When you start out as an entrepreneur, you always have questions. You want your banker to be knowledgeable, to respond quickly, and to give you really good advice when you need it.

What I look for is a bank with people that are going to care about our success as individuals and as a business.

The most important quality is the alignment of goals. I believe that the personnel at the bank need to understand where we want to go, and with that insight they can help guide us. It’s really important to have that partnership in business, because together we can achieve all dreams.

When choosing a bank for a business loan, it is important to choose a bank that is local and will look at you as an individual. Hawaii National Bank was able to really look at us differently.

Building a relationship with the bank. They have to be able to work with you and be proactive in helping you set up your business.

Know what it will take to weather the low points. If you have a bank who you believe in and who believes in you, that solves half the issues.

It is not just whatever business you are doing, like for instance, this is cooking. Cooking is maybe 20% of the business. You have to be ready to fix things, to install things. You have to select good team members who are going to be there for you, and you have to take care of your team members.

Treat your business like a child. Feed it, nurture it. Keep investing in it to make it healthier and better.

For years, I struggled with giving up control, with investing in my business because I was afraid I would lose it, but in order to grow, you have to just overcome that fear and just do it. Buy that extra vehicle, hire those extra employees that can take some of the load off of you and allow you to grow your business and learn how to make it better.

Be honest. Have integrity with what you do. And find a good bank that will help you grow.

People love our food. It is the #1 plate lunch in Hawaii.

I think they know we have their best interest at heart! We want to have happy clients, so we do our best for their best outcome!  We base our recommendations on their needs and wants, not ours.

Visitors come from all over the world and when they see the beauty of Oahu and some of our major features like Diamond Head and especially Pearl Harbor, it’s very moving and life changing. They get to experience something they never experienced before, overcome a fear of helicopters, see the beauty of our island and learn some of the history.

More than business, we are sharing our food with people. And this is, I think, what keeps people coming back.

A lot of our customers actually feel like old friends. Of course, people love the coffee, but I keep telling our baristas that we’re more in the business of people than coffee. The community aspect of the business sets us apart.

We are family-owned and bake fresh products daily.

People love Aloha Personal Training because we customize every workout so it’s tailored to your goals, whether it’s fitness, learning new movements or just refining technique.

I think customers love T&C because of what it represents. It’s a lifestyle of Hawaii and for Hawaii people locally, T&C’s been around a long time.

Running your business with a high degree of honesty, providing for your employees the best you can, and giving your customers something they might not have expected.

You can’t be afraid to put in the work. It’s easy to put money into something, but a real entrepreneur has to lay the foundation of their company, they have to teach their associates and employees the vision.

Love what you do and do it well! Teach your staff to care as much as you do about the client and service, service, service.

You have to have passion in what you do. You also have to have good financial support, if not through family and friends, through financial institutions like Hawaii National Bank.

What keeps me motivated to keep going through is the fact that there are people out there who want us to succeed. For me, personally, I grew up in West Africa where as a child, I was a refugee in my own country. Resilience is important, it’s something that’s ingrained in me.

Helping people makes us feel great, and that’s what gets us up at 3:30am in the morning.

In our industry, you don’t see women in the kitchen much. In our kitchen, 90% of our team members are women. And it shows people, especially the people who think women can only do certain things, that we can do everything as everybody can do everything. That makes me feel good to show people it is a small women, immigrant, family-owned business.

Running an honest business, taking care of your employees, making sure when you give a person your word that you come through with it.

Knowing that I did a good job, and seeing the smile on my clients' faces when the project is complete.