Some would tell Lori Cardenas that her timing wasn't exactly the greatest when she purchased Aunty Lilikoi Passion Fruit Products in 2001.

Cardenas and her husband, Tony, bought the tiny Kaua'i company while they were putting their two sons through college in Arizona. A month after getting the five original recipes from previous owner Tom Cassidy, the 9/11 terrorist attacks sent the country and the economy into a tailspin.

But Cardenas was able to keep the Waimea-based small business afloat and even managed to expand its product line and sales. Aunty Lilikoi now produces 17 varieties of passion fruit dressings, sauces, juices, jellies, butter and mustards, and also carries a line of body care and aromatherapy products.

In 2005, her passion fruit wasabi mustard was named grand champion at the 12th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival in California. This past March, Cardenas was presented a U.S. Small Business Administration exporter of the year award for Kaua'i County.

Since taking over the company, Cardenas said revenue has increased "six times." Not bad for a woman who rolled the dice so she could own and operate her own business.

"My mom thought I was nuts. You buy a business when you're trying to put two kids through college at the same time?" said Cardenas, 48. "It was a very big leap of faith."

But Cardenas said she always wanted to own a business. The Kaua'i High graduate has degrees in business management and accounting from Kaua'i Community College and had worked in managerial positions at other companies, including Paradise Sportswear, makers of the original red dirt T-shirt.

She said she saw a newspaper ad in May 2001 that Aunty Lilikoi was for sale and decided that was the company for her.

"I knew it was a good product and I knew that I could do it, although I had not made a single jar of jelly prior to buying Aunty Lilikoi," Cardenas said. "It looked like a cute little business that would suit me and it's something that I could take very small and grow it as much as I wanted to."

Cardenas set out to master the five "classic" recipes and also increase the number and variety of products. She experimented with various recipes to meet the demands of her customers.

When she bought the company, Cardenas was making the Aunty Lilikoi products in a commercial kitchen that she leased by the hour and the items were stored at her house. Cardenas said she struggled because she had to move her ingredients to the kitchen and then the finished products to her home.

After a year of doing this, she found a small commercial kitchen in Waimea and worked out of there until she outgrew that four years later.

In June 2006, Aunty Lilikoi moved to a 2,200-square-foot storefront, where all the products are made and stored. Cardenas said 70 percent of her sales are from her Waimea store, while the rest is sold out of state.

Aunty Lilikoi products are carried on Kaua'i in Longs Drug Stores, Big Save markets and Hilo Hattie, as well as at the Executive Chef on O'ahu.

The Waimea shop is open seven days a week and Cardenas is there most days. On Friday nights and Sundays, she and Tony pump out 1,500 to 3,000 units of her passion fruit products.

"I'm real hands-on, as you can tell," she said.

With just one full-time employee, Lori Cardenas said she tries to take Saturdays off to "get other things done."

One of the secrets to her success, Cardenas said, is to keep up with the changing tastes of her customers, which is why she's developing passion fruit chutney and chocolate truffle recipes. She said she'd also like to expand further, but wants to keep the company to a manageable size at the same time.

"My husband is thinking we might have to contract out the packaging and I wouldn't want to do that. I'd rather stay small," she said. "If somebody thinks I should do that at some point down the line then they can buy the business from me. But that won't happen for a while. I'm not done."