Today Jill, 37, and Brendan, 38, are making plans to open a second shop in Kailua, which will offer them a different challenge in figuring out how to make a new store succeed without stealing business away from the original.

They plan to fall back on their original philosophies: Spend frugally, re-invest in the business and be ready to adapt at any time.

The Barrys didn't start their life together worrying about such things.

Jill and Brendan got married in 1990, rented a small house in Kaimuki and began settling into the busy life of a working couple.

Brendan, who calls himself a "dropout business major" from the University of Hawai'i, became general manager of the California Pizza Kitchen in Waikiki. Jill was a buyer for the Be Be Sport fashion retailer.

In 1991 they had their first child, Zak, and Jill thought about finding a job that would keep her closer to her family. On a trip to Brendan's hometown of Laguna Beach, Calif., Jill walked into a bead shop and unknowingly saw her future.

"I just went, 'Whoa!' " Jill said. "It was the concept of being able to go into a store, pick out what you want and make your own piece of jewelry. I thought this was something we could bring to Hawai'i."

Idea takes root

One night, while taking care of Zak, Jill convinced herself that her business idea could work. She discovered that Honolulu only had a couple of bead sellers, mostly offering inexpensive beads in plastic packets amid an inventory cluttered with all kinds of craft materials.

"We wanted something tactile," Brendan said, "where you could touch and feel everything rather than buy a pre-packaged product."

They decided Jill would run the store and Brendan would keep his management job and its benefits. They found there was a vacant 240-square-foot spot at the corner of Koko Head and Wai'alae avenues that was little more than an enclosed alley. The rent was $675 a month.

Jill and Brendan were surprised when 10 other people showed up to look at it. And they were shocked when the landlord required each party to provide a business plan, letter of intent and financial statements.

They had no idea where to start until a friend showed them how to write a plan highlighting the few assets they had, such as life insurance. Using a Macintosh, they produced a slick, spiral-bound report.

The Barrys then borrowed $15,000 from friends and family and used $7,000 to $10,000 of their own savings and some credit-card debt. They decided, for no particular reason, to spend $10,000 on inventory.

"We just said, 'Let's take this chunk of money and see what happens,' " Jill said.

Business starts small

Bead It! opened on Feb. 1, 1993, with a little hand-painted sign in the window and three friends as the shop's part-time work force. Their business plan projected that they would gross $200 a day.

The first customer came in the afternoon and spent $200. And by the end of the day, Bead It! had run up $260 in sales.

By the end of the first month, the Barrys still had money left over from their loans and were able to repay $5,000. By the end of the first year, they paid off the remaining $10,000.

"We had heard the conventional wisdom that you're not going to make money for three years," Brendan said. "I guess we didn't know any better."

About midway through their first year, a friend suggested that Bead It! offer classes in beading and the shop began to settle into a pattern.

Classes made no profit, but helped create new "beaders." Customers fell into several categories: new customers who get help from employees to make bracelets or necklaces for gifts or for themselves, people already into crafts who are looking for new hobbies and serious "beaders" who sell their work at craft fairs.

"We have grown-up hippies that are reliving their love-bead days," Jill said. "A lot of people come in and say this is just therapy."

Shaun Sisk, of McCully, shopped the other day for something to augment the shells and rocks she picked up on vacation along the East Coast. "I don't know what I'm going to make out of it all yet," she said. "It won't be a bracelet or a necklace but it'll come together when I get home."

Kathy Chang, an English teacher at Kapi'olani Community College, started beading three years ago and comes in about once a week. She held a handful of tubes filled with Japanese "seed beads" that look like tiny, brightly colored fish eggs.

"I do it for fun," Chang said. "Mostly I do it for relaxation."

Noel Saullo wandered into the shop about eight months ago to look for beads for a purse she was making. She liked how helpful the workers were and fell in love with the atmosphere.

Saullo, a junior psychology student at UH, got hired at Bead It! and says she has found a second home with the Barrys.

"They really work around my schedule," Saullo said. "They tell me they want me to finish school."

Juggling business, home

In the first year, Brendan found himself more involved with the business and needed to help more with childcare. He quit his management job, took a part-time job waiting tables at Sunset Grill and eventually gave that up, too, to concentrate on the store.

"With childcare and all, it's not as if we were working side by side as the smiling bead couple," Brendan said. "We had always been used to passing in the night."

Then 2› years ago, they moved the shop next door into a 1,000-square-foot space with lots of windows, natural light and enough room to conduct bigger classes and show off all of the inventory.

Now they're on the verge of opening that second store in Kailua, scheduled for Aug. 15.

"We feel we're finally at a point where we're mature enough to try this," Jill said.

"Mature" might be a bit overstated.

On her business cards, Jill calls herself "Chief of Staff." Brendan carries the self-appointed title of "CEO & Janitor."