Tailor-Made Teas Brew Steamy Steeped-In Profits

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Oh, hello there. What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I just came back from Asia a week or so ago.

I was in Thailand for a few days. And then on my long haul flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, I flew Singapore Airlines, arguably the best airline in the world. At least it's definitely in my top three. And one of the things I like about Singapore Air is that it has a T menu of about 15 different varietals that you can try, including lots of different options from China and Japan. And by the way, as I'm telling you this, I should just explain, this is not an ad.

I'm just a fan of Singapore Airlines. I think I had five different cups of tea on that flight. And as I've worked on today's story, I've been reliving the memory. By way of introduction to this story, here's a question. How would you like to make your own custom tea?

What if you didn't actually have to make it yourself, but you could just say, I like lemongrass and also sage and maybe some lavender. Can somebody out there whip that up for me? And then, automagically, a few days later, this tea will arrive at your door. That's right, it's pretty quick. It doesn't even take a long time to make it happen.

Well, today's story is all about a woman who brews a side hustle into a booming tea business doing just that, essentially helping her customers create custom tea blends from scratch. So stay tuned for TaylorMade Teas, brew steamy, steeped in profits. [Music]

Meet Jama Daikas. She's the owner and proprietor of blendbee.com, a site that's dedicated to helping customers create custom tea blends from scratch. Tea has played an influential role in her life for a long time.

As she puts it, tea can be a healer, a comforter, a fat burner, a detoxer, a lover, and a fighter. It can keep us awake and put us to sleep. There are so many uses, tea is simply amazing. It's fair to say she's steeped in an encyclopedic knowledge of all things tea. At Blendbee, customers can join her monthly tea club, shop for the perfect blend, or create their own.

Jama also designed special blends for companies, spas, and restaurants through a wholesale program. She started Blendbee as a need to fill a gap in the market, her need to be precise. She'd been designing her own tea blends for years and wished there was a simple way she could choose ingredients she wanted and have it mixed for her. She was struck with a novel idea and decided to chai something. That's right, I said that, she decided to chai something.

What if she could design a site that would let you create your own tea blends, essentially a made-to-order business? So that's what she did. She started Blendbee in 2014 and hasn't looked back. She handcrafts each blend to order using the highest quality ingredients sourced from around the globe. Her customers love creating their own unique blends and she receives rave reviews.

Blendbee is now earning between $10,000 and $20,000 a month, and Jama works on it full-time. But how did she do it? Well, before growing Blendbee into a bustling bee team, it started, as most side hustles do, a solo operation, just Jama. She did everything herself from building the website to making the tea blends. Her startup costs were just under $2,000, which cover the ingredients, packaging, and her website.

She sourced her teas from small, organic, or wild-crafted fair trade farms from around the world. She now works directly with several suppliers who she's built relationships with over the years. Her green tea comes from China and Japan, her black teas come from India, red teas from South Africa, while her yerba mate comes straight from the source in Argentina. Living on an organic farm doesn't hurt either. Her farm provides ample space for her to grow a lot of her own ingredients.

Jama employs the use of a 2,000-square-foot commercial kitchen where she designs, handcrafts, packages, and ships her teas. Her labels are all customized and printed in-house. Blendbee currently averages around $35 in order and sells between 300 and 700 orders per month. Her most popular product is the quarter-pound custom tea blend. Customers love being able to create their own teas, and this has been a key factor in setting her brand apart.

Jama said finding a solid team took a long time as her operation expanded, especially since she's had to move her company several times. Each move required building a new team from the ground up, and she's really particular about who she hires. The bee team is a select, handpicked group of tea lovers. Most of her traffic comes from Google, where Blendbee became number one for custom tea blends. She says it makes it easier when your customers become raving fans and do your advertising for you.

She's now looking to increase her social media presence, working with the e-commerce company Springbot. Her primary focus has been Instagram and Facebook ads. She also enjoys local events like team-making workshops. Jama takes great pride in getting directly involved with her community while supporting other small businesses and raising her brand's awareness. So what is next for Blendbee?

While Jama wants to continue growing the project and its sister company, ModestMix.com, she'd also love to land more local and wholesale accounts. Her blends have become quite the hot commodity. [Music]

Did you know that tea has a long and storied history? In fact, one of the earliest accounts dates back to China, something like, I don't know, 2700 BC, when an emperor accidentally discovered it, supposedly, when a few leaves from an overhanging tree fell into his pot of boiled water. Upon sipping his newly infused brew, he was like, "Man, this is better than Starbucks." Actually, he did some further research and discovered that tea not only tastes good, but has medicinal properties too.

Fun fact on the origin of tea that I learned when we were doing some research for the story. Now, I also took a peek at the other project mentioned just at the end of the story, ModestMix. This is basically another brand of blended tea that Jama is selling. And on this site, which is actually Not Safe For Work, how about that, a Not Safe For Work website about tea, she's got a lot of personality that comes out. And even the names of the tea, which I can't actually read because this is a non-explicit podcast, are pretty funny.

So it just goes to show, like I try to mention from time to time, putting your personality into something is often a really good idea. Don't be afraid to push some edges, even if somebody is offended by the names of your tea. Don't worry about it, because you're probably going to attract the right group of fans. All right, friends, I hope you're doing well wherever you are in the world today. And don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes, including links to Blend B, ModestMix, anything else I mentioned, are at sidehustleschool.com/823. That's episode 823. Got a story coming up for you tomorrow all about paint parties, two friends who start a multicultural paint party space in Boston. You don't wanna miss it, and of course, there's much more on the way as well. All right, thanks so much.

I'm out for the day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

- From The Onward Project.