The Kona Impact Blog

One of the great joys of running Kona Impact is working with huge variety of other businesses. There are few types of businesses with which we haven't worked.

Here is a press release for one of our clients--Big Island Alpacas.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Tess Wilkinson
Big Island Alpaca Farm
808-640-4927
bigislandalpacas@gmail.com

“BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM” PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL ALPACA FARM DAYS

On Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26, alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will invite the public to come to their farm or ranch to meet their alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals. On Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM will welcome guests!

BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM is located at 94-2088 South Point Road, between Mamalahoa Highway and Kamaoa Road.

To find out more about National Alpaca Farm Days visit www.NationalAlpacaFarmDays.com.

To learn more about BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM, visit bigislandalpacas.com or call (808) 640-4927.

Hawaii Island has, I believe, the highest electricity rates in the United States. Most of our energy comes from imported oil, which is burned, in our on-island power generators. With a relatively large area, small population and great distance from our fuel sources, we are mostly stuck with very high electricity rates.

Hawaiian Solar is a great local company that offers home and building owners the chance to (at least partially) break free from our high electricity costs. They have hot water, pool and photovoltaic systems and are the most experienced solar equipment dealers and installers on the island.

Like with most of our clients, we got to work closely with Ken, the owner, over a period of weeks to learn about his business and how we could convey what he does online. We certainly enjoyed learning about solar systems and why Hawaiian Solar is the local leader. We even got to design a face plate for Ken's new Segway--our first design for a Segway.

Doing business in Kona, Hawaii (the West side of Hawaii Island) can be challenging on the best of days. We are several thousand miles from the Mainland, so access to services and products can be difficult. We also live in an economy that, at times, seems to have only two pillars—real estate and tourism. It’s also a relatively small community with only about 50,000 residents living in a narrow swath of land (three miles wide at most parts) that stretches 40 or so miles north to south.

While there are many essential tasks to running any business, the following are a few that are especially useful for a small, relatively isolated community.

1. Become part of the community through volunteer, sport or shared interest groups. This will not only provide access to pulse of the community and business information, but it will also become the a great referral network. In Kona, Hawaii, there are Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, paddling clubs and a large range of political, spiritual and cultural groups. Join one or two and become active.

2. Understand the reality of the online marketing. Many home owners in Kona do not live here. Most tourists will have already decided where they will stay, what they will do, and even, where they will eat before they ever get on a plane. More people who live here will Google for local information instead of using any of our three telephone directories. All of this means that a business must have a solid online presence.

3. Buy locally. In small communities, your web of referrals starts with developing ties with other businesses. Likewise, you can’t expect patronage from residents and local businesses if you source all of your services and supplies off-island. In the end, you will will receive more goodwill, referrals and support for your business by working with other local businesses. At Kona Impact, we see it time and time again that local businesses that support each other get superior products and services.

4. Offer unique products and superior service. Even little Kona, Hawaii has a Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Costco, Lowe’s and Home Depot. Don’t waste your efforts trying to offer commodity-type products or services when a large big box store can do so more effectively and at less cost. The big box stores here have vision centers, but it takes two weeks to receive glasses. Several local optometrists have same-day service. Several local restaurants focus on fresh, local ingredients—things the chains can’t offer. Service providers don’t need to compete on price; offering superior service and local knowledge can overcome price disadvantages.

5. Go online. At Kona Impact we have helped tens of businesses develop online stores or offer their services online. They have, in essence, grown their potential market from 50,000 or so to hundreds of millions. We have helped lawyers, coffee farmers, jewelry stores, wholesalers and artisans(and many more) offer their products and services online. Many have been able to supplement or replace their locally-derived income with adding staff or physical locations.

The whole Kona Impact crew is looking forward to this year's Independence Day Parade in Kailua-Kona. We anticipate over 70 entries this year and welcome U.S. Senator Inouye. Fireworks will follow at 8:30PM. See you there!

Receiving cold calls is a fact of life for most businesses. They are an intrusion and annoyance, yet, on occasion, a cold call pitch is intriguing and perhaps worth a few minutes of time. After all, cold callers seem to be cut from the same cloth that produces car and timeshare salespeople. I mean this as a compliment: they are awesome salespeople!

If you do get a sales call for web design or online marketing services, here are a few important questions. If the salesperson cannot answer them to your satisfaction, hang up. If the salesperson does answer them to your satisfaction, take your time. Verify the information. Have the salesperson call you back in a week. Or, just simply ask for an email detailing the offer or product and then investigate the details at your pace. Never buy anything on the first call.

Questions to Ask a Company Cold Calling for Web Services:
1. Who are you? Where are your headquarters? How long has your company been in business? When you know the headquarters's location, you can check their Better Business Bureau information. Also Google the company's name and look at the second and third page of Google results. Look for blog posts complaining about the company. If you don't find any, it's a good sign.

2. What is your company's website? Where is the information detailing what you are selling on your website? Where can I find your terms of service?

3. If they are selling online marketing services, ask for five keywords that the company has tried to do well on in the organic Google rankings. This will tell you if the company is good at what they do. For example, if a company has focused on being found on Google for "web design in Seattle" or "Seattle online marketing", Google those terms. If you find the company in the top ten results, you can be reasonably assured that they good at what they do. If they don't have a good keyword strategy, don't use them! Simple: if they can't do for themselves what they want to do for you, they are no good.

4. Can you provide the contact information for five clients (in your area or state) who have purchased your services. Contact them. Verify results. Be skeptical. After all, it's your money, time and business!

5. What is your guarantee? (This is a bit of a trick question; a reputable online marketing will not make guarantees, as no one controls how Google or the other search engines rank items.) What happens if you don't perform as promised?

Kona Impact encourages all businesses who receive cold calls for web services to be very skeptical and ask a lot of questions. We get these calls one or two times a day due to the nature of our business, and, almost without exception there are better options at better prices. Some, if not most, are outright scams.

If your business is in Hawaii and you are looking for a reliable provider of web design and marketing services, give us a call at 329-6077.

What is a the value of hiring a professional web design team?

This question is certainly one that every potential client should ask. After all, there are many cut-rate and budget web designers out there. Many, for example, price their projects really low with the hope of getting a foothold in the web design business. They also know that they really don't have much experience or a credible portfolio, so they think they will build a business by practicing and developing their skills with a slew of budget projects.

At Kona Impact, we understand that individuals who start a web design business need to develop their skills and one way to do so is to price projects way below cost. If the buyer understands what he or she is getting and is relatively unconcerned about design and function, we see very little wrong with this. After all, not all businesses value their online presence equally.

This issue came to mind the other day when we reviewed a site a client had done by a local guy who does budget websites. We weren't surprised when we found the website to be sorely lacking in many respects.

The biggest problem was that the designer had absolutely no understanding of the search engines and how to build a website to be found online. One has to wonder what the purpose of a website is if it cannot be found online. When clients ask us which is more important, the design of a website or the search engine visibility, our answer is an unequivocal "both".

The other problem we found was that it was nearly impossible to find a contact number for the business on the website. What is the use of a website if it does not provide ways to contact the business? At Kona Impact, one of the first issues we address is how to make the contact information salient on the website.

We don't mean to denigrate the work of others, as we are sure that every project--budget or high end--is done with constraints, be they time, financial or the demands of the client. What we do believe, however, is that a professional web design team is going to give a business the best long-term return on investment. Most of the websites we make pay for themselves in a few months, so going with an unproven and untested web designer might save some money right away, but it does not take long for an unprofessional job to start costing the business potential revenue. It's not what a business makes, but it's what a business could have made.

When you're ready for professional web design from a team that has works on tens a websites a year, give Kona Impact a call at 329-6077.

At Kona Impact we like to use the June-July period every year to take a look at where we are and do some housekeeping around the office. It's also a time that we focus on planning on long-term projects and look for new opportunities.

We have a HUGE announcement coming in July about some new products and services we will be offering, but, alas, that will have to wait.

This week we did, however, add some of our more recent projects to our our website portfolio page.

Some our our favorites include:
Wakefield Coffee, a small family farm that sells some awesome Kona coffee.
Buns in the Sun, a wonderful local bakery that has the best breakfast in Kona.
Keala.com, a bed and breakfast in Kealakekua.
Precision Auto Kona, an awesome mechanic in Kailua-Kona.

We do have many other website we have completed recently, and, over time, we'll add them to the website, too. As always, we love offering top-notch website design services in Hawaii. Our skill set, portfolio, customer service and commitment to excellence have made us the top web design company in Kona, Hawaii.

A remarkable sea change has begun in the web design world today. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, posted a letter explaining why the iphone and ipads will not be supporting Flash, a programming tool that allows everything from simple animations to full website designs. Flash is used on simple navigation buttons and, at the other extreme, interactive online games. It is also the software on which a lot of online video is made and played.

Jobs gave six reasons why the iphone and ipad will not support Flash. Taken as a whole these are certainly the proverbial nail in the Flash coffin for Apple's mobile devices. Some may say, "so what", but at Kona Impact we have identified this as a fundamental shift in the way companies like ours designs and programs websites.

The reason is simple: there are 40 million iphones and the estimated sales for ipads this year is 10 million. For the most part, the users of these devices are tech-savvy, mobile and more affluent than the average person. In other words, this is a huge market of potential customers for our client's businesses. To ignore them would be a very bad business decision in our opinion.

So, at Kona Impact, we have decided to no longer use any Flash on our websites. We will continue to use JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS--the standards of web design and programming tools well-supported by all standards-compliant browsers and mobile devices--including the iphone and ipad.

If your company wants to reach users of iphones and ipads (as well as any other computer browser) give us a call. If you have a full Flash website, we can help keep the essence of the design and make a site that is standards-compliant and highly functional. 329-6077.

When I was in university in the late 1980s, I had a roommate with a Gremlin. The Gremlin was a sub-compact car made by AMC from the early to late 70s and was notable for its distinct design. My roommate's car was purple and I believe it was a 1972 model. With rust holes in the floor of the car, four different rims and an engine that was very reliably unreliable, this car was all John had, but it took us everywhere in town. I remember one time we were turning left off the side street we lived on and the right-front wheel feel off. Fortunately, the car was light and we were but 50 yards from our apartment, so we just lifted up the right-front of the car and moved it back to the driveway.

Websites, like John's old Gremlin, get old. The design may be stale, parts of it may not work correctly, the information may be outdated and it just might not represent a company well. That said, most business owners certainly remember the money and time they put into the website (just as John could probably remember all time he spent trying to keep his car going) , and, truth be told, an old website often has great sentimental value to the owner.

Should an old website be fixed or replaced? The answer, of course, it not not always clear cut, as there are variations on "old" and "non-functional".

Here are a few reasons why you might want to just fix or update your current website:
1. The design and function are basically good. The problem is outdated content.

2. A few small changes, like replacing some old photos will make a big difference in the design.

3. The reason why something is not working is just a code fix and it can be done quickly and at a low cost.

4. The business truly believes there is little value in an effective online presence.

Here are some reasons to replace an existing website:
1. A marked improvement in the design, function or content would have a high return on investment for the business. In other words, if a $5,000 new website would increase profits by much more than that amount, it makes sense.

2. If the business is embarrassed by the current site. At Kona Impact we recommend believe that a very poor online presence can actually have a negative effect on the offline business.

3. If it's cheaper to start over. In the late 1990s, I remember paying programmers in India to make a custom-programmed solution for one of my websites. Now, we can get the same functionality off the shelf for about $50. It is certainly true that it is sometime cheaper to start over than to fix an outdated and broken technology.

4. If there are new technologies that will greatly outperform what is currently on the website. For example, it seldom makes sense to upgrade an old computer, as a new one will certainly have better performance and features that are unavailable with an older system. This is where a chat with a good web design team will help a business to see what's available.

The above are just a few reasons to fix your current website or replace it. At Kona Impact, we highly recommend that businesses schedule a little face time with their web designers and developers each year to review goals and opportunities.

The Kona Impact team welcomes clients who are looking at fixes and new websites. Call 329-6077 for a free, no-obligation consultation.