Tim Miller has found his professional happy ground

Tim Miller, owner and operator of Miller Office Supply in Sidney, has seen the business side of multiple professions. But in 1987 he finally found a business he plans to hang his hat on until retirement - his office supply business.

He and his wife Dixie own and run the store with the help of a loyal crew and will be been in charge of the store 26 years this July 1.

Miller and his wife were both born and raised in Sidney and came back to town after attending school in Denver in 1973.

With great knowledge in accounting and a soon-to-be successful business perspective, Miller began working at the hospital before buying what was then called the Thomas Lumber Company with a partner and investors in 1979.

Miller had the business background and his partner had a construction background. He said that at the time he thought buying the business made sense.

“I just thought, ‘I can do this.’ I was young and thank God that I was stupid enough to put everything on the line, quit the hospital job and not realize that it probably wasn’t a good idea,” said Miller. “I was going into a business with four or five people in a business that I had no clue about.”

Though Miller admits that his initial action might have been naïve at the time, his bold choice to buy into the lumber business is what ultimately led him to the office supply store that he now runs and loves.

Miller said that he and his partners remodeled the lumber store, added products such as kitchen cabinets and extended the stores hours.

“After eight years it had been very successful,” said Miller. “It then became TNT Lumber and I sold out of my portion and bough Sidney Office Supply July 1, 1987.”

Miller said that although his business partners were great, he was approached by someone asking if he would be interested in buying the office store from its owners who wanted to retire.

“No offense to my other jobs, but I was meant for this - personality wise and since then we’ve grown the business tremendously,” he said. “I came from the accounting office at the hospital to running a lumberyard for 8 years to here.”

Sidney Office Supply was located at 12th and Illinois before Miller took over, changing the name to Miller Office Supply.

After approximately 4.5 years the business moved out of their old building into their present establishment at 934 Illinois St.

They not only supply office essentials to Sidney residents and businesses, but also sell products in Kimball, Chappell and Lodgepole.

“We started out selling just basic office supplies, and what I have expanded on from the previous owner is now we do a lot of office furniture too and we do some office machines,” said Miller.

The Millers sell fax machines, copiers and also provide a black and white or color copy service, as well as an incoming and outgoing fax service.

But the business owners haven’t stopped at selling office supplies solely; they also carry cell phones and iPads.

“The only other big things we have done besides continue with our office side is in 1994 we were approached by Nebraska Cellular to be an agent,” said Miller. “We would sign people up and sell them phones. Back then you had a grand choice of one phone -- a bag phone.”

Miller said that the original phones were analog and used a lot of power but could be used virtually anywhere.

“But there was no texting or Internet. It was essentially a “Hello and Goodbye” type conversation,” he said.

About 3 years later Miller said that Nebraska Cellular merged with another provider and became Aliant Cellular.

“Then a company called Alltel purchased Aliant Cellular. That’s when they started coming out with a few smaller phones in 2004. Then in 2010 Verizon purchased Alltel,” said Miller, who serves as an authorized agent for the phone provider through his store.

The storeowner said that new technology is being brought into his store all the time through the selling of the phones.

“We’ve taken on Apple through Verizon and with that we now have iPads,” he said. “It went from bag phones, to analog handheld phones, to digital handheld phones, to smartphones with Internet capability and then to tablets.”

Miller said that the new tech talk has been geared towards what is called “near field communication.” Near field communication allows two smartphones to transfer information from one to the other with just a gentle bump of the two devices.

He said that although he took a windy path to coming to own the office supply store, he loves being in the retail business and dealing with the small town customers of Sidney.

“My business philosophy throughout my entire 30 years in retail is what would I like to see and how would I like to be treated if I was on the other side of the counter,” said Miller. “I’m a people person. I like retail and I like dealing with the public.”

Miller said that he also commends local customers and employees for his success.

“The community here really supports local businesses; they have been great,” he said. “The other key to success to this business is I’ve been blesses with great employees and very good people.”