Isle artisans find friend in business aid program

Love Chance said she knew her medicinal handmade soaps had international potential, but needed help on the details of how to do it.

In 2011, Chance’s Indigenous Soap Co. bars were being sold in 100 stores statewide, and she was looking to expand outside of the islands. To take the leap, Chance attended a session on international exports at the Hawaii Export Assistance Center where she met Joe Burns, director of the Oahu office of the Hawaii Small Business Development Center.

“At that time I was new to international business, and I had a lot of little questions,” Chance said.

After meeting Burns, Chance sold her product in Japan for two years and began exporting to California, New York, Montana and Florida.

“Joe helped me get into Japan,” Chance said. “I was selling to Japan for a while. At the moment I sell to four states.”

So far in 2016 the state’s SBDC program helped 86 businesses start, helped create 419 jobs and provided roughly 5,834 counseling hours to business, Burns said.

The Hawaii SBDC is a program of the University of Hawaii at Hilo funded partially through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration but has offices statewide.

SBDC receives both state and federal funding. Burns said the Hawaii SBDC received $1.4 million for the 2016 budget.

Chance, one of Hawaii SBDC’s 309 long-term clients, said Burns helped her with strategy and gave her tips on negotiating prices, direction on what forms to fill out and numbers for what price points or quantities she should offer.

“I would have had to pay a lot of money for some of the stuff he helped me with,” Chance said.

Today, Indigenous Soap is in 150 stores statewide — it is sold at health food stores such as Whole Foods Market and hotels like the Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club.

“They gave me some information lawyers would give you,” she said. “Joe is a business adviser to me. Sometimes it’s a minute conversation, sometimes it’s an hour. “

SBDC’s Burns said the center has helped 1,112 businesses statewide in 2016.

“You don’t feel alone in a way,” said Tamara Butterbaugh, director of fulfillment for Kailua-based Manoa Chocolate. “They are just there for us in every way. … If you are starting a business, even if you are in the idea phase, you should reach out to the Small Business Development Center. Get serious and meet with someone and have them help you develop your ideas.”

Butterbaugh said her husband, Dylan Butterbaugh, found out about SBDC when applying for a loan for their boutique chocolate factory.

“We were able to get a larger amount because SBDC was backing the loan,” Butterbaugh said.

One of the conditions for getting the loan was to have weekly meetings with SBDC.

“People have life coaches. We have business coaches,” Butterbaugh said.

Butterbaugh said the SBDC has also connected her and her husband to grant opportunities.

“They’ll match you with a business expert that is on staff to give you free business consulting,” she said. “If you have some sort of issue with your business, you can also lean on them to help advise, so instead of hiring a lawyer for these kinds of things, they can be a resource.”