Sharon Zambo-Fan is the founder and president of Favorite Foods of Hawaii. She also is chairwoman of the American Logistics Association, a group that helps local businesses get their products into military commissaries worldwide.

Q. How did you get started in business?

A. When I graduated from Hawai'i Pacific University I loved baking and cooking so I used to bake from home and sell through my mom to her friends. I remember my mother telling me one day, "You're going to burn this house down." So at that point I started looking at little bakeries that I could rent so that I could bake at night. There weren't any bakeries available, but what I did find was a little pizza shop and pizza shops normally operate up until 11 or 12. I found a little pizza shop that would close down and I would go in at midnight and I would bake until 9 in the morning. Then I found this little bakery in Kalihi that sold to the mom-and pop-stores. I borrowed from my parents and bought this little bakery and called it Aunty Leilani's Bakery and had that for five years.

Q. After five years, what happened to the bakery?

A. Someone walked up to me and said, "Hey, are you interested in selling?" At that time I said, "Sure, why not." We were doing really well and before I knew it there were a lot of people coming in looking to buy this bakery. I sat down, took a hard look and said, "I love baking, but I really want to get into the sales and marketing aspect, more than the retail business." So I eventually sold it to a family.

Q. What did you do next?

A. I went to work for other local companies before starting my own business, Favorite Foods of Hawaii. I started this in August and I do two things: I have a line of my own products. I manufacture roast coffee and ship it to the Mainland and also sell it here in Hawai'i. I also do a line of fresh, marinated meats. I have a frozen line of teriyaki meats that I will be launching. I sell my local cuts to the military commissary here in Hawai'i.

Q. Why did you go back to being a business owner?

A. I've had a lot of experience with the companies that I've been with in helping them grow their business locally and expand it abroad. All through that I've been involved in helping other companies start because I've been fortunate that I've had good mentors come and help me. When you work for one company, it gets difficult to be able to help a lot of different companies grow their business. In my previous job, that could have been a conflict of interest so I just made a decision one day that I'd like to start my own company and work with other companies.

Q. How did you get involved with the American Logistics Association?

A. I got involved over 11 years ago as a member. The American Logistics Association is based out of Washington, D.C., and it's made up of manufacturers, distributors, brokers and companies that sell goods or products to the military system. Within that, they have chapters throughout the United States. Hawai'i had its own chapter, so I got involved and started learning about the military, how it works, and eventually I became the vice president and president. Then I went and served on the board.

Q. Were you part of the first food show?

A. That started about 11 years ago. We had a zone manager here and he looked at all the local items that were in the retail market, but weren't being sold in the commissaries. At that time, I was involved as the vice president and he said, "I'd like to put a challenge out there for you. I'd like to find a way that we could work with the local small companies and get them to sell their products in the commissaries." So that's how the show started. It started at the Turtle Bay resort and we started with just a handful of companies. Today we fill up rather quickly and we wind up turning away companies.

Q. How does the military commissary system work?

A. There are two different branches — there are the commissaries and there are the exchanges. The commissaries work on appropriated funds so they sell their groceries at cost and there's a 1 percent markup that they add on to cover damage and salvage of the products. The exchanges work similar to that of a retail market. They put whatever margin they need to cover their expenses.

Q. How much does the military spend on local companies and their products?

A. There are about 264 commissaries worldwide. Their combined grocery sales annually is about $5.5 billion. Here in Hawai'i we have five commissaries. We have Barbers Point, Schofield, Hickam, Pearl Harbor and Ka'neohe. The five commissaries do over $228 million a year in grocery sales. The No. 1 commissary, which is Pearl Harbor, roughly is averaging between $7.5 million to $8 million a month in grocery sales. About 25 to 30 percent of that is local.

Q. What are the advantages of selling to the military?

A. With any small company, the cost of doing business with the military commissaries is a lot less because you have the opportunity to go in, write your order, deliver your order, put it up, it'll sell out and you go in the next day and do the same thing. When I look at one location, 45,000 square feet of selling space and this is Pearl Harbor, and they're doing upwards of $8 million, it's incredible. It comes down to the more product I can take in and the faster I can service, the more I can sell, which means more money for me.

Q. What is the relationship between the military and local merchants?

A. They've been a good partner throughout with small businesses here, working with them to bring their products to the commissary. There's no other place that they do this. Hawai'i is an exception. They fly all their buyers to Hawai'i to work with the small companies in terms of their contracting, in terms of their items. They take the time to meet with the companies individually and you're able to bring your product and say: "This is my product and this is what I'm doing now. Is my packaging OK? Is my label OK? Do I have the correct information?" and they'll work with you. For a lot of these small companies this means a lot.

Q. Is it difficult to balance your job, food show responsibilities and family life?

A. Sometimes it's a challenge in managing my business, volunteering for the American Logistics Association and helping out companies. But throughout my career I've always been blessed to have mentors that have helped me to achieve the accomplishments. I'm a believer where if I can help someone and if I can just help open that door for them, that's one great step because if they want to open that door and start selling, they can. Sometimes all they need is just that one person to help them understand this piece or help them fill out this paperwork and that's all they need.