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Applying for Counseling on Maui

Thank you for your interest in counseling with the Maui Center. We provide free, one-on-one, confidential counseling to both established businesses and start-up businesses. We cover a wide range of topics including:

• Business idea/opportunity assessment
• General start-up advice
• Sources of financing including banks, SBA Loans, community funds, bootstrapping, SBIR grants, angel and venture capital.
• Developing business plans
• Market research - including special access to the Hawaii Business Research Library
• Marketing plans
• Operations Planning
• Technology
• International Business
• Financial analysis, projections, and general book keeping and accounting

We do not provide

• conflict resolution,
• legal advice,
• tax advice,
• accounting services,
• money
• help with government regulation and permiting,

although we have information resources and can make referrals in these areas. See http://mauienterpriseforum.net/index.html

Counseling is by appointment only, and with only one counselor on Maui, we do not have the resources to serve all who want our services. To manage this we do the following:

1. Ask that you take one or more of our workshops if you are new to business
2. Take advantage of information resources on the web or at the Hawaii Business Research Library
3. Complete a Request For Counseling Application (at the Hawai'i SBDC Network Training Events Website http://hsbdcn.ecenterdirect.com/). This is required by our primary funder, the U.S. Small Business Administration.
4. Complete a Self-Assessment form for either a Start-up or Existing Business, and/or send us a copy of your business plan, resume and any other material that will help us to understand you and your business. Email these documents to pat.diaz @ hawaii-sbdc.org or fax to 808-875-2406. To fill out the online version of the Self-Assessment form, click here.

After we receive your request for counseling form, and your self-assessment, we will call you to set up an appointment--normally within two weeks. If you have urgent questions, please put them in writing and fax or e-mail them to us, and we will do our best to respond accordingly. While we will try to return phone calls, our experience is that you are as busy as we are, and that the result is typically phone tag.

We describe our work as "counseling" in order to be clear that we are not "hired gun consultants"- you will be doing the majority of the work in developing your business. However, we do frequently participate in work sessions where we will help you design research, jointly prepare financial projections, write sections of your business plan, draft press releases, visit your site and your competitors, join you in a meeting with your banker, etc.

I hope this gives you a good idea of what we do. I look forward to learning more about you and your business.

Aloha

David B. Fisher

Maui Center Director