GINA MANGIERI

What this episode covers

Gina has achieved success at a very young age. When she decided to open The Cole Academy, Gina wrote the business plan in one weekend and in the next week she obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in financing. Before the doors were even opened for business, Gina had filled between 70 to 80% of the student openings. Eight months from writing her business plan, she opened her doors and a year later is expanding. Between both locations and her business owned with her husband, Gina will employ over 60 people and is a major employer in Hawaii. The Cole Academy will serve over 200 students between both locations. As a community minded individual, Gina helped raise over $20,000 in two days for UNICEF with the total nearing $50,000 in a very short amount of time. She tells how this came from her heart and soon had a great positive impact on her business. If you are looking to become both financially successful and a community leader, you don’t want to miss this interview. Some of the questions asked: What is The Cole Academy and what makes it different from other preschools? Why did you decide to locate in downtown Honolulu and why do you think there aren’t more preschools in the downtown area? You didn’t wait very long to open a second location, was that in your original plan? How did you decide on opening in Kapolei? How did this come about, what is the story behind the Cole Academy? When you knew you wanted to start the Cole Academy what was the first thing you did? How long did it take to write your business plan? What were the major milestones achieved to get TCA up and running? What was the most difficult challenge to getting started and running your business? How did you obtain financing? What community organizations or non profits are you involved with? Can you tell us more about how you launched the South Asia Keiki Aloha fund drive and what prompted you to do it? How did you integrate the SAKA fund drive w/ the Cole Academy? How has that helped your business? Do you find it harder to do business because you’re a woman? Any advice for today’s young business person? What are the 3 biggest mistakes people make when starting their own business and what do you suggest for them to overcome these mistakes? How did you develop your business skills and entrepreneurial abilities? What other businesses do you run? What important things about running a business that you know now but didn’t know before opening The Cole Academy? What’s the biggest obstacle in running your business? What are the most important metrics in running your business? What is your greatest strength in running your business? BIO: Gina Mangieri is the founder of The Cole Academy and is also a broadcast reporter on KHON2 News. The Cole Academy started as a downtown infant, toddler and preschool center educating 100 children — including her toddler, Cole. Next year, it is planning a major expansion into West Oahu, where a new center will educate another 120 children. The concept for the school came about when Gina — at the time the editor of Pacific Business News — came back from maternity leave and was in need of good childcare. Other island centers had long waiting lists, and none met exactly what she envisioned in care and education. If she was going to wait months for entry into anything less than the “perfect school,” she figured, why not just make one herself? As she gathered experts from the field to help bring her vision to life, Gina became more enthralled with the business and philosophy of early childhood education. And as demand for enrollment doubled, tripled, even quadrupled compared to her initial concept, Gina found it was time for a transition so she could focus on the demands of building ...

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