A Hawaii TechWorks Guest Article by Mililani Hughes of Rocking H Ranch Wear
Mililani Hughes, of Rocking H Ranch, Rocking H Ranch Wear, Maluhia Educational Enterprises, and Maluhia Guest House
When people near their retirement age, there is a sense of glad anticipation and excitement. The thought of being able to sleep late in the morning, doing whatever, not watching the clock, and traveling have enticing attractions… for the first year or so. And then… what?
Boredom begins to set in. For me, by the third month, I knew the time of day by the television programs on the screen. I had my fill of cleaning the house. Our lawn was manicured with a pair of embroidery scissors.
No one told me that when I retired, I should make plans for the next 30 years! What to do?
What to do?
I knew that staying at home doing nothing was not my cup of tea, so I enrolled in the County’s Senior Programs at the Kea’au Community Center, which was a real deal. For a class which met two hours a week, I paid $10. I did my biweekly trips to the public library and I volunteered with a variety of community organizations, but I missed the sense of achieving something.
Eager to feel both busy and productive, I began to work on my small business, the Rocking H Ranch Wear. I started off by sewing cowboy shirts for my husband… and then for others. Then I began to sew palaka fabric and moved into aloha shirts, mu’umu’u, capri pants, shorts, aprons, jackets, and even tote bags. I excelled at sewing, but I found that I needed to improve my business marketing.
Mililani Hughes at Merrie Monarch Festival 2013
I started to look around and found that there are many organizations in the community waiting to help entrepreneurial people to build their small businesses. Aaron Brown and his staff at the Small Business Development Center, a part of the Small Business Administration, are willing to help new businesses launch with the necessary paperwork through business plan assistance and consulting; the University of Hawaii also has services to help with business planning. I saw free federal job workshops promoted in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and attended them -the workshops were amazing and invaluable, as it is difficult to navigate through the federal maze of links and regulations.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo and the Hawaii Community College have classes and workshops designed to help enhance and introduce skills for students of all ages. I signed up for the Digital Media Arts (DMA) Certificate at the Hawaii Community College. Thanks to grant funding from Alulike Inc., 15 of the 21 credits required for the DMA certificate were tuition-free to Native Hawaiians. Through the certificate program, I learned to take photos and use my camera like a pro, made a video film, design a website from scratch, and used software programs to create illustrations and animations on the computer. This is a whole new world!! Now I can talk to my kids and grandkids about computer enhanced graphics. With my newly acquired skills, I made a new website for my business and posted photos of the standard styles we have available.
Mililani Hughes and Tony Marzi at HawCC’s Digital Media Arts (DMA) Students’ Final Presentations
While at HawCC, I worked for Hawaii TechWorks as part of my internship requirement for my DMA certificate, and it is there that I learned about using social media to market my business: I learned how Facebook is the best way to disseminate information on an event for free and instantly; I learned how to connect my blogs to my Facebook and my business website; and, I also learned how to use the Google Drive to share documents with friends and customers, as well as with my students in the course that volunteered to teach over the summer. A whole new world of communication opened up for me and my business endeavors. The traditional print ads are passé these days!
Mililani Hughes at the interim, former location for Hawaii TechWorks
It is exciting to be retired. There are so many things to do. Being retired means that one has spent 25-30 years working on particular skill sets. How could those skills be transformed into a money-making venture? Could a hobby be turned into a profitable sharing experience? Perhaps not a million-dollar enterprise, but an endeavor to earn extra money to pay for traveling adventures or home renovations or even new toys, like current technology. Besides all the excitement of a business, there is a chance to meet a lot of new people who become fast friends. Small business? Try it. You might like it. No… you might love it!!
–
Mililani Hughes
Rocking H Ranch Wear: http://www.rockinghranchwear.com/
Maluhia Educational Enterprises: http://www.maluhiaeducational.com/
Maluhia Guest House: https://www.facebook.com/MaluhiaGuestHouse
About Muriel Mililani Hughes
“I can tell when I met people by whether they call me Muriel or Mililani.”
Hughes changed to using her Hawaiian middle name when she began working at Ke Kula ‘O Nawahiokalani’opu’u, a Hawaiian immersion school in 2000.
An educator since 1971, Hughes has been a public school teacher on Oahu, Hawaii, and Wakayama, Japan. Hughes served many of the Hawaii Island schools as the vice principal or principal, and retired from the Hawaii Department of Education in 2004.
Never one to stay idle, Hughes has volunteered in several community groups and programs since “retirement.” Always a learner, Hughes is also an entrepreneur and currently has four businesses: Rocking H Ranch (in Glenwood), Rocking H Ranch Wear (an apparel company), Maluhia Educational Enterprises, LLC (an educational consulting business), and Maluhia Guest House (a vacation rental in Volcano).
“The best thing I love about business is meeting new people who soon become friends, rather than customers.”
Hughes resides in Glenwood with her husband, Don.
About Rocking H Ranch
Rocking H Ranch is a small cow-calf operation located in Glenwood, Hawaii, where the cattle are grass fed. For more information, please contact Don Hughes at (808) 968-6696.
About Rocking H Ranch Wear
Rocking H Ranch Wear, established in 2000, specializes in palaka fabric, a nostalgic and distinctive plaid design, as well as men’s aloha shirts, cowboy shirts, women’s blouses, mu’umu’u, capris, bags, and shorts. Rocking H Ranch Wear may be found online at http://www.rockinghranchwear.com.
About Maluhia Educational Enterprises
Maluhia Educational Enterprises, LLC, is an educational consulting firm where consultants help schools and organizations with their educational needs, including everything from curriculum planning to program evaluation, as well as research, and technical and grant writing. Besides assisting in educational planning, Maluhia Educational also helps organizations with event planning to further their educational goals by facilitating meetings, planning retreats, and seminar. For more information regarding services and the credentials of their consultants, please visit http://www.maluhiaeducational.com.
About Maluhia Guest House
Maluhia Guest House is a vacation rental in Mauna Loa Estates in Volcano. The guest house house has five bedrooms and three bathrooms and can accommodate up to 12 people in comfortable beds. Set in a quiet neighborhood and surrounded by ‘ohi’a trees, Maluhia Guest House is the perfect setting for a family or group vacation; the guest house is also available for meetings and retreats. For rental information and views of the interior and exterior of the Maluhia Guest House, please visit http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/251343.
About Hawaii TechWorks
Hawaii TechWorks (HTW) is a non-governmental, social enterprise organization working in East Hawaii and surrounding communities. Hawaii TechWorks’ mission, as established by founder Tony Marzi, is to approach the existing and systemic issues we face today with 21st century tools and solutions. The goals of Hawaii TechWorks are: to assist in the development of community-based high growth and high impact businesses; to help entrepreneurs convert great ideas into successful businesses; and, to help companies succeed by providing the technical assistance, business infrastructure, and networking opportunities that will increase their chances of successes. We are focused on fostering the emergence of a next generation of leaders, in facilitating the development of strong community ties through informal networking and relationship-building, in new job opportunities for local residents, and in community-based economic development.
For more information or if you would like to submit a Hawaii TechWorks guest article, please contact us at community@easthawaii.org.
