A good problem to have I suppose.

Thanks for the advice Kevin. Most of my means are directed towards things already but I'm sure I will find something that suites me.

I'm not talking about big money when referencing buying or partnering with someone. I am looking for something that would be classified as a "small" business for sure. I don't need much at this point in my life. The next few months will be telling as I turn over rocks and kick some tires. Who knows what I will find!

 

I keep toying with the idea of moving back to Honolulu. Not raised there but moved there by choice in the 80's from Seattle for a few years before ending up in LA. I've already begun the early formation stages of a business venture there. As mentioned by others, one of my major concerns is the schools for my 7 year old daughter. Private would be an option but its looking like it may be best to keep the family in LA at least for a few more years and maybe start transitioning between the two if the business starts to take off.

Hope the move goes well for you Steve.

 

Private is the only way to go if you can swing it. I have a 6 and a 10 YO in a small-ish private school (LJA) and they are getting a great education and social experience there. We couldn't be happier.

 

Aloha, Steve.

I love business strategy and do what I can to help colleagues at my firm (International Consulting / Engineering). I hope I can add some value to your thought process. I sketched the drawing below and will walk you through some things to think about vis-a-vis "what should I do?".

To begin, you need to look at the macroeconomic cycle for an industry. Is it growing (eg. healthcare) or contracting (eg. oil/gas). Once you look at the potential for that industry, you can look at my sketch for the next steps. You want to look at the sector first because you want to maximize your success potential...do you really want to get into a depressed market when you can look at something else?

The sigmoid curve shows any company's business cycle. Stage 1 is "Incubation". Stage 2 is "Startup" where there is some investment so "success" is negative. Stage 3 is "Growth". Stage 4 is "Maturity". Stage 5 is "Decline". A simplied model, but valid. Timeframe is usually 0 to 7 years. If you're doing a startup, understand you will need to invest. If you join an existing enterprise and "buy in", understand where they are relative to their business cycle. If they are in Stage 4 or 5, ask how they intend to sustain growth or gain market share. I love (not) business models that simply say we're going to grow 15% annually with no plans to move into a new market/offering, merge, or simply re-organize to achieve these results. Not going to happen.

The lower graph discusses what economic base you want to be in...how differentiated do you want to be. That affects your pricing, amount you have to work to achieve the same income, and client base. Let me use coffee as an example.

Box 1 = “Commodity”; the coffee bean. It’s traded on the stock exchange as a Futures. Has a price of X per tons. Current price is ~$140/ton.

The coffee bean becomes a “Goods” (Box 2) when it’s sold as a product on the grocery story shelf either as a roasted bean or instant coffee. Current price is $8/pound ($16,000/ton).

Coffee becomes a “Service” (Box 3) when it’s added as another menu item at a restaurant. Take McDonalds, who added better coffee to compete and now sells not only as a complement to their fast food breakfast, but "come in for our coffee". Current price is $1/cup of coffee…assuming a pound makes 100 cups, that’s $100/pound of coffee…or $200,000/ton).

Coffee becomes an “Experience” (Box 4) when it’s purchased at Starbucks, where it’s personalized as: “Good Morning, Steve. Would you like an apple with your almond milk cappuccino this morning?” Current price is $4/cappuccino…that’s now $800,000/ton).

Coffee becomes a “Transformation” when Steve decides to roast his own beans at home. He would have to source fresh beans, buy a roaster, and do all the work to feed his passion. The initial cost would be around $500 for equipment plus other expenses just to make his first cup. At this point, it doesn’t matter because he’s going through a transformation and his idea of value is not about the coffee, but transforming his experience with it.

But, it’s all still coffee!

Hope this helps you funnel ideas on what to consider and what to cross off.
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Thanks for insight Frank. That is all stuff I have heard before but it has been years... since business school. It is good to get a refresh on any and all things business as I am pushing full steam into this.

Brief update. I am in the incubation phase of a start up. I have a partner who I met in my search. We are going into a business that relies on tourist dollars which I think is a good thing. There is one direct competitor we will be going up against who owns the market. What we have is use of an innovative product that is only a few years old that has 3 key advantages over the competition and will allow us to make more profit/margin at a much lower price point.

I have been doing market research on the competitor and believe they generate $3-3.5MM in revenue a year on Oahu alone. This is primarily a service business so the margins are huge.

Fun times ahead!

 

Feel free to use me as a sounding board too. PM's are probably a better tool. I might be able to help you! No interest, other than being a good F-Chatter. Aloha

 

Just seen this post..

Steve hope the move went well or will go well. I myself have been thinking of moving the family to Hawaii. Im originally from Kaneohe. My wife and kidos have not lived in Hawaii ever and have only visited twice. We have a 5 year old and a 3mo old, so pretty close to your kidos. Im also about your age, haha.

I just dont know if I can be content on living back on the island. I love visiting and seeing my family and my good friends, just dont know about living back there. Actually looking at places now to see if I can move the family there for 6mo-1yr to see how they would like it. Plus I would not be working as much since my line of work is not widely needed in Hawaii, which is a nice change.

If you have moved already, how are you liking it? Also there used to be a man (won't say his name) that lived up in Nuuanu that had a pretty amazing collection of exotics, 2 very rare ones as well.

And sorry for a sort of off topic...Does anyone know of any power boats on Oahu? That is a big thing for me, since we love boating.

Aloha from Las Vegas,
Will

 

Aloha from Honolulu! The move is complete. I am on Oahu with all my stuff, family and just picked up the F355 yesterday from the port. I'll complete the story when I have some more time but I am starting a store in Waikiki that will be open in about 3-4 weeks. Details to follow. If anyone sees a Black on Black F355 GTS driving around with AC that can't keep up with the heat and the fact that is the worst color combo for staying cool on the island that is me.

Mahalo and hope to meet many of you that I haven't already meet soon.

Steve

 

Wow, another 355! We had Brian move here last year with his! If you are planing for dealer service at some point you will want to touch base with Aron at JN exotics. He is the lead tech there and keeps tabs on all the Ferraris. Good guy to know. PM me for his contact info if you decide to go this route.

 

Plenty of boating options. Without knowing any specifics .The Kaneohe Yacht Club is worth looking into.

Home - Kaneohe Yacht Club

You may also find this real estate website useful if you haven't been using it already.

oahure.com

 

Glad you got your car, Steve! A gentleman named Alan, here, has a red 355 GTS that he's brought to Euro Sunday before. Maybe he'll be at the next local car meet. I'm not sure if he's a member here or not. Have a good one!

Ian

 

Its bcb70 that brought his here last year. Beautiful Black Spider! I know he was hitting a few car shows too.

 

Thanks Kevin. I grew up in Kaneohe, but I have never seen any powerboats out there. Just sail and fishing...I just sold our 28' Cat with 1300hp, it did about 118mph on that water. Granted it was out lake boat. If we moved back out to Hawaii it would need to be a bigger boat (35-41'), and probably a Vhull to deal better with the swells....Thank you for the link though.

I have been looking at RE back at home, more so some in Portlock area so I could possibly have a dock in the backyard. But its looking like Im pushing moving back a bit. Should be heading out to Saudi soon for work.




Steve,

Glad the move went well and your liking it so far. Best of luck out there.