Female Founders: Marcie Cheung of Hawaii Travel with Kids On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t focus on social media. I spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to get more followers/engagement on several social media platforms. This took time away from focusing on my website goals. I could have used that time and money on creating more content that would provide more value to my audience as well as earn money through ads and affiliates. You don’t need to have a presence on every platform.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marcie Cheung.

Marcie Cheung is the founder of Hawaii Travel with Kids, a website dedicated to helping families plan their perfect Hawaii vacation. She has visited Hawaii 40 times, including all islands accessible to visitors. She currently lives in the Seattle-area with her husband and two sons.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Hawaii has been a big part of my life since I was a kid. I’ve been visiting Hawaii since I was 10 years old and I was even a professional hula dancer for 20 years in the Seattle-area. When my mom moved to Kauai several years ago, I started visiting the islands more frequently with my kids. That made me a Hawaii travel expert in the minds of my friends and they asked me tons of questions about planning their first Hawaii vacation with kids. I realized that I could share my tips and tricks on a much larger platform if I launched a website. I already understood SEO and keyword research from working on other websites, so it wasn’t much of a learning curve. Starting Hawaii Travel with Kids has been one of the best business decisions I’ve made.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I recently joined LinkedIn and through that platform I was invited to the opening of the Ford Island Control Tower at Pearl Harbor on Oahu in May 2022. I flew to Hawaii with my 5-year-old for the opening ceremony with dignitaries. After the ceremony, we were invited up to the top of the tower. It ended up being the CEO of U-Haul, the First Lady of Hawaii, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper, and us! I finally felt like a “somebody”! The whole event made me realize that I run a solid business and need to shake off the imposter syndrome I’ve been battling since I started my company. My son was also the first kid to go up to the top of the Ford Island Control Tower and his photo was in the paper. Ever since, he tells almost anyone that he meets that he’s “famous” because he was in the newspaper!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first launched Hawaii Travel with Kids, I hired several writers to help me get content up quickly since I knew I had limited time due to childcare issues. Some of the articles that were turned in were full of hilarious mistakes (like being able to see lava on Oahu or drive between the islands) that made it obvious that these writers had never been to Hawaii before. Thankfully, I was able to correct all the mistakes before anything went live but it was a good reminder to fully vet contract employees to make sure they had either visited the islands themselves or were thorough researchers. Now I always ask writers to tell me their favorite local coffee shop, playground, or beach.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’m very thankful for Stephanie Craig-Moyo. She’s a travel blogger who sat down with me and helped me outline my Hawaii niche website. Since she had never been to Hawaii before, she brought a new perspective about what questions I needed to be sure to answer, article ideas, which topics to cover first, and so much more. She even met with me on a monthly basis to make sure I was staying on task and working toward my goal of getting this website profitable. Without her guidance, my business would not be where it is today.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

Honestly, affordable childcare is probably the biggest obstacle women face. Childcare issues still tend to default to women when both parents are working. This is really noticeable when children attend school. I know our school district has early release days every week as well as frequent days off from school. It makes it very hard to work a “normal” schedule let alone feel comfortable launching a company. I started this company knowing that I would only be able to work 20–30 hours a week and that it would take me longer to reach my goals because I also had to manage childcare for two young kids.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Our country really needs plentiful affordable childcare options. Many families face long wait lists at childcare facilities. And a lot of women realize that their entire salary would go toward childcare costs and so they become stay at home parents instead. This leads to a gap in their resume that it hard to recover from. Another thing that is helpful for working parets is to offer flexible working hours and the option to work remotely. This is something that’s become more widely acceptable since 2020.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Women and men bring different perspectives to any business. It makes sense that both should be founders of companies. The only way that our society keeps evolving is if we bring in fresh perspectives, new ideas, and unique ways of looking at problems and figuring out solutions.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

I think a lot of people think that you need to find large investors in order to start a company. That doesn’t have to be the case. While it can be easier to start a company if you have a lot of financial resources, it’s also possible to start small and grow slowly. For my business, there were actually minimal expenses at first. It was mainly things related to setting up a new website. I chose to invest a little more to hire contract writers to speed things along, but I could have done all the writing myself and it would have just taken a little longer to reach my goals. Don’t let the idea that you need to have a lot of money to start a business deter you.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

It’s really important that founders are self-motivated, focused, hard workers, and goal-oriented. Founders create their business plan with specific goals and it’s up to them to make it actually happen. It’s really easy to get lazy and take a lot of time off from work to deal with life’s distractions, especially if there isn’t an outside force telling you to get back to work. But, if you want to see any progress, you have to really focus on how to achieve each goal and set aside adequate time to work on it. If people would rather have someone else come up with the “big picture” and give them set hours/projects, working a “regular job” might be a better fit.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Don’t focus on social media. I spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to get more followers/engagement on several social media platforms. This took time away from focusing on my website goals. I could have used that time and money on creating more content that would provide more value to my audience as well as earn money through ads and affiliates. You don’t need to have a presence on every platform.
2. Start an email list early. I actually had several people tell me to start collecting emails when I launched my business, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do it in a non-spammy way. I ended up launching some free email courses as well as a weekly newsletter about 2 years after I started my business. I’m shocked with how many sign-ups I get every single day and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
3. Create a product to sell. While it’s great to earn money through ads, affiliate partnerships, and sponsorships, it’s also important to sell your own products. I created kid-friendly Hawaii travel guides the offer my top tips and tricks, interactive maps, and 7-day itineraries. It’s basically like having a personal guide in your back pocket. These are digital products that are a natural fit for my site that provide passive income.
4. Treat your business like a business. When I first started, I downplayed my businesses a lot. I referred to it as a hobby or a side hustle since it wasn’t very profitable at the start. However, as soon as I started telling people that I owned my own company and that I was the founder of Hawaii Travel with Kids, I felt a lot more confident in my business and a member of the digital space. I set working hours for myself, I created a functional home office, and I budgeted for hired help.
5. Surround yourself with other founders. I’m part of a mastermind group of other female family travel writers/website owners. It’s a close-knit group where we share what’s working, our biggest struggles, and ways we can help each other. It’s through this group that I finally figured out how to create a successful email course, what type of digital products would work for my audience, the latest tips for SEO optimization, and so much more. This group has also helped me take my business seriously.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Since I launched my business, I’ve made several work trips to Hawaii to gather content and meet with local businesses. I always make it a point to buy products made in Hawaii, eat at Hawaii-run restaurants, and talk to locals to find out how I can help keep Hawaii a special place. I’ve also made it a point on my site to highlight how people can be responsible tourists in Hawaii. In the past few years, there has been an influx of people visiting Hawaii for the first time who treat Hawaii as their own personal playground. This involves littering, not following rules, being rude toward staff members, not supporting the economy, and being disrespectful to people from Hawaii as well as the Hawaiian culture. My goal is to make sure Hawaii Travel with Kids readers understand how they can avoid being part of the problem and become part of the solution instead.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I know I keep going back to affordable childcare, but it really is such an obstacle for women who want to launch a company. I keep thinking about all the amazing ideas that women (especially moms) come up with but they don’t have the time or energy to make them happen. I know in the Seattle-area, we have a few places where parents can work while their kids play in a supervised area. Those are a great stop-gap for families who just need a few hours of childcare each day or week in order to get work done.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

My family loves traveling around the world and some of the best meals we’ve had are when we sit next to locals and we just chat about life. It’s nice to share our different perspectives, experiences, and hopes for our children.

Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.