Consider Working With Instagram Influencers
Partnering with like-minded influencers is one of the most effective ways to grow your social media organically.
Industry influencers already have an established and loyal following. With one post, your product immediately establishes a connection with a brand new audience. It’s that powerful.
When finding influencers to promote your product, do your research and make sure that their following will actually be interested in your product.
It’s easy to be blinded by any influencer with a huge following, but if those followers don’t resonate with your product, there may not be any value there… so make sure you do your research!
Evan Marshall, founder of Plain Jane discusses how “micro-influencers” have impacted his business:
Influencer marketing has been huge for us. Our approach is pretty simple. We give out samples of our products and ask people to post about us on social media aka a micro-influencer strategy.
We really like this approach because we get authentic stories and content. We cannot really control the messaging so the product has to speak for itself. We dont really take product photos at all. Our customers take the photos and we ask to reuse them.
With any influencer strategy, you have to be very sure youre targeting the right people and engaging with them. You can make sure youre targeting the right influencers by looking through their posts and then looking through the profiles of their engaged followers.
S To Starting Your Own Tea Company
Starting A Tea Brand: Dropshipping Tea Products
To start your own tea brand, it might not be easy to create your own tea but there are plenty of dropshippers you can source tea products from to get started. Dropshipping enables you to start selling online without purchasing any inventory upfront. Instead, when customers buy something on your site, the order is sent to the supplier, and they ship it directly to your customers from their warehouse.
Read Also: Dunkin Donuts Bubble Tea
How To Start A Tea Business And Profitable Online Store
Published | Updated Aug 31, 2021 by
This post may contain affiliate or sponsored links. Disclaimer
Do you want to start a tea business? Maybe you blend your teas and would like to sell them online but don’t know where to begin. Here’s how to start an online store.
You may love drinking tea and even started experimenting with making tea blends. At first, the blends are just for your pleasure.
Then you decide to get your tea blending certificate and start making custom tea blends for others. The next thing you know, you’re looking into marketing your custom blends and opening an online tea shop.
Starting an online business is a tremendous entrepreneurial dream. It sounds easy, but to be successful, you need a solid plan.
Where do you start?
Determine Which Business Bank Account You Need
There are hundreds of banks out there, and it can be overwhelming to find one that’s right for your business.
Here are some factors you may want to consider:
- Location – Is your bank close enough that you can easily make deposits or get cash?
- Low Fees – Make sure to understand any and all fees associated with setting up and maintaining your bank account. Ask for a list – banks usually try to keep this hidden and in the fine print.
- Online Banking Services – Make sure you can easily navigate through your online portal and you have easy access to everything you need.
- Line of Credit – What do your options look like .
- Every bank has something that differentiates them from the rest, so make sure whatever that is applied to your needs and values.
Check out this list of the 13 Best Banks for Small Business in 2020 and what makes them so unique.
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What Type Of Customers Will Buy Your Tea
It’s important to first establish who you will be selling to, whether it’s to businesses, consumers, or both!
Typically, in this industry, products are sold to both B2C markets and B2B markets
Let’s break both of these down for your tea business:
B2C is a transaction where businesses sell their products or services to the consumer directly.
In this market, consumer behavior is the primary driver for your business decisions – so it’s important that you truly identify who your customer is, and what their buyer habits are when building your product/service.
The advantage
B2C is that you are able to cast a very wide net when targeting your customers. Your product may interest a large number of consumers or a specific niche.
The disadvantage
B2C is that consumers hold all the power – so if your website is not the most user friendly, or does not rank in the top search results on Google, chances are, your customer is going to shop elsewhere.
When building your tea business for consumers, it’s critical that you hone in on who your target audience is, and why they need your product over your competition.
B2B is a transaction where your tea business sell’s your product or service to other businesses to help them grow.
Business-to business industries typically includes SaaS products, B2B marketing firms, and other business supply companies.
Here are some tips to consider:
Step : Register For Taxes
You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.
In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!
You can acquire your EIN for free through the IRS website, via fax, or by mail. If you would like to learn more about EINs and how they can benefit your LLC, read our article, What is an EIN?.
Learn how to get an EIN in our What is an EIN guide or find your existing EIN using our EIN lookup guide.
Small Business Taxes
Depending on which business structure you choose, you might have different options for how your business will be taxed. For example, some LLCs could benefit from being taxed as an S corporation .
You can learn more about small business taxes in these guides:
There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.
Read Also: Do They Have Boba At Dunkin
Create Your Business Entity
Most businesses need to register with their state to become a legal entity. Depending on where you live, you may be able to register online, or you might have to submit paper documents by mail or in person. Youll also need to apply for an Employer Identification Number with the IRS, which youll need to file taxes.
Lastly, you might have to apply for specific permits in your city or state. Get in touch with your local government to find out what you need to do to start your online tea business.
Get Your Tea Biz Legal
Guess what?
When you start a business
You arent the only one expecting to make money.
Good ol Uncle Sam will be expecting his coin, too!
While there are some extremely specific regulations and legal requirements for selling tea
But first lets start by getting the basics down.
If you are going to start a tea business, or any kind of business for that matter, you will first need to establish a legal business entity.
There are several options for you to choose from when it comes to your business entity structure, but some of the most common options are:
- Sole Proprietorship
- Limited Liability Corporation
- S. Corporation
The S. Corp. will likely be far more complex and advanced for what you will require for starting a tea business
So that leaves you to decide between a Sole P. and an LLC.
Your business will automatically be classified as a Sole P. for tax purposes, and for many people, this is more than sufficient.
However, if you are planning to bring in considerable income, and you like the peace of mind that comes with having personal legal protection
You might want to look into an LLC.
An LLC structure is still simple enough for the average small business, but has the added benefit of protecting your personal assets in the case of a lawsuit against your company.
From there, you register for your EIN tax ID number
Which, if you couldnt tell by the name, is required to file your taxes, as well as for opening a business bank account, and hiring future employees.
Also Check: Does Yogi Slim Life Tea Help You Lose Weight
What Do I Need To Make My Tea Blends
Making your own tea blends is a simple business idea that you can get off the ground from your kitchen using commercial food preparation equipment, like a dehydrator for herbs. A dehydrator will save you time and money as it is cheaper than leaving your oven on low for many hours. A small dehydrator can fit on a countertop you dont need to buy large-scale equipment for a kitchen business. You will also need a food processor to chop and shred your dried herbs. Once your tea blend is finished, you will need to consider how you are going to package and sell your tea in a way that makes it easy to use.
The Worst Reason To Start: Be Your Own Boss
To be your own boss, is the number one worst reason to start-up. If you have watched the movie Horrible Bosses, you know what I mean. If the reason for you is to just be a boss, then you are on the wrong track. Most tea founders I have talked to at some point realized that in practice the real bosses are everyone else around them investors, employees, customers, or even the local newspaper that could give you lots of exposure. Youre basically working really hard to make everyone happy, before they work hard for you.
So dont go for it, if you just want to be a boss, because you are tired of working for another. If its just power or authority that you are looking for, then go into military or politics. Do not become a founder.
Read Also: Is Teas Test Hard
Write A Business Plan
Writing a business plan from the start is critical for the success of your tea business.
Why?
Because this allows you to roadmap exactly what you do, what your overall structure will look like, and where you want to be in the future.
For many entrepreneurs, writing out the business plan helps validate their idea and decide whether or not they should move forward with starting the business.
You may want to consider expanding upon these sections in your business plan:
- Executive Summary: Brief outline of your product, the market, and growth opportunities
- Overviews and Objectives: Overview of your business, target customers, and what you need to run your business
- Products and Services: Specifics on the products and services your business will provide
- : Analysis of customer demographics, buyer habits and if your product is in demand
- : Outline of your marketing plan and how you plan to differentiate yourself from other customers
- Competitive analysis: Analysis of your competition and the strengths and weaknesses therein
- Operations: Hierarchal structure of the company and what it will take to run the business on the day-to-day
- Leadership Team: Detailing roles and responsibilities of each manager based on their specific skill-set
- Financial Analysis Understanding of all expenses, operating budgets, and projections for the future.
Learn more about how to write a business plan here
Start Your Own Tea Business
UPDATE: We have created a new web site for our private label tea business, please visit www.startyourownteabusiness.com
We make it possible to start your own private label tea business!
I can taste the difference
Thats the number one response we get from our customers. And it will be the number one response you get from yours.
New Private label single serve tea cups.
Expand your own private label business into the exploding single serve cup marketplace.
What is included:
- Your very own custom designed tea box, with your own brand and logo included.
- Choose from over 100 flavors of tea .
Read Also: Does Dunkin Donuts Sell Boba Tea
Who Is Your Customer
Step Two
Too many people start a tea business by trying to be all things to all people. Find your ideal customer and craft a unique mission. Then perfect it. Does your tea customer buy $25,000 Honda’s or $80,000 Jaguars? Do they like Katy Perry or Bach?
If you try to please both customers, you’ll fail to make either happy. Your customer needs to feel special. They need to identify with your product.
Tea and functional herb-based offerings are widely popular in this space of wellness, often touted as nature’s elixirs of youth.
Maria Uspenski, founder The Tea Spot
Identify exactly what you are offering before you start your tea business for the best results.
Tips to finding your ideal tea enthusiast customer:
Factor The Following Into Your Tea Brands Budget
Selling tea online usually doesnt require a significant financial investment. You could get started for as little as $100. However, you should budget for the following expenses.
Purchasing Inventory for Your Tea Brand
If youre not dropshipping your tea products, youll need to purchase inventory upfront. You can buy in bulk from wholesalers like the Metropolitan Tea Company for prices as low as $9 for a 250g bag. We suggest ordering samples to taste test the products before selling them.
Tea brand Tease started its journey working with just one large supplier. To begin with, they used the biggest tea importers in Canada and relied on their quality control, consistency, certification, and fair pricing. They purchased all their initial inventory with as little as $500!
Now the brand makes six figures per year and works with a variety of tea gardens to create and sell their own unique blends. They even opened a pop-up store in New York City following a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Whos to say you cant follow in their footsteps?
Branded Packaging for Your Tea Products
Make sure that your supplier can provide plain packaging so you can brand your tea products yourself. You can then use a service like Sticker Mule to print branded labels or work with a packaging supplier like the ones listed in our Shipping and Packaging Directory to create custom packages for your products.
Building an Online Store for Your Tea Brand
Tip:
Shipping Your Tea Products
Recommended Reading: Where To Buy Tea Leaves In Bulk
Laws & Regulations For Tea Brands
Its worth noting that since tea is a consumable product, there may be specific laws and regulations you need to abide by either locally or even globally if youre selling around the world. You may need to list the ingredients on your teas packaging so that customers can avoid allergens and make an informed purchasing decision or you may need to prove any claims that you might be making with your product .
Skills Experience And Education Useful In Running A Bubble Tea Business
While you wont need a business degree to start your own bubble tea shop, certain skills and experiences are helpful.
Food service experience. Experience working in the food service industry and a knowledge of safe food handling processes is an advantage in this industry.
Awareness of bubble tea and health trends. A business owner whos aware of current health and bubble tea trends can make well-informed decisions about product offerings and marketing to better appeal to consumers.
Creativity. From identifying new flavors and recipes to finding the perfect marketing campaign, creativity is a valuable skill for a bubble tea business owner.
Management experience. Most bubble tea businesses require multiple employees. A business owner who has previously hired, trained and managed staff will be well-prepared for this responsibility.
Customer service skills. Creating a positive customer experience is an essential element of building a loyal customer base. A business owner will benefit from previous experience working with customers.
Multitasking abilities. Bubble tea businesses can get busy, and a business owner needs to be able to balance multiple priorities.
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C Caf Or Tea Shop Business
The last method involving a tea business is to open tea cafes or shop. These cafes usually buy different blends from various tea producers and source them into their cafes. Tea is prepared in house and served to the guests. The focus is also made to provide them with a good ambiance. A lot of cafes have come up over the years like Chai Point, Chaayos, Chai Thela in India, Honest Tea in the USA, and Davids Tea in Canada. Let us discuss some steps to start a tea café that can give you some great insights into a successful tea business in India or elsewhere.