SBH Sunrise
February 24, 2005

Wednesday, February 9
SBH Monthly Board Meeting
Pacific Club | 12 noon

Tuesday, February 15
Aiea-Pearl City Biz Association
Pearl Country Club
Noon - 1:30

Thursday, February 24
SBH Sunrise Networking
Macy's Pineapple Room
7 - 8:30 am

SBH TV
Sundays 7:00 pm
Channel 54

SBH CONFERENCE PHOTOS ONLINE: GALLERY 1 | GALLERY 2

PASSING OF THE HONORS: Charley's Taxi president Dale Evans (left) presents Kahala Shell owner Bill Green (retired) with the Small Business Person of the Year Award for 2004 at SBH's 29th Annual Conference held the Ala Moana Hotel on January 12. Select this link for photo gallery 1 and this link for gallery 2.

TOP OF THE NEWS

29th SBH Conference Attracts
Business Owners and Policy Makers

Small Business Hawaii, Hawaii’s most effective small business advocacy organization, held the first annual business and investment conference of the year, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005, at the Ala Moana Hotel. More than 300 small business owners, managers and lawmakers attended, including the Honolulu mayor, the governor, the Honolulu city prosecutor, Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle, U.S. Congressman Ed Case, D-Hawaii, and state lawmakers.The conference theme was, “Small Business 2005: AcceleratingHawaii’s Business Recovery and Economic Prosperity.”

Case opened the conference, discussing the federal issues impacting small businesses. He offered more information for small businesses seeking federal assistance in the form of grants or loans on his Web site, http://www.house.gov/case and invited small business owners wanting to discuss business the options to email him at ed.case@mail.house.gov.

Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Director Mark Recktenwald spoke about a plan his department recently unveiled — Hawaii Business Express — to make business registration easier.

Sandie Hoback of the American Institute for Full Employment unveiled plans for a new government program called See Hawaii Work. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and American Institute for Full Employment, free market institutes, worked with the state Department of Human Services and other non-profits to reform Hawaii’s worst-in-the-nation welfare system, with the goal of getting more people off of welfare and back to work.

Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle offered his tips on law enforcement assistance for small businesses, including a bad check program that his department runs that helps business owners collect on bad checks without costly lawsuits or a major criminal probe. More information is available on this program from the prosecutor at 547-7400.

During the state legislative panel, Rep. Bob Herkes, D-Big Island, Rep. Barbara Marumoto, R-Kahala, and Sen. Gordon Trimble, R-Waikiki, reviewed issues they feel are going to stand out during the 2005 legislative session, which began Jan. 19. Herkes says as a Democrat he has always fought against unnecessary regulation, especially in the area of transportation. Marumoto, a Republican, says she expects the session to be a difficult one for Republicans because the Democrats control 41 of 51 seats in the House and 20 of 25 seats in the Senate. Trimble and Marumoto pledged to fight against any tax increase proposals, reminding the business owners Hawaii already is ranked nationally by the Tax Foundation as having the 4th highest taxes in the nation.

On the media panel reviewing small business coverage in the media, Kelli Abe Trifonovich talked about challenges monthly magazines face in covering business issues in a timely fashion because of the deadlines which are several weeks ahead of publication. Rick Hamada of News Radio 830 AM invited business owners to cal linto KHVH to promote their businesses on Friday at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. during his special feature, “TradeO”