How to Write a Bubble Tea Business Plan

Before you can start your bubble tea store you will need a plan.  The main purpose of writing a business plan is to show that you have clearly thought out your business ideas, evaluated the competition, know the costs of running your business, the potential profits and fully understand the risks of opening a bubble tea shop. When you write a business plan, you want to follow a specific format and show your investors that you are organized, responsible and know every aspect of your potential business.  The SBA has some guidelines you can follow here.

Also, don’t worry if you don’t have formal writing experience– We’ll briefly break down each of the sections you’ll want to include in the business plan for your bubble tea shop so that you can clearly communicate your business’ goals and aspirations to banks if you need a loan, investors or to your business partners.

What’s in a Bubble Tea Business Plan?

Business plans can differ on a case by case basis, but generally speaking, you’ll want to include each of the following sections:

• Executive Summary
• Opportunity
• Execution
• Team and Company
• Financial Plan

Executive Summary This is the 200 hundred foot view of your business plan where you briefly describe your brand, your store and why you know you will be successful at opening a bubble tea shop.  You’ll want to keep everything clear, concise and to the point. Anyone should be able to gain a basic idea of your business model, what you create, and how you plan to grow by reading through your executive summary.

Example: BubbleTeaology will be an amazing Bubble Tea Shop in Chicago, IL.  The modern design will fit into a 500 foot square location that is newly constructed in ABC Shopping Mall.  BubbleTeaology will be conveniently located in the food court which receives over 10,000 weekly shoppers and potential customers.  Our colorful shop, smiling employees and authentic Bubble Tea will entice customers to try our expansive menu where we offer premium Bubble Tea made with 100% Taiwanese Ingredients. The executive summary should be 1 to 2 pages and if you’re stuck on this one, you can write it last.

Opportunity:  Here you describe why your bubble tea shop should exist.  Are you the first one to the area?  Do you have a unique selling proposition or a unique background that makes you suited to sell bubble tea and out preform the competition?

This is a great time to get into the specifics. Oftentimes, creating a business plan can help you discover key weaknesses in the development of your business before putting it into action. A great way to realize your unique value prop is to seek out comparable businesses in your area and note what’s lacking. How can you take the baseline of each boba shop in your area and make it 10% better? What about your menu is different than other competitors? 

Execution:  This is how you’re going to get everything done.  How you’re going to secure your lease, build your store, train your employees, source equipment and supplies.  Also, how will you build you establish and build your brand, get new customers and keep existing customers coming back for more. 

The execution section should also include your plan for your business 3, 5, and 12 months into the future. Have a basic idea of what specific actions you can take to promote your business after opening day. Having a social media plan is essential since 71% of small to mid-size businesses use these apps as a part of their marketing strategy.  Be realistic about your timeline. A couple of items are bound to stray from the original plan, but don’t let that derail your progress. It may be helpful to create dates that have a range of dates rather than a fixed deadline, so that you can easily adjust your timeline as needed. 

Team and Company:  Your team and company will all start with you but you won’t be able to do everything by yourself.  Investors want to be confident that you can find, train and hire great employees who will make sure your bubble tea business plan is a success. Here you will also want to go further into how your brand was created and why it is going to crush the competition!  Here are some tips on how you can design your logo and establish your brand.

You will also need to determine what you want your team to carry with you as a part of your brand’s philosophy. What principles should each employee keep in mind while on the clock?  How do you want each employee interaction to enhance the customer experience?  Ironing out these details ahead of opening day will help ensure consistent, positive customer interactions across the board.

Financial Plan:  Financial plans are crucial to banks and investors.  How are you going to make sure that your business makes a profit.  You will have both fixed and variable costs in your business.  The fixed costs will be things like your rent which will not change every month.  Variable costs will depend on how much business you’re doing and will change every month.  For example, you might need 2 employees working at a time to start out but once things get busy, you will need more and this variable cost will increase. You will also need to calculate your costs and profits.  The best way to do this for a bubble tea shop is to think about your costs/cup and how many cups you need to sell a day to first break-even and then to make a profit. While writing a business plan for your bubble tea shop can seem like a daunting task, it will also help you organize and clarify your ideas.  Not only will this help potential investors but it will help you and give you the best chance of success.

While making all of these calculations upfront can feel tedious, it’s bound to save you more money in the long run. Plus, forming this foundational structure only becomes more difficult when you throw in the complications of having to run a business, so do as much as you can before opening up shop to save yourself some headache. 

Writing Your Bubble Tea Business Plan

will help to solidify your own vision for your boba tea store.  It will also be necessary to show to any investors or partners that you may have.  Also, if you require a loan from a bank than a business plan is an absolute must.   A clear business plan also provides value by making it evident what gaps you need to fill currently and what you’ll need to focus on in the near future. Hopefully, this article has given you a basic overview on how to build the foundational plan for your business from the ground up. 

While all of these sections are important to include in your bubble tea business plan, don’t forget to put some thought into the presentation of your powerpoint or pamplet.  Remember, your business plan will be shown to investors, so first impressions are crucial. Hopefully, this guide makes it easier for you to create a clear plan for your budding boba tea shop.

Once you have your business plan created then you will want to think about where to get your bubble tea machines, custom products, wholesale ingredients and how to design your bubble tea store.

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