 Aloha, and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We air live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30, broadcasting from the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawaii in a Pioneer Plaza. We are a show that highlights success stories in Hawaii of businesses and their owners, and occasionally we have groups come on organizations that provide support and services to ensure the success of the businesses and the individuals that are in business. Today we have the Patsy Mink Center for Business and Leadership, and we've got the two movers and shakers in that organization. We've got Terry, and we've got Colleen, and they're going to be here today to share with us all the different programs and services that the Patsy Mink Center offers, primarily to women, but I've been told that men are invited as well, so it's the center of the Patsy Mink set up and it has her name on it. So Terry, Colleen, welcome. Thank you. Nice to be here. It's great to have you on the show today. Terry, can you just give us a little bit of background on yourself? How did you get to where you're at today? Well, local girl, born and raised in Hawaii, graduate of the University of Hawaii. My background is basically retail. I was a, traveled in the retail sector for a while, went to hospitality, was a buyer in the hotels, and then I landed at one of the larger companies here in Hawaii and I was a, made my way up to an executive, vice president in retail, and I began to help people and in Hawaii we help a lot of Hawaii artisans and practitioners, so I started helping them and I really enjoyed it, and I realized they needed more help in marketing, so I started my own company about three or four years ago and it was a Hawaii culture and retail association, and I helped artisans and practitioners bring their products to market, and as I was doing that I realized there was a real need for access to capital, and I always, yes, and I was blessed to come across the Patti Teeming Center for Business and Leadership and our missions aligned, and I am so lucky to be here today as their director, and I, you know, brought all my people over and we've been doing a great job and what the programs that we have, but sounds like you've got almost the perfect resume for doing what you're doing, I mean you've got a lot of retail, I mean, and hospitality, I mean, that's the two big industries here in Hawaii. You know, eight and a half million people come, right, to the island to enjoy the culture and the people we work with are wonderful, I mean, they, their products and their services are inspirational to us, so that's why we're here, we're here to help them. That's great, and Colleen, how did you get to where you're at? Well, I'm a local girl also, born and raised here on the big island, actually, and I was, which side, that's important, which I grew up in Waimea, okay, and I went to college on the mainland, came back, and I also had a retail career as a buyer for about 15 years, and then once my third child was born, I became a stay-at-home mom, so I've been, that's a big job, it is, I've been back to work for about two years now, so this is my second career, and really, really excited to give to the nonprofit community. Very good, well congratulations, it sounds like you guys have found a real niche for yourselves in what you're doing, all right, so tell us a little bit about the Patsy Mink Center, what, it's been around for a little while now, right? Yeah, the Center actually opened in 2012, almost five years, yeah, so we're very fortunate, we have a grant from the SBA that helps us with the programs, and we're hosted by the YWCA, so, you know, our mission's really aligned, you know, Women's Business Center, and so, you know, the thing is we, we're women helping women succeed, but we help men too, you know. I think somebody said that they really needed to. Yeah, so I mean, so we have a lot of programs, we have really innovative workshops, we try to get the trending topics of the time, and that's very interesting. You got to be relevant, that means being current. Right, and we have many programs that we run, we have about four specific programs geared to helping you either start a business, you know, grow it, or just be a leader in the business. Well, what kind of programs are those? Well, one of our programs that we're really proud of, we just launched this year, is the Leadership Alliance, and that's really taking, you know, middle of a career women, and giving them the tools they need to advance, you know, maybe to see sweet. So in this program, we invite subject matter experts to come in and talk about, you know, financial acumen, strategic planning, negotiations, all the tools they need to further the leadership skills. Right, so these are people that would have a position in a company already that they want to advance and move on. Yeah, they're great, they're leaders already, and they're just beginning to move up in their career. Very good, and is that a pretty big program? Do you have a lot of people engaged in that? We kind of have about 14, 14 in our cohort, right, and their graduation is actually coming up soon. March 1st would be the graduation, and they will be looking for the next cohort this summer. Very good, and how often do you have the cohorts? Well, this is our first one. It's a six-month program, so it runs once a year. Very good, and Colleen, what other kind of programs do they have? We have, we have a youth leadership program called our Girls Summit, and we run that twice a year. That is funded by donations from Home Street Bank, the McInerney Foundation, and also the Salt Chuck companies that touches Salt Chuck. It's the Young Brothers. Oh, okay, I had not heard that one. Yes, and so we run it between a public school and a private school. We've had Farrington High School matched with St. Andrews twice now, St. Andrews Priory, excuse me, twice now, and then on the Big Island we hosted a Honoka High School with Hawaii Preparatory Academy. So you're really on all different islands then? Well, we, we are often asked if we do have offices on the outer islands or the neighbor islands, we don't, but we do, another one of our services is our one on one free business counseling, so we will offer that via the phone, so we can take care of some neighbor island, small businesses and entrepreneurs that way. Well, and I would imagine that at some day, I mean, if we wanted to, you know, use Skype and have actually, you know, a face-to-face meeting, I guess that's an option too. That's true. We're not quite there yet, but it is an opportunity in the future. Yeah, that'd be great. You know, actually, we've been talking about doing something like that here at this show is to have interviews, you know, done via Skype, and I know we've got that capability now, so, you know, we might explore that, you know, run around a little bit. That would be great. Now, you've got a lot of volunteers helping you with this too, right? We have a lot of subject matter experts, and we couldn't put the programs together without them. You know, they're from all the different industries. We have, you know, the finance, accountants, insurance people, lawyers, so that's really the team that makes this work, and we're always looking for, you know, people to help us with that. And you both have retail backgrounds and some marketing, I guess you do teach your classes as well? Yes, we do. So my background is manufacturing and product development, so I really enjoy helping, you know, people take their product to market. So you can actually help them all the way through the whole cycle? Exactly. I have many success stories that I want to come back and share with you. All right, that'd be great. That's, you know, something we can kind of bring them with you so that they can, you know, kind of share their story and how it all kind of came together and worked for them. That'd be exciting, like that a lot. You know, and so how often do you have these programs that you offer to the community? Well, we have four major programs that Kalima's mentioning. Launch My Business is our signature program, and it's a 40 hour program, and we do it three times a year. And basically, it takes you from the beginning just getting a business license to the end where you're ready to do a business plan. So that, again, is three times a year, and it, we are very sensitive to women. We know they work during the day, so we actually have it in the evening and on the weekend. Okay, so it's kind of staggered. It's not all 40 hours in one week. No, for seven weeks. It's kind of spread over a seven-week period. Yes, yes, yes. That makes it a little bit easier for people to go to. Right, definitely. And how does somebody find out more information about some of these programs? So you can go to our website, which is mcbl-hawaii.org, and all of our programs and workshops are listed on that. All right, very good. And I know that you're kind of redesigning some things, and so it's a, it's a kind of a work in process, but it's, it should be easy to find, you know, the information. Oh, yes, definitely. We're, we're trying to put everything on there. One of the highlights of the Center is that we help women with all different businesses. So from communication, website development, you know, content, social media. So we use all of our clients to help us build the site. So it's, it's not only fun, you know, it's current, it's up-to-date, and we have the best working on it, so. Very good. Keep checking. So it's a real collaboration. Yes, it is. Definitely, yes. That's right. And keep checking, meaning that it's getting better and better all the time. Yes, yes, yes. Very good. And if somebody wanted to sign up for a course, is there a waiting line, or is it an application process, or how does, for example, to start your own business program, how would somebody be considered to join the next cohort? Right. For the Launch My Business program, we do have an application that needs to be filled out for it, so we do ask, on the website it does show that we ask that you contact us via email or a phone us for the information. For our one-on-one business counseling, also there is a form to fill out that you email to us, and then we get back in touch with you to set up a counseling appointment. And those counseling appointments are available in the mornings, afternoons, or? They're usually available more in the afternoon. A lot of people like to come after work if they have a, the one-on-one business counseling is basically targeted at people who would like to start a business. They are entrepreneurs, they're looking to, they have an idea. Many of them don't, they have an idea and a concept, but they don't know where to go with it, so they'll come to us to get guidance, and that's, that's the basis of our whole program. It's where most of our clients start, so they are able to come at various times throughout the week. Yes. So it's really, if somebody has an idea about doing something, they're not quite exactly sure, you know, what they want to do. They have the idea, but how do I get started? Where do I go? And you can take that and kind of flesh it out a little bit and give them some direction on how to make it all happen. Right. We definitely want to save them time and money, you know, and not make any costly mistakes, so, you know, that's the main thing. Well, and that's, that's where the experience comes in, because I don't know about you guys, but I've made some mistakes in the past. It has cost me money, and I like to make sure that the people I talk to, they don't do the same. Right, exactly. They can learn from my mistakes. Exactly. Yeah, that's good. You know, what are some of the most popular topics that you have over there that you work with clients or customers on? Most of the time for our entrepreneurs and business clients, they are interested in their financials, how to put that together, how to use QuickBooks, how to read a spreadsheet. They're, most of them are wanting to start a company that doesn't have anything to do with what they are actually currently doing at the time, so they don't necessarily have the knowledge, the finance knowledge that they need. So that's probably one of our number one requests. Yeah, well, a lot of people, I guess, are, you know, creative. They know their product. They know what they want to be able to create and sell and what might be popular, but there's a lot more to it, you know, and that's the pieces that they may be not so familiar with. Right. And sometimes, from my experience, people don't really know what they don't know, and they need to be aware of some of the issues. You know, like getting a basic business license and paying this thing called GET. Yes. Yeah, it's disappointing when you find out about some of this. It is. And a lot of our clients have jumped in and started a business and then realized, you know, I think I need some help. I need a little direction and some guidance. And we also offer a lot of counseling for those people. That's great. We're going to take a short break. We're going to be back in one minute. We're going to continue our discussion with Terry and Colleen with the Patsy Mink Center for Business and Leadership. We'll see you in about one minute. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm the host of Center Stage, which is on Wednesdays at two o'clock here on Think Tech. On Center Stage, I talk with artists about not only what they do and how they do it, but the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it, why we go through this. A lot of us are not making our livings doing this, and a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had that choice. And that's what I love to talk to people about. I hope you enjoy watching it, and I hope you get inspired, because there's an artist inside G2. Join us on Center Stage at two o'clock on Wednesdays. Bye. Aloha, my name is Josh Green. I serve as Senator from the Big Island on the Kona side, and I'm also an emergency room physician. My program here on Think Tech is called Health Care in Hawaii. I'll have guests that should be interesting to you twice a month. We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system, and any challenges that we face here in Hawaii. We hope you'll join us. Again, thanks for supporting Think Tech. Aloha, and welcome back to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here today talking to the Patsy Mink Center for business and leadership with the two primary players in that organization, Terry and Colleen. And we were just getting into a broad discussion about all the different programs and services that the Patsy Mink Center offers and how they help the business community, the women in business. Can we kind of take this down a notch to maybe almost like a case study of how somebody might come to you and how they could all flesh out and become a reality? Well, we had a Launch My Business is our signature program, like I was mentioning. We just actually had an article published today about one of our cohorts and clients, Sarah Rice. She came and she took the Launch My Business course, and she actually had an MBA, but she didn't have any real life experience. So she really stated that this course really helped her to learn that on an experience. And one of the things that's important, I think, for people to know is that, you know, even for those that don't have a business degree, you can have a business degree and you can have an MBA and you can have all this knowledge. But it doesn't mean that you can actually start a business and get it up and running. There's still things that you need to bring to the table that will complement that basic education to make it a reality. Right. And Sarah really credits the counselors and the one-on-one time to help her get her business plan going and actually, you know, just the support that we have in the center to get it going. You don't add anything to that? Well, I think to do a step-by-step scenario. So Sarah had her concept. She actually had started her business, which is called Busted and it's a large-sized bra shop. She ran into some questions and realized, gosh, I think I need some direction. She came in for one-on-one counseling. Then she joined our Launch My Business program. She went through the program. Then through, this was last summer, then a couple of months, she still, she was trying to set up a retail brick and mortar. And so she also, and she also has a website. So she would touch back with our counselor after the graduation. So there's ongoing support? There is. Yes, definitely. After the graduation for the cohort, they are welcome to come back. So now she has progressed to opening a brick and mortar store. She still works her full-time job, so her store is open on the evenings during the week and on weekends. So she's transitioning and hoping that eventually it will become her full-time job. See, that's another important message. It's good for people to know. You might want to have your business, but it doesn't mean you have to stop everything you're doing now to do it. You can transition into it. Right. That's one of the first suggestions our counselors have, is do not quit your job. It's one of the most important things. You want to maintain your financial stability and keep your job until you can, for sure, establish something that... Not to be discouraging, but a lot of businesses may have good ideas but doesn't always work for one reason or another. Correct. And so before you pull the plug on a dependable revenue or a cash flow, it's best that you know that this other one is going to be working for you. Definitely. By going through this and not picking on anybody in particular, but what are some of the most common mistakes that people have or questions that they might have that, when you go through the program, they're trained and taught a little bit on how to address. Access to capital is always a big issue. Finding good people. I mean, what else? I mean, there's rules and regulations. Have you encountered anything that's kind of a common recurring theme? Well, I think after they leave the class and they do open their business, they often come back and ask us about management skills. We have a client just coming back now that we're putting together a class because what do they do when they hire their employees? How do they train their employees? I mean, it goes on and on with business. So, you know, one of our goals is to have an alumni and so they can keep coming back and... Which is valuable to have that exchange of ideas. Right, definitely. Yeah, so... And we can utilize them as new subject matter experts too because they've gone through the process now and they've opened their business. Right. And if you've got the right group of people, they can almost become like an informal advisory board of sorts, you know, that they can get together and exchange and help each other out. Right. You know, that's probably one of the bigger values of going through one of these cohorts is some of the relationships you make. Right, that's exactly what Sarah points out. She said, you know, the cohort that she was in is instrumental to her business. They call each other, they support each other. She had a number of them there helping her open her store, getting it all set, setting up her merchandise. So, it was... They're definitely a strong support group for each other. Now, all of this benefits, all this value and this education that they're picking up and I mean, it's got to be expensive, right? How much does all this cost? Well, we're fortunate to be funded by the SBA but it is a matching grant and we do take donations and we're fortunate that we've been getting donations privately and publicly. We do have a fundraiser that we do. We do. Colleen is in charge of that. She does a marvelous job. Thank you. We have our downtown uncorked, which is usually a wine tasting. I've heard about that, yes. It's a wine and beer tasting but also it's actually developed into a client showcase for us. So, our last... Excellent. Yeah, our last one we had in October, we were able to showcase about probably about eight to ten clients that had just graduated from the Cohort 7 Launch My Business and they were there doing product development, product research with our attendees at our fundraiser and they really received a lot of excellent feedback and this year, we usually have that twice a year. So, this year we're doing it once a year. That will be probably in early November of 2017 and in probably April or May, we'll be doing a larger client showcase where our clients will actually be able to sell what their products are or else and give out information on their services. So, I hear that a lot of this is like internal fundraising that you do for the center yourself. Does the participants in the cohort have to pay a fee or get involved in anything? Well, some of our programs are free and some have a small cost. We try to keep it reasonable. Very reasonable, yeah. Because, you know, that's the main mission is to really help. So, that's why the donors, you know, really help out. They cover the bulk of the cost and the participants just, you know, pay a little bit of. Yeah. And we do have a new donate button on our website. Oh, you do? Yeah. So, feel free anyone. What's that website again? That's mcbl-hawaii.org. All right, very good. Taxi deductible. We just missed 2016. It's a new year. Yeah, but that's good. And where do you get your volunteers from? You must have a lot of volunteers helping out. We do. We're fortunate that we have a great advisory board that helps us to get the subject matter experts and being hosted by the YWCA. We have a lot of women who just participate and, you know, donate their time. But we're always looking for more. You know, we can, we, every industry we need someone. We need somebody from from an accountant to an insurance, you know, to lawyers, counselors, anything, every, every industry. And if somebody was interested in volunteering, how would they do that? They would probably just give us a direct call or try to reach us on email. They can find that on the website, how to contact us. And that would be and they just reach out to you or they can come in. They can always walk in. We're on the ground floor at the YWCA right off the lobby. Well, that's convenient. Yeah. And then I hear that you might even be having a warming house. You just went through some renovations, right? We did. We just moved from the third floor at the YWCA down to the first floor. Prime space. It is. And we have a beautiful new office and location. And that grand opening will be probably the first part of March. All right. So that's coming up then. And that's gonna be very convenient. Hopefully the weather will work for us. Yes. Yeah. So pull some strings, make sure the Vogue all goes away. Yes. That's right. You know, and so you've got all these volunteers coming in, you've got these participants coming in. How do you find the participants? Is there a is it just word of mouth? Or do you go you you participate? I see you around in a lot of different expos and events too. I mean, you're with the SBA, you do other things. Yeah, we're also a partner with Hawaii Business Magazine. And so we are one of the one of the special nonprofit partners at the Wahine Forum Conference every year. We write. So there's usually about 900, 900 attendees to that every year. And we do a lot of marketing at that event. And a lot of a lot of women find us that way. And also through the we have a newsletter through our bulletin board at the Y is amazingly effective. So there's a lot of traffic coming in and out of that lobby. Yeah. And you also reach out to younger women too, right? In the high schools? Yes, we do a girl summit twice a year where we get girls from the private school and in the public school. And then we teach them the education and you know how to look forward in the career what's available. And we just had one on Big Island. We did. And so we focused on STEM, science, technology, English and math. And it was it was a really nice small group that we had a couple of our board, our advisory board members were there to do some presentations on it was focused on women's careers and technology. Well, yes. And just letting them know what is actually available out there for that. That's one of the industries that we really want to attract to Hawaii is the clean industry. And then it could be done, you know, in the virtual world for the most part, you know, it's perfect for what we have here in Hawaii. Right. And then our mentally friendly, right. And our YWCA piece in that girl summit is an advocacy piece. And so we hit on the gender inequality of for pay for women's pay. And there's a disparity there, isn't there? Yes, yes. So they had to do an interactive writing piece on that. So that was that was very, very wonderful opened up their eyes a little bit. Yeah, I think women are still 80 cents to the men's dollars. So we're working on that. Just don't take my 20. No, I hear you. There's got to be something done about the equality issue, you know, and it's the right thing to do. One of and we only have about a minute or so left. So I want to say this quickly. But one of the areas that I know that men need and I would think that women do too is business etiquette, you know, how to do your emails, how to do your writing, how to show up on time and leave on time and, and how to, you know, just going to a business meal, whether it be lunch or dinner or whatever, I mean, there's certain things do you anything like that at all that's part of your classes? You know, that's actually a really good topic. Maybe we might have to have you as an expert to be here. I'd be real good at showing you all the things not to do. No, actually, we do have a personal pathways program that we provide. And that's four times a year. See that to me, that's important, because when you get between if you're going in to close a deal, or make a proposal, or you're even a job interview, or, and in my personal opinion, every time you have dinner or lunch with somebody, if it's your boss, you're being evaluated. And it's important to have proper etiquette and be able to conduct yourself appropriately. Definitely. And that's that's an important part of success, I think. Well, we'll maybe we can have a program. All right, but we were wrapping up, it was very good to have you on the show. It went so quick. I'm looking forward to our maybe next catch up session, we can talk some more about the cohort and how they're doing. Definitely. Thank you so much for having us. My pleasure. Thank you. This is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We air every Thursday from two to two 30 and we highlight successful stories and people who help businesses become successful. Hope to see you next week. Until then, aloha.