LEADERSHIP CORNER
Power is 'within yourself,' Women's Business Center director says
Interviewed by Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Age: 52 on Thanksgiving
Title: Executive director
Organization: The Hawai'i Women's Business Center, the first organization in the state focused on helping women start and grow their own businesses. As an executive with Bank of America, which transitioned into American Savings Bank, Cabrera volunteered at the center when it started up.
High school: Carlmont High School in Northern California
College: Canada College, University of Phoenix, Hawaii Wellness Institute
Breakthrough job: Coming to Hawai'i with Bank of America, which allowed me to draw on my leadership techniques as a coach and mentor, which led me to becoming a professional development consultant/business coach, which led me to executive director of Hawai'i Women's Business Center.
Little-known fact: I used to play the violin as a child.
Major challenge: Breast cancer survivor of four years.
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Q. Do you have any important mentors who helped make you the kind of professional person you are today?
A. I have had a number of mentors. My sister Lenore Herrera; Sachi Wakilina, personal friend; Anna Marie Springer, senior vice president at American Savings Bank; Jane Sawyer at the Small Business Administration; Kelly Walsh, senior vice president of Bank of Hawaii; Sunny Massad, Ph.D., mentor and friend.
But Anna Marie Springer coached me and prompted me to get involved with the Hawai'i Women's Business Center. At the time, I was a branch manager at the Ala Moana branch. I was looking for a way to assist women to access capital. Being a branch manager, I had women come into the branch and ask me, "How do I do this? I need to get a loan to start a business.' " Opportunities were limited, and I started to look for opportunities outside of the bank to get women that information. Once I found out a women's business center was being developed, I got more involved, with Anna Marie's encouragement. I wanted to get them resources to help them build business plans, to build marketing plans, to have someone talk to them about their ideas and coach them about how to go about and do it. I was bringing that information back into the branches, and they were able to help women with these same questions.
Q. Was there a seminal moment in your professional career that seared a philosophy of yours?
A. My mother, Beatrice, goes back to the Rosie the Riveter days. She was in the union during World War II. She was on the line being a machinist and she was also a supervisor. By the time I was born and started growing up, times were starting to change. She encouraged me to make something of myself. My older sister, on the other hand, was going to get married and have kids. I was supposed to travel and start my own business, if I could. ... (The) message was to be my own woman, be my own person. To always remain an individual.
Q. Is that a message you try to pass along to women you help?
A. It is. When you try and go into business for yourself, there are a lot of fear-based issues that start surfacing. If you can't overcome those fear-based issues, they'll overtake you. You have to understand that you have the power within yourself. There's no one that can take that away from you. If women can understand that no one can take the power away, they will succeed.
Q. What encouraging signs are there for women entrepreneurs?
A. There are a lot of quarterly networking opportunities. We bring together businesswomen in the community who are willing to share their stories. Some of these women have stories that are unbelievable. Having these networking events and allowing other people to actually ask the questions directly to women on the panel gives them inspiration, motivation and encouragement to continue with their dream.
And having a center focused on women's business aspirations is relatively new. Women communicate from the heart instead of the head. So when they talk about their dream of entrepreneurship, they're talking about a dream that will fulfill them. And it's encouraging to have a women's business center where they can come and talk to other successful women about what it took for them to be successful, how they went about getting a loan, building a business plan.
Q. What is the lending picture, in particular, for women-owned businesses?
A. We're technical assistance providers for the Small Business Administration's community express loans, and there are opportunities. They're offering $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000 loan increments. Banks traditionally do not lend less than $50,000 to a small business. So having this ... has opened up the doors for many women.
There are 29,000-plus woman-owned businesses in Hawai'i, and business has been expanding somewhat in the last three years. A lot of it has to do with the fact that there are women's businesses that have shifted. One of the areas that they are not tracking is home-based businesses, the ones that are the craft businesses. I think a lot of those businesses are starting to shift up into solid businesses. Instead of working out of the garage or extra bedroom at home, they're starting to go out.
Q. What can be done to encourage those businesses?
A. One of the things I'm trying to develop is an incubator where women can start a business and have a storefront, per se, and also have use of resources. They would have access to phones, fax machines, copy machines, various equipment, at a reduced rate. They would still pay rent, but it wouldn't be $1,000 per month. They would have their own storefront but also some communal space. And we'd have volunteers who could go on out and stop by and just listen or give advice. I'm hoping maybe two years minimum. Right now I've projected a cost of $350,000 minimum start-up. But the cost could vary depending on where it is or if there's someone out there who has a place they'd just love to give us.
Q. What roadblocks or barriers remain for women's businesses?
A. It continues to be access to capital. Women typically do not have the credit. Here in Hawai'i, I've noticed that a lot of women want to start their businesses as a result of a breakup of a marriage or a relationship. At that point, their resources are very limited.
Q. What are the odds of a woman who has not had a lot of lending in her own name to get a start-up business loan?
A. Limited. Very limited. If her credit has already been affected, perhaps through the marriage, it can be daunting to clear that credit up. We offer financial literacy classes as well to help clear up credit. The bottom line is that money is not going to be handed to you. We have to show that we can pay back. Our goal here is to provide that understanding through counseling.
