KAPOLEI, Hawaii — At Spectrum’s Kapolei facility, a room full of small business owners gathered Thursday to celebrate the completion of the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement’s KūHana business program.
To start the event, Hawaii’s first lady, Jamie Green, gave remarks. Spectrum Reach marketing team members Noah Tom and Chuck Reid also taught participants about elevating their business through advertising.
“Congratulations to the KūHana alumni,” said Green to Spectrum News Hawaii. “Mahalo to CNHA and Spectrum for providing the business and marketing tools to empower our Hawaiian entrepreneurs.”
KūHana started in 2020 and is funded by the Small Business Administration. Entrepreneurs take an eight-week virtual course where students hone their business strategies and network. Because it’s a virtual course, participants are located throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
“The whole idea is to get companies with a business plan and a pitch, so that they can acquire funding to accomplish their business objectives that will take them to the next level,” said Max Mukai, a program manager at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
CNHA also helps small businesses in the program acquire funding through the Community Development Finance Institutions Fund, a government program intended to expand economic opportunity for underserved people and communities that the SBA funds.
“Just getting into a business is so difficult, and that’s why I’m so excited to have a program like this,” said Hawaii State Senator Lorraine Inouye about KūHana. “During my time growing up, you needed money to get into business. … But here, we’re getting the education first.”
At the completion of the course, Spectrum Reach gifts every KūHana alum with three months’ worth of 30-second slots to air television advertisements, valued at $1,500. Additionally, the alumni compete for the grand prize: an advertisement fully produced by Kernel, Spectrum Reach’s creative agency. This year, HoloHolo Tree Services, which specializes in tree trimming, won the grand prize.
“Hawaii is such a hard place to start and maintain businesses,” said Hawaii State Representative Daniel Holt, who attended the event. He praised CNHA for completing its 12th year of the program, graduating 200 small business owners. “Spectrum gives them that extra push with marketing through their networks.”
Nikki Savella, the owner of the Hilo-based Cupcakes, BOOM!, graduated from the KūHana business program in 2022. It disappointed her not to win the grand prize, but she decided to produce her own 30-second commercial and use the free three months of TV advertising. Her commercial aired between Nov. 14 and Valentine’s Day, an important day for a bakery. She said her business increased by 80%. Because of the program and the opportunity to air her television commercials, she can now expand and is working to open a second store in Kona.
“TV commercials (were) always out of reach, completely out of my marketing budget,” said Savella. Because of this, getting the free commercial spots through Spectrum Reach was a boon for her cupcake business. “It just was the perfect opportunity to market on cable.”
Spectrum Reach also donated $5,000 to CNHA to continue its programming.
Hawaii State Representative Kanani Souza, who attended Thursday’s event, said it was meaningful to see “the creativity in the room.” She also found it exciting to see the Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs have “their business come to fruition in ways that maybe it wouldn’t have without the support from Spectrum and CNHA.”
Spectrum Reach and Spectrum News are owned by the same parent company, Charter Communications.