How to Start a Tea House Tea Room, Start a Tea Business



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Tea House Owner

Breaking Into and Succeeding as a Tea House Owner
How to Start a Tea House and Tea Room Owner

The idea of health food is nothing new, neither to this millennium nor to the last. Since when we first came into the luxury of being able to choose one edible over another, we have recognized that some of the foods and beverages we eat and drink have seemed to have extra healing and nourishing potential.

One of the factors driving growth in the tea industry is an ongoing public concern with healthier consumption. Tea is widely perceived as a better-for-you alternative to coffee, having less caffeine (55 milligrams per cup as opposed to coffee's 125 to 185 milligrams) and being easier on the digestive system.

Consumer Reports tells us that while some research does exist to link three or more cups of coffee per day with increased heart risk, no such evidence has been found to indicate any risks associated with high rates of tea consumption. That is to say, tea, unlike coffee, presents no known danger of overdose.

Also, tea has a remarkably high antioxidant capacity—green tea more so than black, having been through less processing. Some studies do point to a link between antioxidants and a reduced risk of cancer and cardiovascular problems (although the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve statements to that effect). Speculation along these lines means that the health-conscious consumer may be among your target audience.

Tea also carries an entirely different image than coffee. There's something elegant about it, whether it's the art-deco still life of a deep golden Ceylon in a transparent teacup or the lace-and-linen spread of Victorian-style high tea.

The latter scenario especially plays well with that image, attracting bridal showers, bridesmaid dinners, little girls' birthday parties, hurried professionals who need to relax somewhere elegant—simply, anyone who wants to spend an afternoon feeling like a Duchess. Even in the modern café-style tea houses, tea, a drink to relax with and savor, contrasts strongly with coffee.

Unlike the leaf, the bean is a morning drink quickly gulped down on the way to the office in order to shock one's system alert. A broad generalization, true, but one that nevertheless indicates an important difference between the coffee- and tea-drinking populations.

It can't be denied that espresso no longer enjoys quite the "hip" status it held in the nineties. Cappuccinos, lattes, and mochas are old hat. Tea has become the trendy drink now, as evidenced by tea houses springing up within blocks of each other and tea innovations exploding across supermarket aisles and café menus.

Bubble teas and tea lattes as mentioned above, are gaining popularity. And where bottled or canned tea used to mean just twelve ounces of over-sweetened Luzianne's, today it might mean Arizona's plum green tea with ginseng or Tazo’s Brambleberry juiced tea. So part of your likely customer base will be the hip suburbanite, the cool college student, and anyone else who goes where the buzz is.

Owning a tea house doesn't have to mean investing in Japanese fountains or Victorian lace. It doesn't mean eschewing coffee or sticking to a purely liquid menu. You may not have come across any ostensibly tea-only establishments in your town, but that doesn't mean that tea isn't popular.

Take a closer look at the coffee houses, bagel shops, and snack counters in your neighborhood. It's likely that many of these offer tea, and not just a bag of Lipton in a lukewarm cup of water. Ask for "hot tea," and you'll probably get asked back, "A cup or a pot?" and "White, green, black, or herbal?"

If that's the case, then you can bet you've got a tea-drinking customer base just waiting for a new tea house to inspire and delight. Why not be the one to bring it to them?

For entrepreneurs who put health and well-being above anything else, starting a tea house is probably one of the fastest and the most lucrative businesses out there. It can be added to an existing business or simply started independently.

There are so many options on where and how to start the business and what menu to offer to customers:

Start a tea shop in your local bed and breakfast, hotel, spa, office space, mall or college community
Start a home-based tea room with "boutique" chic feel of this special ancient beverage
Sell medicinal and herbal teas instead of the "regular" black and green teas
Sell exotic teas from all over the world
Be creative and start your own tea business from scratch (using your own menu and logo --who knows you can franchise it in the future? Think big!)
Purchase a renowned franchised tea house business (to take advantage of their captive market)
Add other beverages, such as juice, smoothie, coffee and chai to the menu
Add snacks, bagels, sandwiches, and pastries (cookies, cheese cakes, muffins)
Tap into New Age and antioxidant health-conscious markets

Now, how much money can you make?

At a very rough ballpark average of $3 per customer, $18,000 is not an unreasonable monthly gross
Selling 300 cups of tea per day at $3 per cup will earn you $22,500 per month in revenue
Selling 400 cups of tea per day at $2.75 per cup will earn you $27,500 per month in revenue

Need we say more?
This eGuide provides insightful information, advices and tips for anyone who is contemplating to become a tea house owner. Numerous hard-to-find resources are included to help you locate pertinent information.

Do you know

One look at the statistics of the industry will remove any doubt as to the popularity of tea. According to the United States Census, the number of coffee and tea manufacturing firms has grown by leaps and bounds, from 224 firms in 1998 to 284 firms in 2003.
The Tea Association of the United States tells us that the estimated wholesale value of the U.S. tea industry has increased from $1.84 billion in 1990 to $6.16 billion in 2005.
It is predicted that last year's six-billion-dollar mark represents only the beginning of a long period of industry growth.
Looking at the U. S. hot drinks retail market as a whole, we see that during 2004 the market value grew by 2%. Meanwhile, the market volume grew by 1%. Tea sales in specific increased during that year, even as sales of other hot drinks, such as hot chocolate and malt-based beverages, declined.

Editor-in-Chief Jennie S. Bev, co-author Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little have talked to several successful tea house owners, to provide you with the best and the most comprehensive self-study guidebook filled with insider information, tips and advice for breaking into and succeeding in this lucrative tea house business.

About the Authors

Jennie S. Bev is THE fashion, image and fun careers expert, whose reputation has been acknowledged by prestigious media internationally. She has been profiled and mentioned in Entrepreneur, Teen People, Canadian Business, Home Business, Dong (France), San Francisco Chronicle, The Independent, Daily Southtown, The Arizona Republic, Femina (Asia) and Dewi (Asia).

Editor-in-Chief Jennie S. Bev was named 2003 EPPIE Award finalist in Non-Fiction How To category for excellence in electronic publishing. She has published over 40 books and 900 articles in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Southeast Asia. She is also a college professor based in San Francisco Bay Area.

Co-author Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little is an accomplished author, freelance writer, and web designer from the New Orleans area. She graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School and went from there to the University of Washington to pursue B.A. in English.

Her fiction and essays have been published in a diverse handful of literary and New Age magazines, including PanGaia. An aspiring novelist, she has been an annual participant in National Novel-Writing Month since 2002. She now resides in Colorado.

This 56-page instantly downloadable StyleCareer.com eGuide Breaking Into and Succeeding as a Tea House Owner brings you valuable insider tips, advice and suggestions not available elsewhere to help you embark on this highly lucrative career path.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Myths, the Realities, and the Basics
I Drink Some Tea, but I Don’t Drink It a Whole Lot
I Know about Green Tea, but I Don’t Know Other Kinds
I Know Tea is Good for Health, but I Don’t Know Exactly What the Benefits Are
Serving Tea by Itself Sounds Pretty Boring. What Else Can I Sell to Complement It?
Can One Really Make a Decent Living from Serving Tea?
I Don’t Have Much Capital. Can I Start This Business with Only $3,000?

Tea House Business in a Nutshell
A Brief History of the Tea House
Tea By The Numbers
A Tea-Drinking Population
A Tea House by Any Other Name
Money Matters
Getting Started
Keep It Going
Payday

Did You Know? Tea Trivia!
Place of Thunder
Ceylon's Rescue
Birth of the Tea Bag
Some Like It Cold
It's Not Just For Drinking
It's Not Just For Eating, Either

Starting Your Own Tea House
Know Your Tea
Gather Your Equipment
Cups and Lids
Theme It Up
Anatomy of a Tea House Personality
Do You Love Tea?
Do You Enjoy Working in the Service Industry?
Are You a "People Person"?
Do You Care about Your Community?
The Many Hats of a Tea House Owner
Dig Deep For Franchise Opportunities
Your Tea Menu (and Other Items to Sell)
The Price of Tea
Choosing Your Vendors (Wholesalers)
The Place To Be

Being Successful
Get Associated
Go To the Show (Trade Shows and Expos Worldwide)
Take Aim at Your Target Market
Toot Your Own Horn
Network Within The Industry
Collaborate With Other Industries
Anatomy of a Successful Tea House Personality
On Beyond Tea (Merchandising)

Success Stories

This eGuide literally saves you hundreds or even thousands of dollars spent on professional workshops and training and hundreds of hours of research. It will help you break into the career of your dream faster without having to repeat the same mistakes that most newcomers do.

We have also included resources on the following:

Networking associations
Trade shows and expos worldwide
Wholesale trade associations and shows

You can have this exclusive eGuide right away by instant download for only $67.95, which you will earn many times over with your first paid job. This special low discount price is reserved for today, Thursday, May 15, 2008 only. (Regular price: $77.95)

Breaking Into and Succeeding
as a Tea House Owner
56 Pages
Regular Price: $77.95
Sale Price: $67.95

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