Tea Dreams

I love the idea of owning a cafe, and there are
several incarnations of tea selling that use different
business models.


The shop that started my fantasies was a "tea shop" -
in store everything was free. The gave away free
samples at a bar next to the entrance: all the teas,
and even little cookies. It was brilliant. A
customer that came in for 15-20 minutes of sampling
inevitably spent 15-50 dollars on tea and accessories.



This seems to be a much better model than a cafe, which
I would guess average $5 per hour per customer. Of course
you need a place with high traffic, which means high
rent, especially in San Diego. Still, roping people in
with a bar and tiny tea cups for free samples is
brilliant because everyone knows that the free samples
are intended for paying customers and almost everyone
complies. At least in the 15 minutes I sat at the tea
shop in San Francisco about six customer left the tea
bar during that time, probably five of which spent
that minimum $15.



Then there's the typical cafe, or in this case a "tea
house." This is definitely the one that pulls in
dreamers and destroys them, and it is tempting. It's
live music, open mics, a place for people to gather.
I can hang my artist friends' art on the walls, it
will be cozy and magical. And will require a huge
investment in both remodeling whatever space I lease,
and very high rents in order to be in an artsy-fartsy
area, with ample foot traffic and/or ample parking.

But after I move from thinking about a "tea shop" to
dreaming about a "tea house," I am terrified of the
initial investment and the high rate of failure for
restaurants, and then I start thinking about a
coffee/tea kiosk in a business park. There are so
many corporate buildings in SD, and many of which I
know are lacking the kiosk on the bottom floor, and
which, if a space could be rented, would be
guaranteed a captive, paying customer bank of the many
many offices. But then I think, after feeling so
secure about the initial investment compared to
potential profit, there's not much satisfaction in
that. And I'm back to square one.

So then I started thinking about soup restaurant...
but it also requires a huge initial investment and is a
food business, which is inevitably risky. And I'm
stunted again.

Then I think, maybe I can get a few kiosks going, and
they can be my income while a tea shop or tea house is
just a fun little project...