World Tea Expo Ask The Experts Panel Discussion

New Business Bootcamp Q and A on Last Day

This is my first post in a few days.   I apologize it’s been quite hectic flying from San Francisco to Las Vegas and getting everything organized.  I just left the Ask The Experts Panel Discussion, which is a finale to the New Business Bootcamp before the New Business Bootcamp awards ceremony.

A panel of 7 experts were grilled on all types of questions from the audience ranging from “What are your biggest business mistakes” to “How do I know which tea vendors to work with?”.  The session was 2 hours long ending with the speakers breaking off into small groups so that individuals could individually ask the experts questions one on one.  What was really interested was that the discussion was monitored by Jane Pettigrew!  I am a huge fan of hers and love her books.  You can find them on the right side of my website in the Amazon book carnival.

This is was more of an impromptu drop-in on my part so I will give a rough breakdown of intersting things I learned during the Q&A.

• If you are worried about overhead costs when starting a tea business, guage your condiment usage such as milk, sugar, honey etc. by usage per month.
• You should order about 2 months worth of tea.
• It’s better to start a tea business with your dream in mind and manifested on a smaller scale than sacrifice your vision.
• When choosing a tea vendor to work with make sure they fit your business model.  If you want to sell organic teas, make sure the vendor has a good selection.
• Work on your business, not in it.  (Classic point from E-Myth the book, check out my library).
• The industry growth of tea is overshadowing any individual, small scale losses.

The World Tea Expo room is huge so I am super excited.  I won’t be able to post pictures until I am back in Toronto next week for Packex.  Tomorrow is the official Day 1 of the World Tea Expo so stay tuned for coverage!

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