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© by Sally Jones; all rights reserved

If you are going to open a retail tea business, here are a few guidelines to help you be successful.

Check out your competition, those that are close to you and also those across town. Find out what tea products they carry and what their prices are. You need to check out tea shops, coffee shops, gift shops, grocery stores, specialty food stores, health food stores, and large box stores like Target, WalMart, etc.

You cannot compete with the big box stores. You need to decide what to carry and what not to carry. You don't want to sell what everyone else is selling. Make your tea business unique. You want to be special. Ask yourself, "What will my customers be talking about when they leave my shop and what will they be telling their friends about it?" Word of mouth advertising is the best advertising you can get.

How are you going to display your retail? There are several ways to do this. You can use grid walls or slat walls. Grid walls allow your own walls to show through. Slat walls are like paneling and can be painted. However they have to be attached to the walls. Slat walls are similar to peg board. Both set up easily and you can use moveable shelves, baskets, and hangers.

Another option is bookcases and old furniture. These can be purchased at low cost if you are creative and take the time to look for them. Check out offices and stores that are going out of business, second hand stores, thrift stores, used fixture stores, garage and estate sales. Remember, you can always paint them to make them look brand new and fit in with the ambiance you are striving to create. Old furniture makes interesting displays. However, they do take up space for a low amount of display space.

Stools, old wood boxes, end tables, Curio cabinets, and other articles of furniture can be utilized for display pieces. Look around your house and your garage (and maybe your friend's garage) for pieces that are not being used. Remember, anything you attach to a wall in a rented space becomes part of that space and you cannot take it with you unless it is specifically stated in your lease.

When displaying your retail, remember to make it attractive. If nothing else, make it look beautiful. Move your merachandise around everyday. Move everything every month. If it is not selling keep moving it until it does sell. Customers come and go without seeing much so you need to keep putting things in different places so they will notice it. If you want something to sell, put it next to the register. This is good for inexpensive items that people will buy on impulse. Put complementary items next to each other--strainers next to tea, cozies next to teapots, etc.

Give back to the community for free. Hold tea talks for community affairs, associations, and clubs. Give free tea tastings. People who attend these affairs will come into your tea business.

If you are not a numbers person, become one. Use your numbers to help run your business. If you have a bad day, it doesn't make a bad week. If you have a good day, it can make a good week. Know what your average sale is (total sales divided by total customers). Know you average daily sales (total sales for the month divided by number of days open). Know your monthly sales. After a year you can do comparison sales to give you an idea how healthy your business is.

There are only three ways to increase your sales. Get more customers, sell more to the customers you have, or raise your prices. Go back to your business plan and double or triple your advertising budget. When starting your business the largest budget item will be your advertising budget. The more advertising your do, the more customers you will have and the more you will sell.

Customer service is vital to your business. You have no business without customers. Employees must be customer oriented. When training employees train them to do the right thing, to know regular customers, greet everyone as they enter and thank them when they leave. Poor customer service is grounds for firing. Most of all be sincere.

And one last note, be open when you say you are open and never close while you are doing business.

Send out frequent emails to those who have signed up. Be sure to update and change each email so they won't think you are just repeating the one you sent earlier.

July 8-9, 2006:
Specialty Tea Instutite Tea Certification Program, New York City, NY

July 9-11, 2006
52nd Summer Fancy Food Show, Jacob K. Javits Center, New York

September 26-28, 2006:
Tea & Coffee World Cup, Shanghai, China

June 9-11, 2007
World Tea Expo, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia

We would like to hear from you. If you have any tips that you found helped you build a successful tea business, please submit a tip and we will publish it in a future Tea Business Success News. We will also give you a permanent link to your site.

I have had many questions about vendors for tea and tea related items. I now have a page on my web site that lists all the Tea Vendors that were at the Tea Expo.

Contact Sally