How Start a Tea Room or Tea Shop Business 1-2-3

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Tea room business owners can create a relaxed, peaceful or zen environment in which to work. This type of business also gives you the opportunity to mingle with some very well-educated, well-traveled people.

You have lots of design options with tea shops - traditional Victorian or English tea room, Asian-inspired tea room, sophisticated tea bar or lounge, specialty tea cafe, etc.

Tea drinkers love to explore new flavors as well as surroundings - so your tea room environment and service presentation are just as important as the tea you serve.

Tea Business Checklist:

1. Get a business license. Check with your local government office to find out which licenses, zoning and signage permits you need for your tea room. Some offices have application forms you can download from their websites.

2. Register your business name with the county clerk, or you can incorporate your business.

3. Put together a business plan. You can find downloadable business plan templates online, which make business plan writing easy. Also, viewing sample business plans form other tea room businesses can be helpful in writing your own. Sample Tea Room Business Plan.

4. Set up a business bank account with your local bank. It is important to keep your tea room business and personal finances separate, and often your banker can help with small business loans or financing. See also: Accept Credit Cards & Easy Payroll Online .

5. Find a profitable location for your tea shop or tea room. Ideally, you want a high-traffic location that is convenient for your customers. Having a competing tea room or coffee shop nearby can actually be an asset, since the existing establishment is already bringing qualified clientele to the area.

A commercial real estate broker can help locate shop vacancies and calculate affordable rents. You can also use a free service called Office Finder to see available storefronts and retail space. See also: tea/coffee shop floor plans.

6. Arrange a meeting with an accountant to discuss tax strategies and ways to maximize your business tax deductions. You can get referrals from other business owners you know or sometimes your banker. See also: Business Accounting Software.

7. Meet with an insurance agent to discuss insurance you may need for your tea shop. The IIABA (Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America) can be a good place to start. You can also get free quotes online for business insurance.

8. Stock up on inventory and supplies for your tea room. Tea Supplies & Equipment | Tea Menu Templates | Business Forms & Templates

9. Set up your business phone system. Whether you use a toll-free 800 phone number, a multi-line phone system, VoIP or simply add an additional phone number to your existing service, you'll want a designated line to establish a professional business image.

10. Order Business Cards. One of the cheapest ways I know of to advertise a business. See how you can design your own professional business cards online, plus simple tips for increasing your sales. See also: how to design your own logo.

11. Get a website. Save money by creating your own website with simple online design programs, or outsource the job to an affordable website designer. Whether you sell tea products online - or you use a website to display cafe menus or business hours, it is a valuable, low-cost marketing resource that can help you get more customers.

Learn how to open your own tea shop with help from Famous Tea Room Business Owners and Sommeliers Pane Pettigrew, Mark Ukra, Cynthia Gold, Maria Uspenski and others. Not only have they run successful tea room businesses, they have experience training others.

Getting Started:

• Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Get Started: Create a tea room business plan in a snap, know the most profitable location for your shop and get effective systems for running your daily business, including budgets & bookkeeping with awesome samples and checklists
  
  
• Resources to Contact and How to Start with Minimal Cost: find financing, how to hire employees, get discounted equipment
  
  
• How to Get Customers ad Turn a Profit Quickly: through low-cost publicity tactics, effective customer relations and a website that promotes your products and services internationally

Tea Room Business Start-Up Guide

Marketing Your Tea Business

• If you are serious about growing your tea business, and you don't want to pay thousands of dollars to an ad agency, the Small Business Marketing Guide shows you how to attract a steady stream of buyers - on the cheap.
  
  
• Get Free Publicity
  Besides advertising in your local yellow pages and running ads, you can save money by writing a brief press release or "letter" to your local paper announcing the opening of your candy store. You can also use press releases on an ongoing basis to publicize events, news and activities within your tea shop or tea room.
  
  Offer a special discount or free offer for first-time customers, and publications will find this more newsworthy. This means that they're more likely to publish news about your company. You can write your own press release - you can find press release samples here: How to Get Free Press.
  
  
• Set up a simple website for under $50/year to advertise your tea room. Help people find you in the search engines: get listed in 20 search engines for free or in 300 search engines for $4.
  
  Local Search is becoming more and more popular. People are many times using online search instead of the traditional yellow pages to find local businesses. Local Search sources that are affordable and receive substantial traffic include: Google Local, Yelp, Super Pages and Insider Pages.
  
  
• Postcard Marketing
  Do a postcard mailing to introduce your tea shop to neighborhood shoppers (businesses and/or individuals). Using low-cost online services makes this an easy marketing task. First, choose a special offer that you want to announce to potential customers. Second, design your postcards online using professional postcard templates with VistaPrint (you can get 50% off here). And third, get targeted leads from a lead generation company like Resource Nation.