Tao Miller is surrounded by success at the Body & Soul boutique at King's Village. Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

Tao Miller still remembers a dream he had as a teen-ager.

"It was about clothing," he said, "I was surrounded by racks and racks with hangers."

It only took 10 years for that dream to come true.

Today Miller is the 27-year-old president of T.M. Pacific, which runs the upscale King's Village clothing boutique Body & Soul and Tri-Star Trading which exports clothing to Japan.

Last year his revenue topped $2.3 million. His success has just earned him the federal Small Business Administration's Young Entrepreneur Award for the City and County of Honolulu.

The dream wasn't so much of a stretch, when one considers his mother was a textile and fashion designer and film prop and costume designer. From her, Miller said, he inherited an eye for fashion.

In addition, his parents encouraged him to be independent.

"My parents didn't have that much money. So if I wanted something, like a new bike, I had to go out and earn the money."

He started in childhood, in Sweden, selling magazine subscriptions and flower seeds door to door.

Then as a teen, attending Pahoa High School, he continued his hard-working ways, working as many as three jobs at once to save up for a car.

But that was easy compared to what came next. A family crisis left him unable to continue studies in International Business at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and at age 20, he found himself "concentrating on survival. I came to Oahu with $200 and ended up staying on the couches of friends of friends.

"The first two years on this island were really hard for me. If I passed on dinner - I had too much pride to ask people - I went hungry. I experienced poor times so that's part of what drives me now."

Miller started selling used Levis to Japan, as well as T-shirts, and it was time to make friends with his bankers Thomas Oh, Randy Matsumoto and Naomi Masuno of Bank of Hawaii, who nominated him for the Young Entrepreneur award.

Miller had achieved moderate success running a men's and women's wear boutique on Kapahulu Avenue, but the bank stood by his decision to relocate to Waikiki in 1994.

"I invested pretty much everything I had to open that store," he said. And there was no guarantee of success. His first store had offered streetwear at street prices, and now he was aiming for the upscale women's market.

"It was still related in style and forward fashion, but where I had been carrying less expensive brands, I started carrying more European designers. It's like I graduated and the clientele would have to follow, and they did. Maybe they couldn't buy as many pieces, but they could find a few to work with what they had."

Japanese tourists loved the store, and soon Body & Soul was being written up in Japanese magazines.

He admits, "Luck is always a part of it. The way I do business is I'm real honest, up-front, loyal. I do things pure and clean and as long as I do it that way, I think luck will come."

His formula has worked. Another Body & Soul boutique will open at Ward Warehouse with a target date of June 15. He plans to open in Guam within a year, and Saipan the following year, saying, "I think Guam is the up-and-coming Hawaii. A lot of Japanese travel there."

He says he's less fearful these days, but says, "I worry a lot. At one point, when I first started on Kapahulu, I had an ulcer problem. I've learned to manage that fear and let it boost me in a positive way,

"But still, if I wake up early, I can't go back to sleep. I start thinking. I don't go out much anymore, and when I do, I'm just there daydreaming, deep in thought."

And in the past few years, he's moved from a company of one - when he was doing all the bookkeeping, selling, inventory work and cleaning - to 24, and growing. He anticipates employing 30 people by the end of the year.

He says he'll never be happy retiring to that mansion on a private island.

"Of course I wanna have my mansion, but I'm a real hands-on person. I don't think I could handle not working. I feel that I'm here to get something started, like I'm catching the fish and bringing it to my team to prepare or nurture it, then I'll go after the next fish.

"I'm here to find new products, new opportunities and they'll take care if it from there."

Finding the right people is important to any business, and perhaps his most monumental business decisions have involved personal relationships.

For one thing, his father now heads his mail order division and Miller says, "No matter what, a parent is always going to treat you like a son, even when you're the boss."

Another time, he was forced to lay off a best friend, when he had hired him with the best intention.

"That was the hardest thing to do. It wasn't because he was a bad person, but he had no prior experience. I saw it as an opportunity for him, and I take responsibility for hiring a person who wasn't qualified. It got to a point where he couldn't do the job and it was harmful to my business, and he wasn't happy either.

"Having friends and family involved is very difficult. Business is business, family is family, and friendship is friendship and you have to be clear cut on that.

"Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't and there's no in-between. And I wouldn't recommend it."

Even if one has the vision, there will be down moments. "So many times I had to ask, 'Why am I doing this to myself.' I've been in tears some days," he said.

But he tells other would-be entrepreneurs, "Stay positive, stay focused and don't give up."

Be sure to see a companion story on
Hawaii's Top Young Entrepreneur in today's [Features] section online.