Opening a Tea / Coffee Shop

I was doing some research for a friend who wants to start a coffee / tea shop and I realized I had quite a list of links.  I offer these for anybody who might be interested in starting up a coffee shop or tea house.  I don't endorse any of these sites or products, I merely offer them here as I would to my friend, as resource material and a starting point to do your own investigation.

Tea Shop Startup Help:

* The Tea School offers a two day course with certification of completion for $2100. 
   "Founded by Pearl Dexter, editor of TEA A MAGAZINE® in November of 1999, The TEA School™ was established to give people who are in or entering into a tea business a firm foundation in the history, geography, and cultivation/processing of tea."

* Open a Tea Room - consulting services and training for the aspiring tea room entrepreneur.  In addition to consulting, they also offer teleconference seminars and a training manual - How to Open the Best Tea Room In Town - which you can order online.

* How to Start A Tea Business - Dawnya Sasse offers a highly personalized online, 3-4 week tea training course.
   "If you don't plan to go to the traditional tea seminar you are out of luck when it comes to business training. I created a totally online course in order to better provide tea entrepreneurs with training from home. I also wanted to make sure that tea entrepreneurs could receive training in a variety of tea fields not just tearooms. Start A Tea Business focuses on finding the right opportunity for you and your lifestyle."

  And here's an interesting Interview with Dawnya from teatimeworldwide.com

Coffee Shop Startup Help:

CrimsonCup - consulting for the coffee shop entrepreneur.
   "We teach independent coffee shop owners the skills needed to operate a viable and competitive business. "

Coffee Shop Franchises - apparently this is a pretty hot field. 

* Business Opportunities: Coffee Franchise
   http://www.smallbusinessopportunity.com/industries/2618/coffee.asp

* Business Opportunities Weblog: Barnie's Coffee & Tea Company
   http://www.business-opportunities.biz/archives/2004/05/25/5661.php

* Coffee Franchise Review
   http://www.coffeefranchisereview.com/

Industry links, journal, associations:

Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
http://www.teaandcoffee.net/index.html

Specialty Coffee Association of America
http://www.scaa.org/

Tea Association of the U.S.
http://www.teausa.org/

Forums for coffee / tea business talk:

http://www.teaandcoffee.net/news/
http://www.coffeeforums.com/
http://www.bensonassoc.com/pct/bb/index.html
http://www.teachat.com - look in Tea Rooms and Tea Sites

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of essential links.  Maybe some of those wizards out there will help add to this resource list.

Comments

[Greg Balanko-Dickson]

Nice resource of links and summary of available business information on the coffee industry.

I will be linking to your site from my blog and recomended that anyone interested in the tea or coffee business check it out.

[Christine Torres]

Great Greg, thanks much!

[Aaron McKinley]

is there any one in the Vancouver area that I can talk to about opening up a tea shop get some info
and idea's on how I should start

[Connie]

We have a new coffee and soon to have tea site...enjoy!!!!

[Abhishek]

Title:- Coffee Beans,

Description:- All things coffee, coffee beans, coffee makers, coffee articles and reviews online.

[Rebecca]

Hi, I am doing a project for a business communications course that I'm taking. It involves creating a business. I decided for my business to be a tea house. I have to write an eight page business plan and also create a powerpoint presentation for this project. I was wondering if anyone on here could give me some ideas on how much it would take to open up a business as such and if anyone has any ideas that they could help me with. Thanks.

[bob]

Dear Rebecca,

Did anyone help? Bob

[Shaun]

I am currently working on a project paper. The price of tea is 23.50. What Can I do to make it $29.00

any sample of reserch done before.