Q. What is the Hawai'i Women's Business Center and why is it important?

A. The Hawai'i Women's Business Center provides programs, counseling, workshops and a variety of different support programs for women- and men-owned businesses or people considering starting a business. It's all different levels through the life cycle of a business. Some of the programs are specific to different skills that people need. We also provide very low-cost or free counseling services and a variety of different networking opportunities so people can get the word out about their business and grow it.

Q. How did you get involved?

A. I was a business consultant in Massachusetts and it was my husband's and my dream to relocate to Hawai'i and we did that about 5 1/2 years ago. I did not want to make any assumptions that I knew what the community needs were, so it was my goal when I moved here to volunteer for an organization. We had the opportunity to meet Jane Sawyer, who is with the Small Business Administration and one of the original people who helped put together the Hawai'i Women's Business Center. She suggested that I volunteer my services as a counselor at the center and I did that and I was truly impressed by what the center offered, about the women that I met, and have never stopped from that day being involved with the center.

Q. Has the HWBC center changed much since you've become a member?

A. We're still trying to develop a specific niche. We're actually looking for input from women-owned businesses in the community as to what their needs are. We want to be proactive in the development of our programs and services. We don't want to make the assumption, again, that we know what the needs are. We are always evolving. We've been doing a lot of fundraising programs and a lot of networking events because we have found that that is really what a lot of small-business owners need. They're very technically proficient at what they do, but just don't know how to get the word out about their business.

Q. Is getting the word out about the HWBC also a challenge?

A. Definitely. We have a great location, a large facility in the Chinatown Gateway area, but it still surprises me that many, many people have never heard of us. That is what one of our goals is, to get the word out about the center, see if we need to maybe offer other programs to the Neighbor Islands where they might need what we offer as well. Or, if we need to develop more consistent programs at the location that we're at currently. When I started my business, I didn't know that there were any programs like this available. I have my MBA, I went to graduate school, I ended up teaching graduate business later on, but even with all that I "didn't know what I didn't know." I realized that all the schooling I had was helpful, but I was missing so many important skills. Marketing for me was the biggest challenge being a small-business owner. I don't think it's just locally, I think it's nationally. There are women's business centers all over the country, and I don't know how much information is out there about their availability.

Q. What's the biggest challenge for women business owners?

A. I've seen thousands of women business owners at different levels. The center itself has had over 10,000 women go through their programs. I do think that the major challenge that we have here, especially in Hawai'i, is financing, getting the money that we need in order to grow our businesses. We don't realize when we're starting a business how important it is that funding is available to keep our business growing or going.

Q. Is it more difficult for women to be in business here?

A. There are a lot of programs that are specifically out there for women. If a business is owned by a woman by 51 percent, then it's considered a minority-owned business and the Small Business Administration definitely has programs that can assist with that. I think it's becoming more common knowledge, but I don't think that women necessarily take advantage of that. Also, women tend to not realize their full potential, that they start businesses either because they have had a child and they want to stay home so they don't necessarily want to go back to work, or they want more flexibility, or they want a change of life, so they think of creating a small business, which is great. But a lot of the women that I've met have products and services that could really change the way that we do things. They tend to think small, not on a larger scale. The HWBC has seen some women-owned businesses that they have helped to take their products nationally. One of the major roles of the counselors at the center is to either assess a person if they're thinking of starting a business, as well as assess their business plan.

Q. You wear a lot of hats. How do you manage your time?

A. One of my skills or best attributes is I'm very organized. I have to be very organized because there's no way that I would be able to get everything done.

Q. Where do you hope to take the HWBC?

A. We want to be able to expand our services. One is to have an outreach program, be it in other areas of O'ahu, versus just Downtown Honolulu, as well as the Neighbor Islands. We'd love to be able to reach women and help women all across the state. We also would like to be able to provide more in-depth counseling and programs. Going to companies and businesses that might not be able to afford full costs for some of these counselings or programs, but offer them more in-depth assistance to take them through whatever struggle they're going through at the time or whatever issues they're having at that time. That's a win-win for the whole community because it keeps businesses from defaulting on loans, it keeps businesses from having to lay off people, and it makes everybody successful.

Q. Do you have the staff to accomplish this?

A. A large majority of our staff are volunteers and we are looking to increase our volunteer base. But we also do need some full-time support staff to run the center. The center is a business itself, so we need to make sure that we're operating an efficient business. Currently we have one full-time counselor, Cherylle Morrow, who has been with the center since the beginning and is wonderful, but she can't do it all. So definitely that is one of our goals. We have had some fundraising that we've initiated over the past year. We just had our annual fundraising program. Last year we hosted the Small Business Awards that was able to get us some sponsorship money. So we're definitely trying to bring in monies through fundraising, grants and different programs so that we can increase the staff and the services that we're providing.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.