The Hilarity & Challenges of having an office in Paia Town

For over 3 years, Hawaii Web Group has had an office in the heart of Paia Town at 71 Baldwin Ave.  There are many reasons why we moved the office to Makawao, and some of them are hilarious.

Reason #1:

Random Drop Ins

We regularly enjoy a random person walking in thinking we’re an internet cafe.  We do web-marketing for Hawaii businesses, are very busy, and even have writing on our door saying, “Appointments Only.”  That doesn’t deter people from wanting to surf Facebook in our office.  It’s almost always someone that smells really bad too.  Not sure why.

We also get people coming in asking if they can use our cell phone, use the bathroom, sell us lau lau (which we quite enjoy), and also occasionally ask us to hold a package for someone else.  Um, sorry but no.

Reason #2:

Theft

I once left my slippers outside of the office door.  Something I did for about a week until a kid walked away with them.  I caught the kid, and he said, “Oh, I thought they were just there for the taking.  You want these?” Granted, they weren’t brand new, but they were in decent shape.  Thanks, kid.

An employee also had his truck broken into multiple times in our lower lot.  Oddly enough, he’d had boardshorts stolen out of his car 4 times, sunglasses, and a skateboard.  He had more valuable stuff in there too, which was left alone.  Don’t do meth.

Reason #3:

Paia Parking

Even though our lot has become paid parking, which we also have to pay a modest monthly fee for, the lot gets full regularly.  Trying to find parking in Paia can be awful.  It just wasn’t designed for local business traffic as well as tourist traffic.  We desperately need more parking lots.

Reason #4:

Hippie Web Clients

Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE most types of hippies. We embrace many of the hippie ideals, but when it comes to hippie entrepreneurship, wrong turns are often made.  “I have harnessed the power of certain crystals.  I’d like to offer you the opportunity to work for me and push healing through the internet via my 10,000+ page website you’ll build for me.  I’ll pay you through reiki and epic smiles.”

We also have people asking us to build some wild mobile apps, which of course are unpaid until they profit.  And most memorably, we once had a guy come in and want to sell mail-order weed via their website.  We quickly lost the guys phone number.

Reason #5:

Distraction

“I’m gonna use my lunch break for some body surfing at Paia Bay, and OOPS, it turned into a full day of beach time.”  No work done.  “Oh hey, some friends are visiting from the mainland and want to meet us for a cocktail at Cafe Des Amis or Flatbread.”  No work done.  “Shoot, I really need to go shopping at Mana, then might as well do some errands in Town.”  No work done.  “Sweet!  Just got a very very rare report that Ho’okipa has no wind, is firing, and no one is out.”  No work done.

We’ve learned the hard way (READ: fun way) that Paia Town is too much fun to have an office in.

Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE Paia.  But anywhere you live or have an office comes with some compromises.

Things we’ll miss

• The many great restaurants.  Lunch time is always good.  Even when we need something fast and hit up the hot bar at Mana Foods.
• Mana Foods.  It’s so nice to be able to run into Mana because we forgot something on our last shopping trip.
• People Watching.  Paia is unparalleled when it comes to watching unique people in town.  I once was in such a huge hurry to get to work, I forgot my shoes and was wearing my pajama pants.  When I went into Mana for lunch with severe bed head, I was the most ordinary-looking dude in there.
• Good vibes.  There are a lot of happy people here in Paia.  It’s special.
• Lunch time dips in the ocean.  Yes, we like some of the distractions.
• Our cool neighbors.  There are some great businesses around us.  We’ll miss them!

Onward and (literally) Upwards!  We’ll see you in Makawao Town when you need web marketing services.  ALOHA!