LIHU‘E — The Hawai‘i Small Business Development Center, a program of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Rice Street Business Association, are hosting a free virtual webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., on how to get your business ready for the holidays with e-commerce.
The holidays are approaching fast and everyone is buying online. This webinar will teach business owners how to create content that sells or will reach new customers.
“This webinar is an opportunity for people who don’t know how to do e-commerce to learn how to do it to create sales and for those already in e-commerce how to make it fun and exciting,” Robbie Melton, center director of SBDC.
Panelists include Micah Gonsalves from Jaxon Communications; Taryn Rodighiero from Kaikini Bikinis; and Kristal Muhich from Kauai Juice Co.
“The Kauai Juice Co. manufactures and distributes kombucha, cold-pressed juices and kale chips,” SBDC said. “ In 2010, Kristal started Kaua‘i Kombucha on a shoestring using personal funds. Muhich approached SBDC Network on Kaua‘i at that point. Working with John, she brought the business forward and worked her way through understanding the requirements for a certified commercial kitchen.”
SBDC said along the way, Kristal also started working on a business plan. That planning process lead to Muhich organizing a successful Kickstarter campaign, which in turn allowed her to take additional steps forward.
“A solo operation to seven employees, started her own retail outlet, in April of 2014 her products are in Whole Foods Hawai‘i stores, and sales have quadrupled over the first three years of operation, which tripled those sales in the last year,” SBDC said.
Muhich explains why this webinar is beneficial to business owners like herself.
“E-commerce has helped not only expand our business previously throughout the years but also keep us running during these challenging times,” Muhich said.
Gonsalves piggybacks Muhich’s thoughts.
“You can’t spell function without ‘fun,’” Gonsalves said.
“A functional website will make people stay, a fun website will make people come back. A successful website needs to be functional and fun.”
The webinar is free, but there is limited space. To register, go to hisbdc.org.
