Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 1, 1 January 2018 — Loan helps towing company aohieve next level [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Loan helps towing company aohieve next level

y HO'OKAHUAWAIWAI v > ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY f~~

By Lisa Asato Kailua native Matthew Barros began towing cars and trucks at 18, and after five years of working for other companies he decided to make it his career. Today he's the owner of Empire Towing & Recovery LLC, a 24/7 towing and roadside service company serving O'ahu that in about eight years has grown to 13 employees, eight tow trucks, and contracts with the U.S. Anny and insur-

anee companies such as GEICO and State Earm. "This is a market with a lot of eompetition in it, but we pride ourselves in customer service and being on time," said Barros, whose company also towed for the Honolulu Poliee Department's Wahiawā/North Shore district from 2014 to 2016. What else

sets his company apart? "Having newer equipment," he says, as well as professional development for his drivers, who travel to Las Vegas for training on handling luxury vehicles. "We send our drivers out there so they ean be trained by the professionals." A turning point was receiving a

Mālama Loan from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs about a year into the business. Business had been picking up, and in order to expand he and his then-girlfriend needed a loan to buy more trucks. But banks declined. Not enough time or experience in business, they were told. Barros turned to OHA after an aunt

told him about the agency's loan t program. i "Thank you to Mr. Robert Crow- i ell over there at OHA who approved our loan and helped us get this thing I going," Barros said. "We really j appreciate somebody believing in ( us and allowing us to have a ehanee. 1 We took that loan and we ran with s

it, and we're a successful company today. I'd like to thank the people at OHA who had this program and allowed us to be great and do great things." Barros recalls early in his career working for other companies and how he struggled financially when equipment broke down and he was told to stay home from work. That was the incentive to start his own towing company - he wanted steady work. As a boss, he has additional incentive to succeed. "I just want to provide a steady job for my guys and I think that's what the focus of the company is - it's making sure our guys every day have work. That they have enough money to take home and take care of their families." It's a family affair in other ways A nephew who started workfor him at the outset remains with the company. In addition, "My fiancee runs the office. My oldest daughter helps with paperwork and my youngest one (who is 4) destroys paperwork," he says tongue-in-cheek. "It's something she ean draw on." ■

0HA's Mālama Loan program helped EmpireTowing ' & Recovery LLC buy better equipment at a time when ^ it was eyeing expansion. The equipment allowed the company to handle a greater workload and build ( cash for purchasing more trucks without taking out j additional loans. "It helped us to expand and that's what we needed to get a larger pieee of the pie," t Barros said, adding, "Without that loan I don't think 1 we would have gotten this far in the time we did." More than 2,000 Native Hawaiian families and 1 business owners have used 0HA's low-interest loans ] to build businesses, repair homes, cover educational 1 expenses and consolidate debt. To learn more about j 0HA's loan program, visit www.oha.org/loans.

Matthew Barros runs ū 24/7 towing and roadside service company to help people who are having car troubles. - Photo: Courtesy

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