Erin Kanno Uehara, Choco Le‘a’s owner and chocolate connections officer, still remembers the shock of having to temporarily shut down her Manoa-based chocolate business and lay off 22 workers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Choco Le‘a’s tourism and corporate wholesale accounts still haven’t come back. However, Uehara said she found a new recipe for success by shifting to a more retail-focused business model and adding an online component.
“When the pandemic happened, the people who really showed up were the locals,” she said. “We had no money, so I thought everyone would be saving their money to spend on toilet paper, but I was surprised that some of the rest of the world was working and they were stressed out and wanted chocolate.”
In the aftermath of the pandemic, Uehara said, people have returned to connecting in person, and she took the opportunity in May to expand the business by adding an upstairs gathering space where she hosts chocolate tastings, business tours, special events and classes in entrepreneurship.
Uehara said her own business has taught her the power of change and its importance for resiliency, and that’s why she is one of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii members who is enthusiastic about the development of its “2030 Blueprint for Hawaii, an Economic Action Plan,” which contains 17 initiatives to strengthen Hawaii’s business community.
“This is about everyone getting on board to not give up on Hawaii and to look out for each other,” Uehara said.
Chamber President and CEO Sherry Menor-McNamara said the chamber paid a third-party contractor $100,000 to develop the Blueprint, a forward-thinking analysis to support new and better business opportunities for small-business owners, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Menor-McNamara said Hawaii’s business owners are painfully aware that the state’s post-pandemic job recovery is the slowest in the nation, while the costs of living and doing business remain the highest in the country and outmigration and “brain drain” continue to affect small business and job growth.
She said the Blueprint is a way for business owners to pool their voices to support the three key issues critical to improving Hawaii’s economy:
>> Promoting economic diversification, investing in education and technology, and supporting the local community and culture.
>> Increasing workforce quantity and quality, improving the business climate and lowering the costs of living and doing business.
>> Increasing jobs and economic resilience, focusing on additional resources on in-demand industries and supporting a targeted public-policy agenda.
For the full list of Blueprint recommendations, visit 808ne.ws/4fctxRv. Menor-McNamara said periodic updates are planned.
Mark Oyama, owner of Mark’s Place on Kauai, said in a video produced in conjunction with the chamber’s release of the 2030 Blueprint, “The biggest challenge we have is employees. My business (was) open 10 hours a day. We are open four to five hours a day now due to lack of employees. Someone calls in sick and we are going to have to shut down some days because we don’t have enough employees.”
Menor-McNamara said one of the reasons that Hawaii feels the economic challenges so acutely is that small businesses represent an estimated 99.3% of all businesses in the state and employ 50.7% of Hawaii’s total workforce.
She said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that small businesses have a 20% failure rate in the first year and a 31% failure rate in the first two years, which means that the stakes for businesses to succeed are higher in Hawaii. Also, a LendingTree report in 2022 reported that Hawaii has the highest percentage of failed businesses, Menor-McNamara said.
Toby Taniguchi, president and chief operating officer of KTA Super Stores, said in the chamber’s Blueprint 2030 video, “When I look around here on Hawaii island, I see a lot of locally owned businesses closing up shop or retiring or leaving because of the challenge that there is to run a business here.”
Menor-McNamara said many of Hawaii’s businesses, especially the smaller ones, have felt the impact of the rise in minimum wage from $10.10 an hour prior to Oct. 1, 2022, to $12 an hour in 2022 and the Jan. 1 increase to $14 an hour. She said the $2-an-hour rise was the largest increase of the 22 states where minimum-wage increases took place that day, and Hawaii’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $16 per hour in 2026 and $18 per hour in 2028.
Taniguchi said, “The Blueprint came up with some really concrete ideas whether it’s 21st-century agriculture, whether it’s sustainable tourism or whether it’s (marine-related). There are tangible things that we, as a community, as a business sector, can look at to really coalesce around and try to advance for the betterment of our communities.”
When it comes to Hawaii’s top business sector, travel and tourism, Menor-McNamara said the Blueprint recommends adopting new technologies that speed transactions, automate bookings and enhance the customer experience; focusing on new attractions and events; committing to timely renovations of facilities; and developing regionally based tourism strategies.
The Blueprint also made recommendations for Hawaii’s top military and defense sector, including developing a skilled local workforce for cybersecurity and technology fields; exploring AI applications that provide efficiency, save on costs and reduce loss of life; using additive/tech-based manufacturing to hasten repairs and increase cost savings; and investing in the new frontier of space technology.
Menor-McNamara said the Blueprint also recommended focusing on quality-of-life improvements such as child care, which can account for as much as 18% of the annual income of a married couple or 46% for a single parent. She said the Blueprint also offers recommendations to address housing costs and to improve infrastructure to attract and retain young professionals, as well as investing in parks, homeless reduction programs, youth centers and activation of community spaces.
Connie Mitchell, executive director of the Institute for Human Services, said in the Blueprint 2030 video, “I feel like it acknowledges the need to make life in Hawaii more affordable and livable, especially for young people but also for everybody.”
By the numbers
Where Hawaii ranks nationally when it comes to doing business:
50th
CNBC’s cost of doing business
42nd
Tax Foundation’s business climate
37th
U.S. News’ infrastructure rankings
6th
Sixth-highest state and local taxes per capita
