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Leap of faith
Laura McVaney raids
$120,000 of her retirement
funds to start a business
Hawaii's small businesses are often launched on a wing, a prayer -- and life savings, maxed-out credit cards or a loan from the parents.
Laura McVaney started her new business, Leapin' Lizards, a party facility in Halawa, after realizing her executive job at Xerox in California was not making her happy. That, in fact, she was depressed.
McVaney was with Xerox on the mainland for 20 years and loved her job in human resources and organizational development, but by the time she'd been in senior management for awhile, she realized she was burned out.
"This has gotta change," she decided, and left the company in 1999.
She engaged in personal improvement activities and spent time with family. On one such occasion she noted that her sister had spent $600 on her niece's birthday party.
Another time she volunteered to help a nonprofit operate a bounce-house. "The kids go nuts. They love it."
She put the ideas together and after arriving in Hawaii for a visit with another sister, she felt as if she had come home. She took $120,000 in retirement funds and set about achieving her dream, opening Leapin' Lizards at 99-900 Iwaena St.
"People say, 'You're so brave, you didn't leave yourself an out,' but that's OK," she said. "I went to SBA training classes and seminars but the reality was, I didn't have collateral."
Since then, "Bank of Hawaii walked in my door and said, 'We'd like to loan you some money.'" The line of credit will allow her to add new equipment in the 12,500-square-foot facility.
"We're all about the party," she said. "People bring their kids to us for a private party ... and the kids get to play in giant inflatables, a 24-foot slide, a 40-foot obstacle course, a boxing ring (with oversized gloves) ... it's like a carnival indoors and air-conditioned."
For those times when parties are not scheduled, McVaney has opened the center for mothers and toddlers, who come and play from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
Children are not her only target customers, however. McVaney's background in human resources means she will gladly host corporate team-building events.
"They can have a big, full meeting with the stage (for speakers) and have them go wild on the floor in team-building competitions," she said. "It's being goofy and once people get into it, they're totally into it."
Some of the most competitive behavior she has ever seen, has been among six-figure executives vying for winners' ribbons.
Children play at Leapin' Lizards in Halawa, a new business helped by a line of credit from Bank of Hawaii.
Getting a hand
Hawaiian Fudge Sauce Co. started with a mother's recipe, $5,000 in savings and a start-up loan. It was something Dan and Ona Marie Belmont had been thinking of doing for some time. How could you not be happy making fudge sauce?If the name Ona Marie rings a bell, she is the pager- and cell-phone-bearing woman who identified herself as being "so reachable" in an iconic local TV commercial years ago.
The Belmonts were both involved in the sales until Ona Marie quit her day job and devoted her full-time sales and marketing expertise to family fudge functions.
"Basically what sparked it was the Made in Hawaii Festival last year," Dan said.
"I was helping my friend and my wife and I have had this in mind as something to do for awhile. That kind of pushed me over the edge, so to speak, to do it."
His research showed that no other company was producing anything close to his mother's fudge sauce, "and we figured we'd have a good shot of having something unique in the marketplace."
The company produces three flavors of Hawaiian Fudge Sauce as well as a premium fudge sauce made with Hawaiian chocolate.
They met with Service Corps of Retired Executives counselor Mike Herb, who told them of the culinary incubator system run by the Pacific Gateway Center.
"They pretty much held my hand as far as knowing what to do ... that's a great resource for people that don't know what they're doing," Dan said.
"They set me up with the Department of Health for the right permits and business licenses." He paid perhaps $100 for all the forms and registrations he needed.
He took out a $5,000 Small Business Express Loan through the Small Business Administration, which he learned about through a seminar at the Small Business Resource Center.
Dan Belmont maintains his day job as a power plant operator at the Kalaeloa Co-generation Plant at Campbell Industrial Park, but the schedule allows him "lots of free time to make fudge sauce."
He peddled jars around town and developed clientele in the food-service sector to whom the company delivers quart- and half-gallon-sized containers.
A big recent step was the hiring of a part-time employee. Dan was concerned about "being able to pay somebody and still make money, and of course it worked out great. We can make twice as much in the same amount of time."
Between the doubled output, wholesale and retail sales, e-commerce via the Web site at www.hawaiianfudgesauce.com and having his wife able to devote full-time energies to marketing and promotion, "we're about 50 percent above our expected sales this year."
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