{"id":210084,"date":"2025-02-03T08:07:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T18:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=210084"},"modified":"2025-02-03T10:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T20:12:44","slug":"small-business-struggles-uhero-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/03\/small-business-struggles-uhero-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Small business struggles highlighted in new <abbr>东精影业ERO<\/abbr> report"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_210085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-210085\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-uhero-small-business-struggles.jpg\" alt=\"sign on shopping local\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-210085\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-uhero-small-business-struggles.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-uhero-small-business-struggles-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-uhero-small-business-struggles-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-210085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo credit: Tim Mossholder\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A roadmap for small business owners to address gaps in financial access, workforce development, market competition and technological innovation is part of a new <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> (<abbr>东精影业ERO<\/abbr>) report. Funded by the City &#38; County of Honolulu Office of Economic Revitalization, the report highlights the challenges faced by small business owners and opportunities for targeted support.<\/p>\n<h2>Key findings<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Top small business needs<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Support for marketing and sales (49&#37;), financial resources (44&#38;) and human resources (35&#37;).<\/li>\n<li>Minority-owned businesses reported a significantly higher need for financial resources and networking opportunities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Challenges in workforce development<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than 38&#37; of businesses reported difficulty in acquiring employees, citing a lack of qualified candidates (62&#37;) and budget constraints (39&#37;).<\/li>\n<li>Retention issues, including insufficient benefits and limited career development opportunities, were also highlighted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Barriers to market access<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nearly 29&#37; of respondents cited challenges accessing new customers, with digital marketing and online presence needing urgent attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Access to financing<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While 53&#37; reported good or excellent access to financing, 29.90&#37; faced barriers, including high interest rates (42&#37;) and complex procedures (29&#37;). Minority and younger business owners were disproportionately impacted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Networking and collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than half of respondents (52&#37;) emphasized the importance of networking, but geographical and time constraints hindered many.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Recommendations<\/h2>\n<p>The report\u2019s recommendations include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Enhanced financial assistance for minority and young business owners.<\/li>\n<li>Centralized networking opportunities through local mixers and industry-specific events.<\/li>\n<li>Improved access to digital marketing and e-commerce training.<\/li>\n<li>Workforce development initiatives, including technical skills training and leadership programs.<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of best practices from other cities, such as business incubators and innovation hubs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;Small businesses are the backbone of Honolulu\u2019s economy, but they face significant hurdles in accessing critical resources,&rdquo; said Ruben Juarez, <abbr>东精影业ERO<\/abbr>&#8211;<abbr>HMSA<\/abbr> Distinguished Professor and lead author of the report. &ldquo;Our findings offer clear, actionable recommendations to foster growth and resilience in this vital sector.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>A combination of a large-scale survey with 1,024 respondents and in-depth interview discussions with 11 small businesses provided a comprehensive view of the small business ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This report sheds light on the resilience of our small businesses while clearly identifying areas where support is urgently needed,&rdquo; said Mayor Rick Blangiardi. &ldquo;With nearly 30&#37; of businesses facing financial barriers and nearly 40&#37; struggling to find qualified employees, the City has programs and partnerships to offer to the businesses that are the driving force behind our economy and our way of life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/investigating-and-tackling-barriers-and-needs-for-small-business-success-in-honolulu\/\">Visit <abbr>东精影业ERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website for the entire report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>东精影业ERO<\/abbr> is housed in <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funded by the City &#38; County of Honolulu Office of Economic Revitalization, the report highlights the challenges faced by small business owners and opportunities for targeted support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,197,1467,1363,1600,158,1026,9,343],"class_list":["post-210084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-public-impact-research","tag-publication","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210084"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210101,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210084\/revisions\/210101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}