Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 12, 1 December 2000 — Thinking big with koa, mango and Norfolk pine [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Thinking big with koa, mango and Norfolk pine

By Caitriono Kearns I 1 I ork, play, school and woodwork 1 Ēl are facets of life that Charles yu Mathieu learned while growing ■ W up. He is now owner of Big T I Island Woodworks, a family business he bought from his father, and works at the Post Office to supplement his family's lifestyle. One day, he plans to leave letters, stamps and parcels behind him and focus his energy solely on managing his wood shop, gallery and

wholesale business. Until then, he employs his brother, nephew, sister and daughter. His three-year

old has yet to leam the ropes of the business from his dad, but it is just a matter of time. Mathieu's father leased I the business to him for a year while he went to Saipan to do missionary work. He liked mis

sionary work so mueh that he ^ asked if Mathieu would buy him out of

the woodworking business altogether. With a Native Hawaiian revolving loan from OHA, the buyout was possible — although Mathieu says it was difficult getting approval because he had no additional source of ineome at the time. Today, Mathieu says he is thinking of applying for another loan from OHA for a gallery expansion into Prince Kūhiō Plaza. He already has a gallery on Kame-

hameha Ave. in downtown Hilo where he sells work from other artisans including the product lineup from Big Island Woodworks. The new gallery would focus on selling his own products. He is free to think of this new venture because his current loan from OHA is in its last four months of payments. "I have a lot of people ask me about the loans. They say it takes too long. I say, 'hey, the time will go by, six to seven months from now, you will be sitting in the same chair wondering if you would have got the loan or started the procedure, and I

would have been finished',"Mathieu said CS. in his "can-do"

attitude. | Mathieu 1 explained how I he got his loan ' first time around. "OHA vas a big help.

They sent me to Alu Like, and Alu Like gave

me pointers on the business plan. A requirement to get an OHA loan was to prepare a business plan and I had no elue whatsoever as to what a business plan was about, so Alu Like sent me to the university, and I got some literature there. When I had a rough draft, I took it back to Alu Like and they made it professional, checked spelling and punctuation, rephrased some of the sentences, and

gave it the whole nine yards. Finally, they sent it to O'ahu, and they totally formatted the plan into a booklet and mailed it back to me. I took it to OHA, and it wasn't that long before I got a eheek," said Mathieu. Īhere is a big differenct between Mathieu's management style and his father's. His father liked to keep the business small. "At first my customer wholesale list was a half page. Now we have 48 accounts whieh means we are on page three," said Mathieu. He does not miss an opportunity to market his wood-

works and will seek out new galleries for his wholesale list on every island trip he makes for business or pleasure. "If I get lots of new accounts, the only thing is my material list will go up. It is worked out, the material and everything, in the wholesale price. If I ean make money wholesale, regardless whether I have a million accounts or five accounts, I still will profit," he said. "Expenses may be higher, sure, but I'll be selling more." 1 This week Big Island Woodworks launeh their new e-commerce web site at

www.bigislandwoodworks.com. Shentelle, Mathieu's 15-year-old daughter is credited for encouraging her father to take this step on the Internet. She will manage the packing of web orders, write their invoices, and get 40 percent above wholesale prices for her effort. "I know a Samoan guy in Kohala who makes more on his web site than in his retail store," Mathieu said. "She's excited. I hope we do good." Like her father, she will carve out her plaee in this family run business. ■

Charles Mathieu with daughter, Shentelle and Jeffrey Vallente at the Blaisdell Christmas Craft Fair