TheBuzz
Erika Engle
Businesses move
from chopped liver
to star of the showBold new initiatives intended to lure businesses to Hawaii can leave local business owners feeling like they're viewed as chopped liver.
Their self-esteem and bottom lines may be bolstered by Project JOBS, an acronym for Join Our Business Success; it is a bold new initiative intended to serve them, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii Foundation.
"This is a process that we're initiating to improve the economic climate of the state," said Jim Tollefson, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. Enterprise Honolulu and the Hawaii Business Roundtable are lending hands-on support as well, assisting businesses in clearing bureaucratic red tape that is blocking growth.
The chamber introduced the concept to lawmakers yesterday after starting the legwork in November.
The next month Tollefson and Chamber Small Business Advocate Bev Harbin attended a conference where they learned that business retention and expansion programs had generated measurable success in communities within 27 states.
"Bev and I both believe if Fargo, North Dakota, can do it, we can do it here," Tollefson said.
"A commonly indicated statistic is that up to 80 percent of all the new job creation comes from existing businesses," he said. One measurement of success is increasing the job base, which would indicate that businesses have grown or there are more of them, said Tollefson.
A survey of chief executive officers will be conducted in the coming weeks.
"The Chamber will establish industries we can jump on right away that will have the biggest and quickest ability to expand," Harbin said. Businesses needn't be Chamber members to participate or reap benefits.
Project JOBS will assess the obstacles and facilitate quick results.
"That's what the Chamber's going to do, it's going to be shock and awe," Harbin chuckled.
Harbin has imposed a 48-hour turnaround time from issue to answer. Project JOBS will tap into the government officials and agencies, service organizations and members of the general business community that have bought in to the program.
"It's going to be a lot of hard work, but you know I've worked my entire life getting to this point," said Harbin. "I tend to go through doors and this is going to be a go through doors kind of project."
Businesses interested in help from Project JOBS should call the Chamber at 545-4300.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com