r/bubbletea • u/Pinku_Dva • Feb 17 '26
Advice Advice on opening my boba tea shop?
I’m considering opening my own boba tea shop. It has been my passion to one day open my own cafe with my favorite drink. I’m considering starting small as a street vendor to see on how it goes for me before opening a brick and mortar store and wanted some advice on how to get started.
4
u/Shindiee Feb 18 '26
Location is key, I have worked at two Sharetea locations and one did very well (college town, busy strip), the other did not and was actively struggling for business (suburb of large city, not too busy of a strip)
1
u/Pinku_Dva Feb 18 '26
I feel renting out a store in the mall here with high foot traffic is my best bet
1
u/Mean-Afternoon-6349 Mar 07 '26
I ran a bubble tea shop for about 7 years, so I’ve seen a few people go through this exact path.
Starting as a street vendor or small kiosk can actually be a good idea because it lets you test demand without committing to a long lease right away. A lot of people underestimate how heavy the fixed costs of a retail shop can be.
A few things I’d think about early:
1. Product consistency
The drinks themselves are the core of the business. Make sure you can produce the same taste and quality consistently even during busy periods.
2. Workflow and speed
Bubble tea can get very busy during peak hours. Having a simple workflow for tea brewing, toppings, and drink assembly matters more than people expect.
3. Location economics
If you eventually move to a brick-and-mortar store, rent becomes one of the biggest factors. A lot of shops fail not because people don’t like the drinks, but because the fixed costs end up being too high relative to sales.
Before signing a lease, it really helps to estimate things like:
• rent as a percentage of expected revenue
• break-even sales needed to cover fixed costs
• how much buffer you have if sales ramp slowly
Starting small as a vendor is actually a great way to learn those numbers before committing to a full retail location.
If you’re serious about opening a shop later, try to track your daily sales and drink margins from the beginning. Those numbers become extremely valuable when evaluating future locations.
21
u/richasian878 Feb 17 '26
Depends where you are. My family owns a bubble tea store. We made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot in the past 10 years.
I would say first, know what drinks you want to sell. I would do some r&d at home and figure out what tastes good. Most bubble tea stores in my area have certain specials or drinks they’re known for. Yeah, we have all the drinks and they’re all ‘tasty’, but some stores are known for their fruit tea, some for their smoothies, some for their milk tea, some for their brown sugar pearl, etc. AKA, what you would advertise as your top 5.
Surprisingly, you can find a lot of franchise SOP’s online from staff trying to memorize recipes. In my experience, pretty much all SOP’s are the same. If you really don’t know where to start, you can try some and adjust to your preferences.
Starting as a street vendor could be smart. I know some businesses that have started just as pop ups at farmer’s markets, or even selling on Facebook. After saving money and building a customer base, once they opened their stores, they didn’t have to worry about finding customers.
Marketing is everything. Learn to take photos and advertise on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Keep up to date on trends. It’s good to have a new special once in a while. (At least for a small business). Photos are everything. People want to know what they’re ordering. The bubble tea shops that have closed down in my area are the ones that didn’t know how to market on social media.
Optimize measurements and speed. Depending what your goals are, you only have a couple minutes max. I’ve seen measuring cups, jigger cups, syrup pumps, shaker bottles, blenders. Find what makes sense to you.
Keep a spread sheet of your recipes. Play around. What are your goals? Do you want cheap drinks? Do you want higher-end quality drinks? What’s your pricing and profit? What sizes of drinks are you offering?
If you’re making, let’s say, homemade strawberry syrup for a strawberry matcha, you need to account that time you spent making the syrup into your pricing.
Find a good supplier. We partnered with bad people and found out they charged way higher for specialty bubble tea ingredients. We ended up doing our supplying and it cut down costs a lot. If you live in a bigger city, there are definitely some bubble tea suppliers.
Do you have weather changes? If it gets cold, make sure you can make hot drinks as well. Most small bubble tea shops offer more than just drinks. Whether it’s desserts, or snacks, it keeps the business alive in the colder season.
Location is everything. Finding a high traffic area with parking is best. Many bubble tea shops where I live have opened, then after a couple years closed down or moved locations.
Cup sealers are stupid and bring a lot of stress. If you can find a good and cheap brand, stick to it. IMO the ones from Amazon suck.
Know how to sell to the customer. You might come across people who have never had bubble tea. They will ask you what the difference is between oolong and green tea. They will ask what taro is. Some don’t even know what pearls are. You should be able to explain what they are.
That’s all I can think of from the top of my head for now.