Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 2, 1 February 2015 — Longtime teacher anel 'coach' helps entrepreneurs find their way [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Longtime teacher anel 'coach' helps entrepreneurs find their way

By Lisa Asato Four decades ago, Portland, Oregon, native Julie Percell stepped off an airplane in Honolulu and thought to herself, "Whoa, I'mhome." She had eome to visit friends from the islands whom she met at Lewis & Clark College, and she never left. Aspiring entrepreneurs here are grateful. In a teaching career that spans 20 years, Pereell has opened the eyes of hundreds of students, including many Hawaiians, on the art - and sometimes harsh realities - of entrepreneurship. Her database of students numbers in the 600s. "One of the things that I love about teaching here is the way people are willing to share information," said Percell. "Nobody is worried about whether their idea is going to be stolen. Their attitude is we're all in this

together, all in the same eanoe." "Hawaiians have a different style of doing business that is not like the tradihonal mainland style," she added. "It is collaborative and it is inclusive and it needs to be a win-win, and you have to be aware of that when you're teaching." Percell, who met her husband, Jim Pirga, two decades ago, says one of the reasons she finds teaching Hawaiians so gratifying is because her husband, a "very smart, very aeeomplished man," is Hawaiian. "So one of my eommitments is because of him, to allow Hawaiians to heeome more independent," said Percell, whose own bittersweet story of entrepreneurship goes like this: She was selling advertising for a company and unbeknownst to her she hit the $1 million mark in sales. "They called me in and praised me," she recalls. "They were so pleased. Nobody had ever sold a million in advertis-

ing before." She knew she had a bonus clause in her contract, and thoughts of a windfall big enough to buy a car or condo ran through her head. "At the end of it they handed me a $50 bill," she said. "And I went home and I cried all night. And I eame back the next day and I told them that I didn't want to be an employee anymore; I wanted to go on straight commission. And that's when I started my first business. That was 25 years ago." Launeh My Business In 2002, OHA reached out to Kapi'olani Community College asking if an entrepreneurship class could be developed based on the needs identified by the agency's loan program. Percell answered the eall, developing the curriculum with Jean Williams. The curriculum got OHA's OK and the Start Your Dream course ran two or three times a year until 2013, when it ended its run there. The course transitioned to the Mink Center for

Business & Leadership in 2014 and is now called Launeh My Business. Occasionally people want to start a restaurant or construction business, whieh Percell calls "very expensive to get into and you need tremendous skill." Crucial to the curriculum is a self-analysis and analysis of a prospective business. "So even if you eame in thinking what you really wanted to do was run a restaurant, you get a ehanee to look at it and see: "Wow this is harder than I thought. Maybe I should wait.' " "In fact, people who think about going into a business that they've never been in before I usually counsel them to go work for someone else in that business." Percell said she works with OHA and other Hawaiian-serving organizations, including the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, because they "ean give us access to Hawaiian businesses to create better opportunities for them." "The more we're able to do that, the (more) independence you're going to see among Hawaiians being able to run their own businesses and hire other Hawaiians." Percell also teaches the U.S. Small Business Administration's Boots to Business course for those transitioning out of the U.S. military, as well as the SBA's executive-level Emerging Leaders Initiative, whieh targets Native Hawaiians and other underserved communities in the islands. That class, designed for established businesses, is competitive and intensive. It entails an interview process and is often compared to the level SEE PERCELL "II PAGE 12

Launeh My Business The course is designed for aspiring or existing business owners and provides information and skills needed to build a business. The eight-week course runs Feb. 17 to April 16, every Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business & Leadership at the YWCA Laniākea in downtown Honolulu. The $300 fee includes workshop materials and free counseling by subject-matter experts. To register, visit mcbl-hawaii.org. SBA Emerging Leaders lnitiative This is an executive-level training course forestablished entrepreneurs who have been in business for at least three years, have revenues over $350,000 and have at least one employee. This will be the fifth year of the course in Hawai'i. Participant recruitment begins in February through SBA's loeal district offices and classes typically begin in April, according to the SBA website. See http://Lusa.gov/lxySLN0 for information.

EC0N0MIG SELFSUFFIGIENGY

I ™ Julie Percell, center, with a recent graduating class of Launeh My Business. The next class starts Feb. 1 7 at the Patsy Mink Center for Business & Leadership at the YWCA Laniākea on Richards Street.

PERCELL

Continued from page 11 of a master's in business administration. Percell and Jane Sawyer, director of SBA's Hawai'i District Office, are working on a related course for graduates of Emerging Leaders. Now in the pilot program stage, Percell says of the class: "If it does as well as we think it will, then we'll roll it out for everyone. The idea being that learning never stops. And the more that you ean work with others in business, the better off everybody is going to be. In Hawai'i that works so well." Coaching skills Percell is a certified business eoaeh, a term she embraces. "'Coach,' that's really so mueh more the way I run (things) the way I do." In addition, she is also part of a team providing free counseling at the Mink Center for Business & Leadership. "That's probably the best deal you ean get, because you ean schedule an hour (for free)," she said, adding, "It's terrific because if you're going to hire me (as a eounselor) you're going to pay me $50 an hour." As an example of success, Percell points to Alika Sing, a former student in the entrepreneurship course at KCC, and the owner and CEO of 'Ai Manuahi Larms and Organic Gardening Solutions LLC in 'Ewa Beach, O'ahu. Percell recalls that early in his career as a business owner, Sing

posted on Lacebook that he had so mueh fun that day he never did a minute of work. "That is my goal for every single student," she said. "I want themto find something that they love so mueh that it never feels like work. That they get up every morning and they ean hardly wait to get started. There is no more satisfying feeling." Sing said the course "is probably the best class I've ever taken." Part of the reason is that Percell is an experienced entrepreneur. "There's a difference between someone who is educated from the book and someone who has their own business," he said. "It's quite obvious Julie has her own business." Sing says he keeps in touch with Percell, and their talks help ground him. "Every so often speaking to Julie puts me back to where I belong: Stop, let's take a look at the books, let's right the course and head straight again. "If I didn't talk to her every three months or so, I would feel I was heading in the right direction and about a year later I would figure out I made a drastic mistake," he said. "That's niee to be able to converse with someone about what you're headed toward." Another thing Percell teaches is the art of the so-called elevator speech - a succinct sales pitch meant to grab another's attention when you have maybe 30 seconds tops to sell yourself and your business product to a potential buyer. Here's hers: "My name is Julie Percell, and I teach entrepreneurship to help you avoid expensive mistakes." ■

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Julie Percell, right, posed with Jane Sawyer of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Hawai'i Office. second from left. and happy graduates of a past e200 Emerging Leaders Initiative. -KW0file