, you know, I guess being young and impetuous, you start to think about school and college, and I had friends that had graduated, and they were draftsmen. I'm going, I've got to do that after I graduate. So I got young and impetuous, and I got out. I dropped out, went to work for the hotels, got into hotel management. Then I realized that is tough. And I figured, yeah, that's seven days a week. And at that time, my girlfriend, now my wife, was working for a roofing contractor. And he was having a tough time getting his company going. So she had asked me, she says, you know, my boss is actually looking for someone to kind of help him with his construction company. And I said, sure, what kind of construction company roofing? Oh, that's beneath me. A roofer? I'm an architect. But hence after a period of time, yeah, I went to go in and help him out. Then I found a lot of the skill sets that I had applied. And it was from that point on, yeah. Share what some of those skill sets might be that would apply. You know, a lot of it had to do with architecture and construction and generality, from reading plans to understanding construction. So you knew the industry, you knew the business, and you know how to read some of the paperwork that was involved. Yeah, yeah, but it was, you know, the seasonality of experience. And age and immaturity. That was my portion. The dumb side of life that we think when we're young, we know. And it was a season for me to learn. Good, and you did well. Yeah, I was really fortunate. I was really fortunate to be able to do that. So for about 12 years, you know, we continued to work. For the first three to five years was a learning experience. And they came a time in that period of time that I thought, geez, you know, I can do this better myself. And so there was a tugging on the inside where I thought, you know what, I could do it myself. And there was a small still voice on the inside that says, you know what, I think you need to stay. And even though everything within me cried out that you can do it, you could do it, you can make it. There was something about commitment, integrity, and honesty, and giving the opportunity that made me stay for about close to 12 years. And in 1993, when the economy tanged, I really had no intention on leaving. And as I came on, the owner wanted to go ahead and sell the business and do any, you know, basically sell it to the employees. We spent about a year and a half with the legal, you know, attorneys drafting things through an ESOP, and in that transition, as we moved through in the 11th hour, as the principal at that time saw the excitement of everybody, even though the economy was tanking, that was around the iniquity time, he decided not to sell. Really, everybody was excited about it. So as we transitioned, that was pretty much the point of departure where there was a difference of intent and direction. That's sad. And that really kind of embarked me to kind of, I was going to be a franchise owner for a subway. But, you know, Well, that would have been a switch. But I think it was the wisdom of a wife who said, God, you can't even make a sandwich at home. When did you think you're going to do it? So hence, you know, following that, we had actually opportunities. I had made a commitment to the prior owner that even if I did go out and I planned to do this, or if I even got back into the construction industry, the roofing industry, I made a verbal commitment. I had no employment contract. I made a verbal commitment, maybe young dumb idiot. I made a commitment to verbally not compete with him for one year at a time the economy was bad. And so hence, you know, we got into, I said, got into just minor repairs and I would not touch any of the clientele because 12 to 13 years is a big network. Well, and that must have been a long year. It was a very long year. But in that period of time, in the first month, somebody, one of the largest roofing, I mean, construction companies offered me a big project off Island. This was the Westin. When I got hit by Niki, it was a big job. And he said, nobody knows this better than you. So we'd like you to do it. And I went, I can't take it. I'd love to. They were gonna fund it, they were gonna cash it. They were gonna support everything all I had to do as an engineer. You know, those ethics just getting away all the time, don't they? Big time, big time. So I had gone away. They were really upset. Then three weeks later, someone else called me. When people were making money, you know, in Westlock, they were flipping houses. One person, a gentleman, a contractor offered me. He had 250 grand in a bank. He says, it's yours. You set it up. You set it up the way you wanted. What size company? I said, eh, about $2 million contracting company. And he goes, do it. You set up how you want to do it. Quite excited, but in the end, that small steel voice again basically told me. He says, this guy is all about money. So at the end of the day, you borrow the money, you have to make sure that you repay it and you follow through what he gave to you. So how can you allow your purpose and destiny to be fulfilled if you go this path? So he too, I had to tell him, I said, you know, I'm just going to start really small. I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably a franchise. And it didn't. Then I embarked on a very small like roof repair. This is thinking that the big stuff is just crazy because we became the largest at the time prior. And as we did, I thought, you know what? I did that was right. I told the owner I would not compete. I had these opportunities come to me and I did not take them because of my integrity and commitment and honesty. And for the next six months, I suck rocks. I would imagine. It was very tough. That was tough. It was very tough. You know, to the point that I remember working out of my office in Kalama Valley, little eight by eight office, I had a business plan and this is where Dennis came into the picture. I showed him the business plan that I started it eight months earlier. And he says, guy, this is the worst time to get into business, especially construction. I said, no, no, I can do it. And he goes, you should just do business plans. And I remember sitting in my office close to eight months later, looking at it at 11 o'clock at night, going into one o'clock in the morning. And I said, this is supposed to work. Why is it not working? And I remember taking that book. So frustrated because I had helped a couple of other residential contractors get started in doing well. I took that book and I slammed it against the wall. And I cried. I said, why? And then all I could see the picture of Dennis Queen. I told you so. And hence in the morning when I got up, I was down in a fetal position on the floor, papers all over the place, my wife was like, what happened here? Soon I came through. And there were some things that internally I really had to kind of rest with and came to peace with. And as I got up in the morning, we began to do the things that I needed to do. And it was just amazing at the end of the year, the first year, where we were 30% down, we had hit. And it was just amazing. It's one of those experiences that you never want to go through. Well, no, of course, that sounds horrible, but what were those things that you did differently to turn things around? Oh, one of those things that I did to make it turn around. I think it really is, I'm a what do you call a self-starter. I know how to get things started. I know how to frame it. I know that the pieces that have to have, I know the financial aspects. But for me, it was just really being able to release it to the guy upstairs, to know that, you know what, it's in his hands. It's not labeled him, but it was him. It was God that really kind of gave me the opportunity. And what I was going through, wasn't so much everything was going wrong. There were things that just happened and I had to be able to trust him. And when I began to realize that I needed to trust him, things started to happen. And in that last quarter, close to about $600,000 revenue to come in in the last quarter of the year when holiday season economy was on, there was virtually impossibility out of a network of people that I knew all over this island and not one of them were new. I mean, not one of them were old, they were all new. It's an amazing feat in itself. Very interesting. Well, we're going to have to take a short break. Believe it or not, we've already gone through the first segment. We're going to be going into the second segment here shortly. And Dennis, we might want to get your take on some of this and how you were there to work with Guy to help him put this company in motion. Great, I'm excited. Very good. But this is a business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. I'm here with Dennis Wong, a guy at Akasaki. And we were talking about how he was able to build a commercial roofing company in Hawaii in one of the more challenging times in the economy. We'll be right back. Aloha. My name is Richard Emory, host of Condo Insider. More than a third of Hawaii's population live in some form of association. And our show is all about educating board members and owners about the responsibilities and obligations and providing solutions for a great association. You can watch me live on Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. each week. Aloha. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, 25 talk shows by 25 dedicated hosts every week, helping us explore and understand the issues and events in and affecting our state. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Aloha. How you doing? Welcome to Yabachitak. I'm here at Gardo the Texar on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm here with my good old buddy, Andrew, the security guy. Hey, everybody. How you doing? Aloha. Thanks for watching. Good to have Andrew here in the house. Please join us every Friday from 1 to 1.30 and follow us up on YouTube. And remember, as we say at the end of every show, how you doing? Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We've got Dennis Wong here from Hawaii National Bank, who his last appearance was about a year ago. And he's coming back for an encore presentation. And then we've got Guy Akasaki with Commercial Roofing, who is going to be sharing his success, I guess, secrets, because he has a company that was in very humble beginnings. And now it's one of the top businesses in the country. And I'm talking about the United States. So we'll talk a little bit more about that. But Dennis, I guess you were with Guy during some of these challenging times. What role did Hawaii National Bank play in helping Guy get his company focused in the right direction? Let me back up a little bit and give you a little preview. And Hawaii National Bank, we work closely with our customers. The dynamics is more like a private banker. So the old cliche is, know your borrower, know your customer, and that's our job, and that's what we did. So knowing Guy with the previous company that he operated, and he had left that, and there was a time that passed until he was able to start his new company. And of course, there was a struggle, as Guy mentioned previously. And then when he was ready to go, we had a background of him for about at least four, five years that we knew directly dealing with him. Knew the character of the person? Yes. And we knew what his expertise was, his character, and that knowledge, character, commitment, and follow-through. I think that's a secret what Guy showed. So it showed us enough where when he brought us his business plan, contractors, because they have to upfront a lot of the costs when they do constructions. And typically what they require and what we offer is working capital, where it's the timing differences between having to pay bills versus collecting receivables for jobs that they've done and completed. So with this, without the line of credit, it would be impossible because they would have the capital to perform their jobs. So we brought our think tank together, our brains together. We worked collaboratively together. And we were able to offer him a credit facility that grew and grew as his company grew as well. And his company was well-managed. And it gave us the opportunity to finance him. And we're quite proud of that and very happy because one of the most rewarding parts of my job as a banker is helping people start off their business and seeing them become successful. And then sharing the stories of the success to others because there's a lot of success stories out there, Reggie. Reggie. There are. And we've got probably one of the better success stories right here with us today. So Guy, I guess Dennis is sharing. I mean, I guess he's almost like a partner. You guys worked very closely together over the years, haven't you? No, no, absolutely, absolutely. I think they've been a tremendous support. And actually, Dennis is a personal friend but professional friend at that. Even though I told him that roofing contractors are Honolulu's finest crooks, liars, and thieves. So he still believed in me, surprisingly. But I think that really had a lot to do with it. And they give us a lot of support. As we kind of moved into it, I think one of the key elements especially in starting a business is really kind of knowing what your core values are. And for ourselves, the core values is that it's an intangible framework that sets the tapestry of who you are that allows you to be able to push through what you need to push through. And for us, it was being a unified team of professionals taking our experience and talent to be on the cutting edge of the technology of the industry that we're in. And in the end, exceed the client's expectations. It's a few sentences that doesn't matter when you apply it to HR or you apply it to anything. It has its application. And it's worked very well for you. You put this organization together with these core values. And it's taking you some pretty high levels. Can you just share with us just briefly? I don't want to embarrass you, but with some of these accolades and awards you've been winning over the last few years, you've done a hell of a job. Well, since this inception in 93, we've actually formed six different other entities. In many of the entities, as well as commercial roofing, we've won Pacific Business News fastest 50. We've actually just recently won the commercial roofing contractor of the year. And this was a designation nationwide. Right, that's the entire United States. That was the whole United States. I thought it was a scam, but it was actually for real. You know, we've won Pacific Business News as business leadership Hawaii. So we actually were nominated and then we got thrown in with Watts Construction and these big companies. And I thought, I don't think we're gonna, at least we're in good company. And it was amazing, you know, the interview, the information was provided and they chose us. So we're so honored to have that this institution. That's another example. And I try to establish this theme a little bit, but you know, we do have some amazing success stories in Hawaii. And in a lot of times and a lot of ways we're able to compete at national level with anybody out there. I mean, we've got some good people here with some good skills and we've got a lot to be proud of. Absolutely. I think a lot of times in Hawaii, we always have this thing that we're island mentality. But if we think about it, we're really the stepping stone to the emerging countries and to the global community at that. And that's powerful when you can connect the thoughts. It is, you know, and you've got so many different experiences just talking with you. I mean, you've got experiences all over the world, all over the country. You've brought all these skills together that you've accumulated over the years and it's all come together to create what you're doing now. Right. You know, and this is, I think there's examples of this all over, you know, Hawaii. I think if I can add that what Guy did correctly and he had the foresight to do is form a management team that was made up of good support people that good provides strength to all the areas that he needs because your business has to be balanced. You can't be off kilter one side or the other. And how do you balance that is what Guy has done is form a good advisory team. He's connected himself with the bank, myself, as well as insurance agent, as well as a CPA and it's very important, as you know, Reggie, as a CPA or accountant, it's critical to have good bookkeeping reporting and then also he has his marketing team. So there was a balance when he went in there. And, you know, to your point, not to belabor it, but having those, to being able to monitor and evaluate performance against standards or against targets, that crosses all sectors of the company, every one of the different areas of the company. It doesn't have to be accounting related. It just needs to be production related or compliance related in some areas. I mean, you've got to be able to monitor and watch that. And so having a very sophisticated internal monitoring system, which is probably just as much IT as it is anything else is pretty important to any company. You agree with that guy? Oh yeah, absolutely. The systemic controls and having a good grasp on that is so important. The other thing that I see in the formation of the entities is really be aware of your surroundings and your environment. You know, we started as a roofing company. And again, Hawaii is a very labor-driven market and you have a lot of contractors that are signatory and people, because you do a good job, they want you to do the work, but you cannot cross lines. So we actually formed another roofing company that was Union and we're able to do that. We've done the likes of Bloomingdale's, I mean, a lot of big projects. As we did that, we got into the 8A program. And that allowed us as Oriental Asian to be able to participate in that. For the members of the viewing audience who doesn't know what an 8A program is, can you explain that real quick? It's a set aside program that's put up by the federal government, or SBA, to allow minorities to be able to do business with the federal government. So using that for priority, correct. So as a result of that, we started a company which is Allied Pacific Builders. And we did set aside work, building renovations for the military. And then, yeah, so it took us into areas, Hawaii, also into one. That helped us as well too, because at Hawaii National Bank as a preferred lender and we can approve SBA loans that we're able to go and offer a very specific product for that specific need to help the contractor through the 8A contracts. Right, and that's important, because I think the SBA has got a lot of different types of programs. It could be very helpful. Yes. For small businesses of all kinds. And with Hawaii National Bank, with your involvement with the SBA and your knowledge of all the different products, you could be instrumental in helping do a little matchmaking and figure out what makes the most sense. Yes, the SBA offers, first of all, if somebody was interested in SBA loans, they wouldn't go to SBA, they would come directly to the bank. And so through the SBA products, the banks might be able to offer terms or interest rates that would be a little bit more flexible or generous outside of the standard underwriting for banks. You know, in full disclosure, I'm a national board of directors for the SBA. I'm chair of the ninth region for regulatory fairness. And as such, I get on a lot of newsletters. Almost every district office in the Western United States sends me stuff. And I can tell you, there's, I would say a couple hundred programs a week that's available, and some of them are online. So there's a tremendous resource there. We've got a few minutes before we have to wrap up. And I'm wondering, Guy, if you were to leave the audience with any final thought or words of wisdom, what do you think they might be? What is a ton and not enough time in the world to share? No pressure, no pressure, just 30 seconds. I would probably say, you know, if you look at starting a business, know where you wanna be. But more than anything else, at the end of the day, whatever you feel that you desire your passion, the focus that you wanna get into, know that honesty, integrity, and commitment be the tapestry of that structure. Because if that's, the rest you can learn. That's right, well, some of that is built into the DNA. You've got to... It's in the very tapestry of who you are, right? That's so, so critical. And the other part, know your numbers. Yeah, there you go. Know your accounting, you know, as you had said, Rich, know your balance sheet, your income, so you know how things fit together. Because at the end of the day, this is the way the world operates. And if you're watching it closely, you'll see that nail stick up, and you know there's a problem there. You gotta go look at it. Dennis, you have any final words of wisdom you'd like to share with the audience? Yes. I would encourage any business owner or operator to have a close relationship with his or her banker. And the banks actually prefer getting to know a person. So we're very open, we have money to lend. One of the things is keeping proper financial records and timely financial records. I say this truly because in order for the banker to assist them, we must have proper financial reporting. Very good. Well, you know, I appreciate you both being here today. Maybe the next time you win another award, you can come back on and tell us all about it, you know? And Dennis, it's always a pleasure to have you. Thank you for having me. But this is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday at two o'clock. And we highlight success stories in Hawaii. Hoping to see you next week, until then, Allah.