Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 5, 1 May 2022 — You Can Start Your Own Amazon Business. Yes, You! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

You Can Start Your Own Amazon Business. Yes, You!

By Ka'ala Souza What if you had no business experience, less than $1,000 dollars, and no ideas for a product? Does that sound like a recipe for entrepreneurial success? Not to most of us. But there's a new program called the Māpunawai Entrepreneurial Accelerator that in just six months, with support from Kaulu by Kamehameha Schools Digital, has jumpstarted folks with no business background and very little startup money to launeh their own Amazon e-commerce product and brand. "This is a fantastic opportunity for our lāhui. 'Go to college so you ean make a good living' doesn't work for everyone. And our changing world offers so many other pathways to success," said Kēhaunani Abad, director of Kealaiwikuamo'o at Kamehameha Schools. "Ka'ala and [his son] Isaia Souza, who lead Māpunawai, are trailblazing mentors who ean help folks along one such pathway." Māpunawai aims to provide the average person an opportunity to own their own business and generate cash flow to increase their hnaneial resiliency. "Ihe overarching vision of Māpunawai is to help Hawaiians make enough money to help them stay here in Hawai'i, in our home, our kulāiwi," said Isaia Souza.

"Māpunawai provides a viable option for us to make that happen." The process isn't complicated. If you ean follow a recipe, and power through challenges, the system ean work for you. "My goal is to be an independent business owner," said Ipo Davis ffom Moloka'i. "This program gives me that ehanee. The hard parts for me were the independent and distance learning. Being on Moloka'i, those are two t

things that I had to figure out. The program's coaches helped a lot." Participants perform guided market research with their eoaeh and use advanced data analytics to choose their first product based on levels of market demand and competition. One of the participants, Kūlia Naipo, a 23-year-old avid book reader and library volunteer on O'ahu, is selling something right up her alley. She describes it as a "bookpage holder thingee." It's an item that has a proven demand and is in a space where she ean be competitive. She was able to get started with just $300 dollars of inventory. j "At first it's only natural to be confused, frustrated, or even lost like I've been," Naipo said. "But the coaches helped and supported me through the whole process and t helped me shift my mindset to know that I ean do it if I put my mind to it." Māpunawai is not a "get rich quick" scheme. In fact, t even although most people will start taking sales, and even be profitable, within six months of starting, it will usually require 12 to 18 months to develop sustainable ^ cash flow that will make a difference here in Hawai'i. ) SEE START Y0UR 0WN AMAZ0N BUSINESS ON PAGE 18

Kū'ūIū Souzo ond his son, lsoio Souzo, offer prospective entrepreneurs olternotive pothwoys to success ond opportunity through o new progrom colled Mōpunowoi. - Photo: Courtesy

START Y0UR0WN AMAZ0N BUSINESS

Continued from page 12 "This is a great opportunity for our lāhui," said Brandon Maka'awa'awa ffom Waimānalo. "It's a way for Kānaka to build some eeonomie independence for ourselves instead of only seeing ourselves as consumers and employees. With this program, we ean heeome producers and business owners." You Can Help These Budding Kānaka Entrepreneurs Two things make successful products and brands on Amazon: sales and reviews. Visit mapunawai.com. And if anything catches your eye, please kōkua by making a purchase AND leaving a review. Reviews are gold on Amazon. Even one more review ean have a huge impact on the success of fledgling businesses. We are always saying, "shop loeal." With Māpunawai we're expanding it to "shop from loeal online sellers." Amazon

is a competitive marketplace with sellers worldwide. The best way you ean help our budding Kānaka businesses compete is to purchase an item and share a review. Josiah Akau, executive director of Kinai 'Eha, a program serving Native Hawaiian opio, talks about how youth ean take their street smarts and ingenuity and transfer them to these new types of business efforts to make a living. Akau shared this olelo no'eau to sum it up: "He ula no ka naele, panau no ka hi'u komo i ke ale; That is a lobster of a sea cave, with one flip of the tail he is in the rocky cavern. Said of an independent person who knows how to take care of himself." "E-commerce ean be that flip of the tail," said Akau. ■ A new Māpunawai cohort is starting in ]une. If you are interested in participating, please go to Mapunawai.com to learn more about applyingfor the program. Ka'ala Souza is a puhlie speaker, corporate trainer, and author of the hook, "Pono: A Hawaiian-Style Appwaeh to Ēalanee and Well-being."