A Calm Gathering Place: Starting a Tea Room Business
Business Overview:
Attention tea aficionados: If you love relaxing with friends and you’re looking for a great business idea, starting your own tea room could be the answer. In today’s busy society, people are looking for a place they can unwind and take their minds of the day’s stresses. As the owner of a tea room, you can create the atmosphere you enjoy and attract others who will enjoy it as well. You could choose to open a conventional tea room, an Eastern-themed tea room, a café that offers snacks as well as tea, a tea room specifically for children, or any other type of tea room that appeals to you. As you can see, this business idea can go in many directions so it’s important that you have a good tea room business plan in place before opening a tea room. Your plan will also help you decide how many and what types of tea you will offer, what food items, if any, you will offer, how you will decorate your tea room, etc. You will also need to decide if you want to start your tea room from scratch or if you will seek out a tea room for sale. Buying a tea room franchise may be easier at first since the supplies and décor will be included, but it will likely cost more and it might not be a perfect fit for what you had in mind. If you start your store from the ground up, you’ll need to research how to open a tea room. You’ll find that you can start with a few basic design elements and a smaller tea selection and, as business picks up, you can add to your tea menu and attract a larger customer base. Another element to your business plan will be marketing. Find out where your target market shops and eats and put advertising there. This type of clientele may shop at organic grocery stores and healthy alternative “fast food” establishments like yogurt shops and juice bars. Place fliers in local gyms and dance studios and take out ads in local entertainment magazines. People are always looking for the newest, trendiest place to hang out and your tea room could be the new hot spot for taking it easy.
A Day in the Life of a Tea Room Business Owner:
Your day will begin with a check of your tea room to make sure everything is clean and ready for business. After brewing up some of your most popular teas, you will open your doors and along with your staff, you will tend to your customers. You will spend time in the tea room, making sure everyone is enjoying themselves. You will speak to your distributors to ensure timely delivery of new products and you will spend time searching out the newest teas to offer your customers. You will take a look at your finances to make sure your bottom line is healthy. Finally, at the end of the day, you will review any issues with your staff and make sure the shop is cleaned and ready for the next day’s customers.
About Your Customers:
Your customers will be individuals who love tea and are looking for a relaxing place to enjoy it while visiting with their friends.
What You Need to Start:
- Business plan
- Marketing plan
- Storefront
- Decorative items (tables, chairs, couches, art, lamps, etc.)
- Various teas
- Tea accouterments (sugar, honey, lemon, etc.)
- Menu of food items (if offered)
- Staff
- Computer with finance software
The Good:
- A tea room is a relaxing place to spend your day.
- It is relatively inexpensive to start up this business.
- If you offer tasty teas in a calm atmosphere, you can really boost the prices you charge.
- With your staff running the day-to-day operations, you can take time off when you need to.
- You get to visit with fellow tea lovers every day.
The Bad:
- The hours can be long, especially at first.
- It can take time to spread the word and get enough customers to turn a profit.
Resources:
- Tea Association of the United States of America
- American Tea Masters Association
- Bureau of Labor Statistics on Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers
- Wikipedia on Tea Houses
About The Author
Templateify
Praesent nec tortor quam. Quisque ac malesuada augue. Sed dignissim gravida odio ut bibendum. Cras fermentum euismod turpis. Nunc nec diam ante, et faucibus ipsum. Etiam imperdiet mattis elit et molestie. Nulla feugiat mollis leo vel egestas. Pellentesque convallis
Abonați-vă la:
Postare comentarii (Atom)
0 comentarii