We are thrilled to announce our exciting new program launching in December!

On August 8, 2023, Lahaina, Maui Hawaii, my beloved childhood town, was devastated by one of the deadliest fires in our nation's history. The tragic loss of life was accompanied by the destruction of countless homes, businesses, and jobs. The recovery and rebuilding process will undoubtedly span several years. The heart and soul of any small town lie within its community, and Lahaina is home to many multi-generational families who form the foundation of its beautiful and enriching culture. I am eager to lend my support to the recovery efforts for many years to come.

PIKO, on a mission to empower small businesses from the inside out, has been granted funds from the Maui-Strong fund to hire, train, and actively employ individuals in order to create new location-independent career opportunities. Our goal is to keep Maui residents on the island, rather than being forced to seek job opportunities elsewhere.

For those residents of Maui who have been adversely affected by the fire, there is a remarkable opportunity for you to continue living and working in Lahaina. PIKO has developed a paid training program specifically designed to help those directly impacted by the fires on Maui build location-independent careers. Trainees will receive compensation while learning valuable skills in areas such as bookkeeping, virtual administrative assistance, sales/social media marketing, and customer service. The best part is that participants can complete the training and work from the comfort of their own computers, with ample one-on-one support provided. To register for one of our in-person open houses, please click here.

For business owners who are eager to contribute to the rebuilding of Maui, we are seeking new clients to support. In this initial phase, we are primarily focused on assisting with administrative tasks and bookkeeping, which often represent a small business owner's first hiring needs. If you are ready to take your business to the next level but find yourself overwhelmed with responsibilities, we would love to meet you and help you grow by providing one of our new team members. Let us know what kind of assistance you require by clicking here.

Over the past five years, we have been developing remote fractional work solutions and understand that not every company requires a full 40 hours per week of administrative or bookkeeping services. As a result, such tasks often go unattended.

This is precisely why we have created our Biz in a Box program, which offers comprehensive back-office support at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time employee. At PIKO, we help the business owner find time again in their schedule. We find, on average, 10-15 hours per week for our clients.

We are incredibly excited about this program and eagerly anticipate this wonderful new work we get to do with the people of Maui and businesses everywhere. If you know of anyone who could benefit from our program—whether they have been affected by the events in Maui or they are a business owner seeking additional support—please direct them to our website www.piko.org/maui-strong.

Let's keep Maui People on Maui.

Excel is a powerful tool that can streamline your data management tasks, and one of its most valuable functions is VLOOKUP. In this article, we'll walk you through the basics of using VLOOKUP to save time and make your spreadsheet work more efficient.

VLOOKUP is a function in Excel that allows you to search for a value in a table and return a corresponding value from the same row. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use VLOOKUP effectively:

1. Understand the Syntax: The basic syntax of VLOOKUP is =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup]).
- lookup_value: This is the value you want to look up, often referred to as the search key.
- table_array: This is the table where you want to search for your value.
- col_index_num: It specifies the column number from which you want to return a value.
- [range_lookup]: This is an optional argument. If you want an exact match, use "false," and if you want an approximate match, use "true."

2. Example Usage: Let's say you have a list of customers' favorite flavors in one column and their names in another. You want to find a customer's favorite flavor by searching for their name. In this case, your lookup_value is the customer's name, and the table_array is the table containing both names and flavors.

3. Using "false": As mentioned earlier, always use "false" when you want an exact match. This ensures that Excel finds an exact match for the lookup value in the table.

4. Pulling Down Data: Once you've entered the VLOOKUP formula, you can copy it down to apply it to all the customers in your list. Excel will automatically adjust the cell references to match each customer's name.

5. Saving Time: By using VLOOKUP, you can quickly populate favorite flavors for all your customers, saving you time on data entry and reducing the risk of errors.

In conclusion, VLOOKUP is a handy Excel function that can help you retrieve data efficiently and accurately. Whether you're managing customer data, inventory, or any other information in Excel, mastering VLOOKUP can make your spreadsheet tasks much smoother and more productive. So, the next time you're working on a spreadsheet, remember to use VLOOKUP to simplify your tasks and boost your Excel prowess. Happy spreadsheeting!