New business ventures and an expansion are the latest Guam developments
BY SKYLER OBISPO
Journal Staff
Matthew Lowe, Jack Hanson, and Andrew Blakley are the new owners of Southern Mountain Gear, an outdoor retail store located in Hagatna centered around hiking and trailing gear, after purchasing it from founders and fellow outdoor enthusiasts Daniel Holms and his wife, Erin Holms in June.
(From left) Matt Lowe, co-owner; Andy Blakley, co-owner; and Jack Hanson, co-owner, all from Southern Mountain Gear.
Blakley said the Holmses felt that there were no buyers that would honor the original traditions they had set since Southern Mountain Gear’s founding in 2019 and the trio, being close friends of the Holmes, offered to purchase the business from them.
Lowe, Hanson, and Blakley individually toyed with the idea of purchasing the shop, but did not want to incur the weight of owning a business solo.
“Everybody wanted it, but nobody wanted it alone,” Lowe said. “We found out we had friends to lean on, to fall back on, [and] we realized that was not such a massive undertaking for people who never ran a retail business in our lives.”
Before gaining ownership of Southern Mountain Gear, all three served in the Navy and met the Holmses through the different outdoor communities on the island.
In the next year, the trio will continue to host races and runs with a new race schedule in 2025. In addition, Southern Mountain Gear is expanding the size of its shop, adding the space next door with renovations ongoing. For updates on future races and launches of new product lines, visit the Instagram page
@southernmountaingear.
Guamjoblistings.com is an online job search engine that went live in early August.
Developed by Yuko Gima, Guamjoblisting.com’s general manager, as well as two others based in Guam and Japan, the site touts its free and easy to use service for employers. The company said it aims to strengthen the island’s workforce by supporting personal career growth and business development.
Before developing the site, Gima worked with IBM in Japan before moving to freelance web development, as well as managing several e-commerce and real estate sites prior to moving to Guam. The start-up costs for the site amounted to approximately $60,000, Gima said.
She said the idea for the website came out of the number of monetized services on the island.
“When I lived in Guam before, everything used to be free, but now many services are monetized. While I understand that some things should incur a cost, I strongly believe that job postings shouldn’t be one of them,” she told the Journal through a translator.
The site receives international and local sponsorship from Aldo LLC in Japan and Y&Y LLC in Guam, which is why it keeps the website free for users. Additionally, employers can pay for a sponsorship spot where their company can be featured.
What separates the site from others is its free-to-use model for employers as well as up to date listings for job seekers, Gima said. The site requires employers to update their listings every four to seven days.
The company plans to expand to creating websites for real estate, cars, and food directories.
“We firmly believe that small businesses will thrive more if we can reduce the cost that are crucial to their operations,” Hikaru Nishihira, representative for Guamjoblisting.com, told the Journal. “Once we have completed the launch, we plan to upgrade and update each site to better meet our users’ requests.”
Island Girl Coffee ‘n Quenchers opened a new location in August. Located across St. Anthony’s church in Tamuning, the site is the coffee chain’s fifth location on the island.
Island Girl Coffee N’ Quenchers newest location in Tamuning. Photos by Skyler Obispo
Customers wanted a more central location according to Co-owner Torgun Smith and the Tamuning location where it currently sits provided a great opportunity for expansion.
The process of opening the new location took about a year. Smith said permitting, and working with the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, took up most of the time spent. In addition, an Island Girl trailer tipped over during Typhoon Mawar.
Smith said the next step for Island Girl Coffee is to make a more permanent location for the Yona location of the coffee stand.
For more updates visit Instagram page @igcoffee_guam.
Paycom is a human resources and payroll software founded in 1998 by Chad Richison in Oklahoma.
Paycom promoted its wares at the Aug. 16 Society for Human Resource Management Guam Chapter’s annual conference at the Dusit Thani Resort, since it already has its first clients in Guam.
The company touts the software’s accessible and automated tools through Beti, a tool in which employees can troubleshoot, verify, and approve their paychecks, and GONE, a tool which automates an employee's time-off requests. Essentially, the Paycom software exists as a way for employers to put the agency of payroll and scheduling into the hands of the employee.
The company has 36,820 clients as of 2023 across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Guam.
Randall Peck, the company’s chief operating officer, said Paycom’s software would be beneficial to any business size.
“Whether it’s a family-owned business or a large enterprise company like the New England Patriots, Paycom is dedicated to transforming businesses’ HR and payroll needs,” Peck said. “Through data-driven decision-making and employee self-service, Paycom helps maximize efficiency and ROI while scaling to the needs of the client.” mbj
