Local Small Businesses
As a consumer, I am very passionate about where I spend my money and who I support. And I LOVE to support small local businesses because I can empathize with the sacrifice, passion, and hard work they put into their products.
Mana Up Hawai`i brought back their showcase in-person this year and I was thrilled to catch up with some of my entrepreneur friends, meet other small business owners, and start my Christmas shopping in supporting them.
If you love to shop local and support small too, here are a few of the businesses I supported at this event and some of their goodies:
Jules & Gem - The sweetest owner & friend, Lana, has wonderfully scented candles & hand soap! Their guava and coffee scent are my favorite.
Western Aloha - Love his aloha shirt designs for men & trucker hats! Nice meeting you Paul!
Advance Wildlife Education - Very cool meeting this biologist, conservationist, & artist and getting his educational coloring books for my son. Thanks for autographing it too Che!
AO Organics Hawai`i - Super sweet owner w/ a great back story and picked up a pikake scent for my aunty and it came with a beautiful little gift bag. Wonderful to meet you Chelsa!
Kakou Collective - The passionate owner was greeting everyone! I picked up some really cute notepad paper with lei designs for gifts.
Kahuku Farms - Great friends Kylie and Judah showed off their brand new products and have a referral pilot program that I’m participating in where you can score one of their famous free Lilikoi butter mochi or a free coffee when you visit them with the card pictured below! (Ask me for yours! It’s so worth the drive out there! Promise.)
Hanalei Island Powered Beauty - First time trying this from the upbeat owner, Alice, who has some great specials going on so purchased an eye moisturizer for myself and a lip cream as a gift.
David Shepard - First time seeing his pieces and fell in love! They didn’t have my size when I was at his booth, but I will be visiting his site for a new dress!
If you want to score some of the above favorite things for free, I’m giving some away this holiday season to my subscribed email list so make sure you are signed up!
There were so many others I loved, but couldn’t get to them all, but you can preview the businesses Mana Up has worked with on their site on the button below.
Thank you Mana Up Hawai`i for supporting these small businesses and for another successful showcase! Happy Holiday shopping everyone and thank you for supporting local small businesses!
erin’s tip
Browse the site or view all of their websites and read the passion behind the products, their mission, their start up stories, and know where your hard earned dollars isaregoing. You’ll feel good knowing your money & support, really gives them mana (power) to press on!
