Interview entrepreneur
Taiwan Tea Shop
Easy but not easy
Nguyen Thi Hong Duy
M987Z218
YoYo Tea Shop Profile
– Owner: Mr Zhang
On his childhood, he often helped his parents at the tea
shop whenever he had free time. So he got familiar with
and interested in running the business so early. Because it
was the family business, there were some secrets that
could not share to anyone outside family. When his parents
got old, he replaced them to drive his family tea shop up to
now.
– Address: No. 1, Nan-Tai Street, Yongkang Dist., Tainan City
– Years of operation: 17 years
– Business type: Family
– Business field: Drinks (Teas, Coffee, Cocktails, Soft drinks)
and Internet Services
– Personnel: Owner, his wife and 8 employees
Organizational Flow chart
Owner
(Husband)
Wife
Day Shift
Evening Shift
Mid-night Shift
3 staffs
3 staffs
2 staff
YoYo Tea Shop Profile
– Business Know-how: the owner drives YoYo Tea
Shop mostly based on the family experience of
blending teas, coffee, cocktails and staff
management
– Features of tea shop in Taiwan:
• Shop location is the most crucial indicator of success,
• Do not require much initial costs to open a tea shop,
• Business operation is not so sophisticated so that
everyone can open one easily.
• Mostly deliver take-away drinks, do not need large
space shop
Current business situation
– The competition is more fierce. More and more tea
shops have been opened nearby that partly take
over the market share of YoYo.
– The business is not required a lot of investment,
however when the owner had not enough money,
he asked for help from his relatives. Until now, he
didn’t have any loan from bank.
– Because the Tea Shop model is an easy business
model, and it can reach a positive cash flow and
break-even sales volume in a short period of time.
Advantages to run the tea shop
• Tea is the main drink in Taiwan
• Business secrets and long-time experience is shared within
the family.
• The tea shop is the inheritance of his parents that it is not
required to have start-up costs.
• The tea shop has been operated for long time, so it is has
solid foundation and more likely familiarity with people living
nearby.
• The tea shop is located in a crowded residential area: near
Southern Taiwan University with so many students and
residents living nearby,
• The owner spares a corner of his house for tea shop that
enable him not to spend much money to rent space for it.
• In addition with selling drinks, he also offers internet service
that enables him to get more customers and ensure his
income in holidays when school works off.
Difficulties
• He has no educational background on business
management that limit him to expand the business
• The shop opens the whole year except 5 first days of
Lunar New Year, but the actual operating time is only
about 6 months because there are 3 months of summer
vacation, 1 month of winter vacation and total 2
months for weekends and other holidays. In
comparison with other area like NCKU, even though on
the holiday they still have customers. But at YoYo, its
customers are almost students that it cannot sell drinks
when they are on holiday.
Future Path
– If the owner can find good partners, he would like to expand it to other places in Tainan
and even in Taiwan. He said that, find a partner is not easy. He not only wants these
partners can help his business better and better but also he wants to challenge himself
in learning new knowledge and technique and experiences from the partners.
– In terms of the future, he still doesn’t thinking about retirement. And he still works hard
everyday with his working team.
– The most demanding conflicts the owners has to face is when he opened the internet
services accompanying with the Tea shop. Because he has 2 children and they are still
young( Junior High School) and this environment is not so good for children. But anyway,
he found out a way to improve this situation.(Apart from school time of 2 young friends,
the father helps them to find some extra-class in the other time. And with the two
children are totally busy all day with studying. The time they are home is mainly for
taking a shower, sleeping, and doing homework. So they don’t have to pay much time or
attention to the business of parent and avoid some unnecessary influence. The boss also
said that, he has a sister opening a book stores. And this type of business is very good
context for children development. After school they can stay at home, reading book and
parents can take a look on them more often.)
– Biggest rewarding that the boss received is the environment of Yoyo shop bring him with
chance to communicate, talk, and learn from the young students. Not only native
Taiwanese but many young friends from all over the world in STUniversity. He said that,
the young always think freely and creative.
Conclusion
– Everyone can become an entrepreneur in many ways. By
your own ideas, or working with partners or drive a family
business like Yoyo Tea Shop’s boss.
– When opening a business, especially a drink shop like Yoyo,
the position of the business is significantly important. For
example, with a same shop but in the 2 different positions
in Nantai street and in Chengkung University nearby area,
we can easily see the different in the total number of
customers per day come to the two shops.
– Estimate the actually efficient time of the business is very
meaningful when evaluate the business capability.
– Who want to open a small business but don’t want your
work influence on your family and your children
development, the advice from Yoyo Tea Shop owners is a
Book shop.
Thank you!