Tea Shop Things
Mar. 18th, 2012 03:43 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
the-borgqueen.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crowdfundingThings are moving forward-ish with that, so I'm looking for some input on the best way to set up donations and such.
My friend and I met with a woman in the downtown area who owns several buildings that they're renovating for shop fronts and restaurants. She is very excited about our idea to have a small cafe/bakery/tea shop, as have been the Small Business Advisers that we talked to and my late father-in-law's financial adviser. We would have a shop on the Main Street in a down town area where there is a population of 15 thousand, and 300'000 visitors. There's a yearly boat show in the area and a "Taste of" festival, and art shows, and during the week there are a TON of commuters going through given the judicial center is there and the court house and all of this.
So, it's looking very promising. The building won't be fully renovated for at least six months, but I figure that gives us some time to lock down funding. I imagine that we're going to have to sort out some loans but I'm hoping that we can get some money from the crowd funding route. The less we have to loan the better.
While they're renovating the building, replacing the roof, painting the exterior, putting in new walls, redoing the electric and the plumbing we'd need to get funds in order to supply any kitchen equipment that we need, pots, pans, plates, cups, refrigerated displays, do the floors and the internal painting all the rest of it. We do have some "nest egg" but half of that covers the deposit, three months rent and utilities, so the remainder is not nearly enough to cover the supplies even with friends donating their services to tile, paint and make the sign template.
So, I'm trying to sort out what the best way to approach the donation markers are with regards indiegogo.
Baked goods might be difficult to ship out as gifts. We're trying to make things as naturally and organically as possible and promote wellness so as little chemically processed stuff as possible; I'm still figuring that other than maybe cookies things would be hard to ship. (We're planning on also offering scones, biscuits, croissants, cornish pasties, cupcakes, tarts etc.)
Tea is a little easier to hand out, put in the little packets send it out with tea-bags. Given we want to get mismatched chairs and tables and will be repainting and refinishing a lot of that we'd wondered about saying we'd paint people's names, or family friendly design requests as thank yous onto the chairs and tables but I'm not sure how that would go over.
Brain storming other things we could send out tea balls or mugs and pots, I suppose. We'll be offering other services on an appointment basis, such as hypnotherapy and tarot readings -- but some of that is less easy to do via mail order.
We're going to have a little gift section in the store to go along with some tea gift baskets that we intend to have which will likely have some wood-burned jewelry and boxes, hand made candles, smudging supplies, crystals, runes and some things like that.
My friend and I met with a woman in the downtown area who owns several buildings that they're renovating for shop fronts and restaurants. She is very excited about our idea to have a small cafe/bakery/tea shop, as have been the Small Business Advisers that we talked to and my late father-in-law's financial adviser. We would have a shop on the Main Street in a down town area where there is a population of 15 thousand, and 300'000 visitors. There's a yearly boat show in the area and a "Taste of" festival, and art shows, and during the week there are a TON of commuters going through given the judicial center is there and the court house and all of this.
So, it's looking very promising. The building won't be fully renovated for at least six months, but I figure that gives us some time to lock down funding. I imagine that we're going to have to sort out some loans but I'm hoping that we can get some money from the crowd funding route. The less we have to loan the better.
While they're renovating the building, replacing the roof, painting the exterior, putting in new walls, redoing the electric and the plumbing we'd need to get funds in order to supply any kitchen equipment that we need, pots, pans, plates, cups, refrigerated displays, do the floors and the internal painting all the rest of it. We do have some "nest egg" but half of that covers the deposit, three months rent and utilities, so the remainder is not nearly enough to cover the supplies even with friends donating their services to tile, paint and make the sign template.
So, I'm trying to sort out what the best way to approach the donation markers are with regards indiegogo.
Baked goods might be difficult to ship out as gifts. We're trying to make things as naturally and organically as possible and promote wellness so as little chemically processed stuff as possible; I'm still figuring that other than maybe cookies things would be hard to ship. (We're planning on also offering scones, biscuits, croissants, cornish pasties, cupcakes, tarts etc.)
Tea is a little easier to hand out, put in the little packets send it out with tea-bags. Given we want to get mismatched chairs and tables and will be repainting and refinishing a lot of that we'd wondered about saying we'd paint people's names, or family friendly design requests as thank yous onto the chairs and tables but I'm not sure how that would go over.
Brain storming other things we could send out tea balls or mugs and pots, I suppose. We'll be offering other services on an appointment basis, such as hypnotherapy and tarot readings -- but some of that is less easy to do via mail order.
We're going to have a little gift section in the store to go along with some tea gift baskets that we intend to have which will likely have some wood-burned jewelry and boxes, hand made candles, smudging supplies, crystals, runes and some things like that.
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Re: Okay...
Date: 2012-03-19 01:35 am (UTC)I hadn't thought of things like that. Those are very nifty ideas. I already have a few blends--things we'd come up with before we stopped selling at market; but I am having to re-label and in a couple of cases re-name given "The Silver Path Signature Blend" isn't exactly in keeping with "Magic Monday Cafe". The whole reason those were signature was because TSP's symbol was a pomegranate and that's one of the main ingredients in those. /ramble.
>>Work on developing a budget. People like to know where the money's going, whether they are bankers or crowdfunding donors. So break it down into, say, "teahouse furniture," "kitchen equipment," "tea and cooking ingredients," etc. You may have an easier time getting a bank to fund hardware and real estate, and crowdfunders (who can be perked with free samples) to cover all the edibles. (truncated)<<
The budget is the next big step. I need to go back to the SBA and get a copy of their software as we were given one but it has meandered. It's got some very helpful spreadsheets to plug values into and devise what you'll need.
With regards equipment we're trying to go second hand where we can. Buying supplies from restaurants who have gone out of business and also buying chairs and tables from places like Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity. Things like that.
Hopefully we could potentially spread the word about other people's projects via a wall of donations, and a thank you section on the company website.
Re: Okay...
Date: 2012-03-19 02:11 am (UTC)See, you're on the right track. Look for ways to tie ingredients to concepts that will intrigue shoppers and/or donors. We talked about "function" (night time tea) and "flavor" (fruity tea) type blends before. Thematic ones can use all kinds of different anchors and this is a perfect place to ask for audience input. People will think things you might not.
Any major, recurring local event is worth targeting. Bonus if those cycle through the year because you can make a batch of tea for each and when it's sold out, that's it until next year. That encourages people to keep coming back because your offerings change seasonally and are always fresh.
>> With regards equipment we're trying to go second hand where we can. Buying supplies from restaurants who have gone out of business and also buying chairs and tables from places like Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity. <<
That will help keep costs down. Talk to people in Freecycle or similar programs too. Network with folks from Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity -- sometimes they'll cut you a deal if you take a lot of stuff, or you're willing to help with one of their events. They attract gregarious, proactive people who might be interested in your project.
>>Hopefully we could potentially spread the word about other people's projects via a wall of donations, and a thank you section on the company website.<<
I recommend stacking that. Lower donation gets just your name listed, medium gets you a link and a one-line blurb, higher gets you a linkable graphic and 100 words or so. Also consider swapping ads with other crowdfunders (for stuff you can mail order, like tea samplers) and neighboring businesses (for everything). It's often cheaper than buying ad space, and as soon as you have a website you've got space you can offer. Most folks don't mind ads as long as they're reasonably related to the main theme of the site and they aren't obtrusive.