Monday, June 24, 2013

How to Start Your Own Tea Cafe

Own Tea Cafe
You already know how good a warm cup of tea can taste. Perhaps you pride yourself on knowing many different blends and what tasty pastries they should accompany. With some ingenuity, hard work and capital, you can turn your love of tea into a thriving tea cafe business. Whether you decide to focus on the college crowd, business crowd or a combination of both, location, great products and impeccable customer service will be key to your success.






Step 1

Develop your business plan. A good business plan includes a mission statement, an analysis of the competition, and outlines for your current and projected finances, decor and target market as well as solutions for any potential obstacles. The business plan will be useful when seeking investors and approaching banks for loans and future expansion; therefore, it must be as professional and complete as possible.

Step 2

Comply with local, county and state legal regulations. Register your business license. Create a name for the cafe before applying for the license at city hall as the name must appear on the license. Visit local health departments and code inspectors to ensure that your business complies with health inspections, building permits and other required certificates. Apply for a tax identification number with the Internal Revenue Service.

Step 3

Learn about your competition. Knowing how they operate, the products they offer and how they utilize their spaces gives you the chance to do it better. Keep careful records of competitor's prices, teas and any issues you observe so you can build your business with high standards and excellent customer service.

Step 4

Use what you learn from the competition to target your niche customer base. If the nearby competition is doing a poor job, you can tailor your business to appeal to the same crowd, simply better. If there is significant competition for one market, such as college kids, but very little to attract the business crowd, you can target business people with your ambiance, tea house theme and tea choices.

Step 5

Find a location. Choose a storefront with windows so people walking by can appreciate the atmosphere your tea cafe provides. A busy street with plenty of parking is ideal. Avoid purchasing an existing tea cafe that is going out of business, as it will be difficult to overcome the poor reputation the previous occupants may have developed. Instead, choose an empty building or a going-out-of-business location that is not a tea cafe.

Step 6

Decorate the cafe. Ambiance is everything in tea cafes. Pattern the entire decor around a theme or eclectic pattern and install couches, chairs and stools that encourage relaxation and conversation. Individually placed lamps work better than bright overhead lighting. For plans to cater to the business crowd, a modern, quiet, theme works best so customers can meet at your tea house to conduct job interviews and business meetings. Alternatively, the college crowd will migrate to a tea house that provides upbeat music and a fun, playful theme.

Step 7

Rent or purchase necessary equipment, including linens, tea cups, silverware and pastry dishes. Renting allows you to change patterns at will with a phone call or email while purchasing reduces your monthly overhead because you own the pieces and do not have to pay a monthly rental fee.

Step 8

Accrue stock. Develop relationships with tea vendors and select 10 teas that will be offered on a daily basis. Limiting the stock can help build your clientele as too many choices can overwhelm a customer. Ten tea varieties provides options without being overwhelming. Also identify 80 to 100 tea blends that can be ordered as needed and use them to offer five daily specialty blends. Coordinate the specialty blends with seasons, holidays and other occasions. Also stock pastries and crackers that can be paired with the teas.

Step 9

Invent a signature tea blend. Invite friends and family members over to spend a day trying different blend combinations. When you find one that you feel represents your cafe, name it and make it the cafe's signature tea.

Step 11

Hire employees. Decide if you will have part-time or full-time workers and consequently place ads in local papers and online. Define in the ads what the job entails, what it pays and what, if any, experience you require of applicants to reduce the number of unqualified applicants. Part-time workers do not typically expect benefits while full-time workers often seek out positions that offer health insurance and annual paid vacations. Full-time employees are typically easier to schedule because there are fewer to juggle.

Step 12

Open the doors. A soft opening, which is a quiet opening without a lot of fanfare, allows you to test drive the cafe and its products before making a splash with a grand opening. Some businesses also have a VIP night, during which relatives of employees, area dignitaries and vendors are invited to spend the evening sampling products free-of-charge and providing feedback on the experience. The grand opening is typically planned for a few weeks after the soft opening and includes plenty of advertising. Grand openings are meant to announce the successful opening of your tea house. Ask a local radio station to broadcast from your location during the grand opening. You typically pay a fee for this service, but your tea house is advertised on the radio constantly for an entire shift.

Step 13

Market your tea house. Design a website that describes your business, includes a calendar of events and a photo album of fun events that occur. A social network site page gathers followers who will place your business's page on their pages, thereby reaching all of their contacts. Advertisements in local print media and on radio and television stations also reach potential customers depending on the chosen venue and ad spot timing.
Own Tea Cafe

Things Needed

  • Different teas
  • Building
  • Chairs
  • Tables
  • Signage










About the Author

Candace Webb has been writing professionally since 1989. She has worked as a full-time journalist as well as contributed to metropolitan newspapers including the "Tennessean." She has also worked on staff as an associate editor at the "Nashville Parent" magazine. Webb holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism with a minor in business from San Jose State University.



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