"The man who sells tea to support his family" borrowed money to start a business, with sales of 800 cups/day

"I sell tea to support my family", the funny signboard makes everyone passing by Nguyen Xien street (District 9, HCMC) curious and stop to look.

Few people know that before owning a tea shop with the scale it has today, Mr. Tung started his business with just a cart bought with borrowed money.

With a new sales strategy, the owner increased revenue to 800 cups of tea, equivalent to 200kg of fruit per day during hot weather.

Mr. Tung's tea cart receives much attention on social networks (Photo: Loan To).

Starting a business with 0 VND and the pressure of "having to support a wife and children"

In early 2023, facing the company's difficult situation, Mr. Tung proactively quit his office job. His income was cut off while he was in debt and his wife had just given birth to their first child, pushing him into an extremely difficult situation.

During the days of unemployment during the peak hot season in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Tung immediately thought of starting a food business. Meanwhile, hearing that his son had quit his stable desk job with the opportunity for advancement to do manual labor, Tung's family strongly objected.

"The shop name "I sell tea to feed my family" was born in that harsh reality. Being empty-handed forced me to always try my best, at least to feed my wife and children," said Mr. Tung.

Due to the company's difficulties, in early 2023, Mr. Tung proactively quit his job to pursue business (Photo: Loan To).

During the first half of the month, Mr. Tung took the bus to visit famous tea shops in Ho Chi Minh City. For each drink, he observed, analyzed the ingredients and took careful notes in his personal notebook.

Understanding the trend of young people increasingly paying attention to health, limiting fat and chemical sugar, Mr. Tung has created a type of tea that can be combined with fresh fruit. He studies the characteristics of each type of fruit, then chooses the cooking method, makes the sauce, and soaks in sugar with a certain amount to create a different flavor.

From bringing to sales of 800 cups of tea/day

Right after finding a satisfactory recipe, Mr. Tung borrowed 22 million VND to rent a space on the sidewalk of Nguyen Xien (District 9, HCMC). On the first day of selling, people were not familiar with this new drink, so for 4 hours, Mr. Tung's tea cart did not have a single customer stopping by.

"That day I was very discouraged because I had cooked tea all night and stood under the hot, harsh sun all morning without any customers! If I had money, I would have towed the cart home, but at that time I was broke so I refused to give up," said Mr. Tung.

The brewed tea could not be brought back, so Mr. Tung decided to bring it all to distribute at the surrounding pubs and restaurants. Unexpectedly, after finding the tea taste to his liking, people came to support the owner of the fruit tea cart on the sidewalk.

Up to now, his tea cart always sells 500 cups of tea a day, up to 800 cups during hot weather (Photo: Loan To).

After 2 weeks, the car "Tea seller feeds the whole family" has attracted young people from all over to film and take pictures. By sharing the entrepreneurial journey of an office worker on social networks, Mr. Tung also quickly had a TikTok channel reaching nearly 100,000 followers.

After 3 months of starting his business, Mr. Tung decided to rent a large space for customers to sit and drink tea, and at the same time open classes to teach how to make tea. Every day, his tea cart always reaches a revenue of 500 cups of tea, especially during hot weather, it is 800 cups, equivalent to 200-250kg of fresh fruit.

"Up to now, I have not only paid off all my debts, supported my wife and children, but also created jobs for my family members," said Mr. Tung.

In the middle of a trend, we have to worry about when it declines.

According to Mr. Tung, the tea is selling well because he chose the right time when the weather was at its peak to open the shop. In addition, the factor that determines 80% of the success is taking advantage of the media's strengths and introducing himself on social networking platforms.

Initially, during the off-peak period, Mr. Tung thought of doing something to attract attention. He immediately created a fanpage, TikTok channel, and produced content about his journey of quitting his job to start a business... The stories describing Mr. Tung's daily life attracted millions of views, reaching more than 5 million social media users.

Mr. Tung's tik tok channel receives a lot of attention and views from readers (Screenshot).

"I value perseverance and effort, because in the most difficult circumstances, when I was forced to go out to earn money, I somehow had twice the strength. I used to study at the Academy of Journalism and Propaganda, never learned how to mix drinks and really only built this business model with the mindset of needing a job to earn money," he said.

After becoming famous on social networks, Mr. Tung regularly organizes free workshops, sharing experiences with young people pursuing small businesses.

According to him, the business does not need too much capital to start a fruit tea business. Mr. Tung advises businessmen to choose a safe level of start-up capital so that even if they fail, they will not lose everything. In addition, they need to equip themselves with basic knowledge about drinks, calculate costs, grasp customer files, build a brand...

The sign "The man sells tea to support his family" comes from the young man's real life (Photo: Loan To).

Fruit tea, toast, coin cakes… are all trendy foods and drinks that will eventually decline. In order to maintain his business, Mr. Tung said he is constantly innovating with his products.

With the fruit source, Mr. Tung has experimented with making many other drinks and foods to prepare for the change.

"Each product has its own ups and downs cycle, forcing business people to always be alert. Right when fruit tea was popular, I researched new products such as kombucha tea, dried fruit, fruit sauce... All are based on the same raw materials but with different processing methods and different products to create new trends," said Mr. Tung.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/anh-ban-tra-nuoi-ca-nha-muon-no-khoi-nghiep-doanh-so-800-lyngay-20230917155418610.htm