TEA BUSINESS TIPS

Here are several tea business tips on opening a tea business. The tips listed here represent problems, solutions, techniques, and suggestions of things to think about when opening any kind of tea business. Check back often as I will be adding to this list.

I think one of the most important tea business tips I can give you to think about is making sure you have enough cash reserves or second income when you open your business. You may find that your business starts out with a boom and then drops to a lull. It's during these "lull or slow times" that you will find you need that cash reserve or second income to keep yourself afloat.

Although I opened my tea catering business by myself as a sole proprietor, another tip is I would suggest you think about a partner, even if it is a silent partner. There were several times I wished I had someone to bounce ideas off of. I was fortunate enough to have a sister that is very interested in tea so I could call her even though she lives out of state. She was always helpful and had suggestions for me.

It is always nice to have someone who can do maintenance and fix the little things that go wrong. Also, who is going to run to the grocery store if you suddenly find yourself out of lettuce because everyone decided to order salads that day?

I helped my good friends Clara and Logan Knight open Belle's Tea cottage in Reno, Nevada in September 2003. There were many times things went wrong and Logan was able to fix the ice maker, refrigerator, dishwasher (which suddenly decided to stop working), or he was able to quickly get the extra lettuce or other item that we needed.

When buying equipment for your tea room, one tea business tip to think about is whether you really need an oven and range or if a less expensive convection oven and induction burner would do. With an oven and range you have to install a fire remission system and a hood which adds to the expense. Our experience at Belle's Tea Cottage is that we are able to do all our baking in the convection oven.

We use the induction burner to hard boil eggs or heat anything else that we may need. We don't use it that often (sometimes our cook makes tortillas and enchiladas for us for breakfast before the tea room opens.) This, of course, is only for the staff. What I'm trying to say, is review how much you would actually use a large range and oven, and it will take up valuable kitchen space, before you purchase anything.

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