Interview entrepreneur

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

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!