Bubble tea is a drink the whole world has taken to, and it is an opening for anyone wanting to start a business: the investment is modest and the customer base is broad. If you fancy making your fortune by opening a bubble tea shop, be aware that Thailand's bubble tea market is as lively as anywhere on earth — and, at the same time, full of new entrants ready to compete. Opening one successfully, then, is not only a question of the drink tasting good. There is a great deal more to weigh up.
If you want your bubble tea shop to succeed, this article gathers what you need to know to survive, along with the equipment a bubble tea shop ought to have.
Bubble tea 101: what every first-time shop owner needs to know
Whenever the subject is starting a business — a bubble tea shop or anything else — a fair few people feel the weight of it: the worry, the fear of what is coming. Every business has obstacles and problems for you to solve, and not a day passes without them. But that worry comes from not knowing, and from not having prepared well enough. There is no need for it, because this article sets out the formula for opening a bubble tea shop. Prepare along these lines and you stand a real chance of succeeding, of selling well and of not losing money.
1. Design the business plan carefully
The first thing to do when opening a bubble tea shop is to plan the business properly. Work out how much capital you have, so you can plan to spend it as effectively as possible. Study the market and the competition, and define your target customer clearly — that leads on to choosing a location and setting the shop's concept, all of which bear directly on whether the shop succeeds.
2. Develop a bubble tea recipe nobody else has
Sell food or drink and there is no getting away from flavour and ingredient quality. Choose good ingredients from suppliers you trust, and develop a bubble tea recipe that belongs to your shop alone — test it until you are certain it is delicious, so it becomes something distinctive that customers keep coming back for, a taste they cannot get anywhere else. If they want it, they have to come to you.
3. Build a marketing strategy that lands
The next part of the formula is marketing that matches your target customer. Offline marketing through flyers works; so does online marketing through social media and paid ads. Pricing sensibly matters too, as does running promotions and sales activities around the various festivals — another way of giving sales a push.
4. Run the shop efficiently
Once the planning for opening is done, one thing a good owner should always be doing is running the shop efficiently: controlling the quality of the bubble tea, managing ingredient stock, keeping costs in hand, looking after staff, and all the other odds and ends. These days you can install a POS terminal in the shop to make running it considerably easier.
5. Keep moving with the times
Finally, whatever the business, do not forget to adapt and keep the shop current. Start with something simple, such as opening a Facebook page so people get to know you. Join a food delivery app to extend your reach to customers nearby. Come up with new drinks, or seasonal ones, so customers always have a reason to be curious. Do that much and your shop has a real chance of selling well.
The equipment a bubble tea shop needs
Beyond planning and starting the business on a firm footing, the other thing you cannot open a bubble tea shop without is equipment. Aside from ingredients, cups and straws, here is what every bubble tea shop should have.
- An automatic water boiler, for brewing tea and other drinks, holding the water temperature steady all day
- An automatic syrup dispenser, where you set the quantity of syrup, so every cup tastes the same
- An automatic cup sealer and sealing film, which stops drinks spilling everywhere and makes the shop look the part — and the lid film can be printed with your logo and contact number
- A POS programme to run the bubble tea shop efficiently, useful across the board: taking orders, running a membership scheme, managing stock and checking sales
- Other necessary appliances such as a blender, an ice machine and an automatic tapioca pearl cooker — weigh these up against each shop's own needs and budget
Improve the odds of your bubble tea shop succeeding by choosing an effective point-of-sale programme from Qashier. It lets you run the shop end to end from anywhere, at any time — staff finish the day less worn out, customers leave happier, and the business's sales grow in leaps. If you are interested, ask us for more information on LINE Official: @qashier.th or call 02-544-0267
References:
- Shop equipment: what do you need to open a bubble tea shop? Retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://khee-enterprise.com/อุปกรณ์เปิดร้าน/