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Hawaiian Business Is Alive and Well

May 4, 2007

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The CondoI am sitting on the patio furniture overlooking the pool and ocean at Hale Hui Kai on the island of Maui, Hawaii. (web cam of the beach in front of the condo)

I highly recommend the Hale Hui Kai condo as it has a great beach, reasonable snorkeling, and is very well maintained.

Unit 205 is the 2 bedroom condo we are using, is owned by our friend Rosa Say and was recently renovated.

Doing Business From Anywhere

As a business coach I do almost all my work over the phone and internet with my clients. This is the third of my seven week experiment to answer an important question “Can I do business away from home?”

The answer is, yes.

The biggest adjustment in the beginning was the four hour difference between Mountain (MST) time and Hawai’i local time. The exchange rate is pretty close to par, I pay about a 13% premium when buying US cash.

Living and working on Maui is pretty affordable from an exchange rate perspective. IMO, the cost of living in Kihei, Maui is approximately 20-30% higher than Western Canada. The change of pace, beautiful weather, and beaches makes up for the higher cost of living and is a welcome change of pace. Cell phone coverage is pretty affordable with a Pay-as-you-go phone and much, much cheaper than roaming my Canadian cell phone.

Hawaii Business Environment

As you would expect the driver of the Hawaiian economy is tourism which means that food & beverage, hospitality, and activities (snorkel tours, sight seeing etc.) are the biggest employers.

Business owners here face the same challenges as anywhere else.

  • Population Density: One of the unique challenges of doing business in Hawai’i is population density. The population of Hawai’i is 1,275,194 with some 70% 905,266 on Oahu.
  • Business-to-Business: If your customers are other businesses the greatest concentration of businesses will be on Oahu, so if you live on another Island you can expect to do a lot of commuting via Air.
  • Inter-Island Commuting: Hawaiian Airlines is great and the prices are affordable. There is a ferry service coming which will be interesting to see how that helps commuters and inter-island commerce.

Evidence of small business is everywhere. For example, you will be driving along a seemingly isolated highway and you will see a sign pointing to a local “Coffee House” in the woods. Plus the ever present tourist demand dictates that many of the small businesses are food & beverage, hospitality, and tourist activities.

Written by Greg Balanko-Dickson · Filed Under Formal Exit, Personal Commentary, Starting to Look Around | Leave a Comment