Online Tea Store Becomes Matcha-Made in Heaven

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

Right out of high school, a student decides to build a pathway to freedom for herself through an e-commerce store selling matcha tea. Matcha matcha tea. I had a fun time working on this episode. But since she doesn't have experience running any kind of business, she keeps her job managing a restaurant while she learns the ropes of e-commerce. Really smart decision.

Illustrates the side hustle way, the side hustle path, or at least one of them. Because we got all kinds of people out there doing all kinds of things. I did an interview recently where somebody's like, "Hey, how many people who are listening to the show are trying to quit their job?" And I was like, "It's really hard to say. I don't actually know statistically what percentage of people are trying to quit their job using this as their pathway to freedom versus those who are just like, "Well, I need to make some extra income. I need to establish this other source of income so that I have options." Whatever your desire is, many of the steps are exactly the same.

So that's why I don't worry about the distinction so much. Anyway, this is Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. And in this story, she, the person I'm going to tell you about, was able to grow her business without the pressure of it becoming profitable right away. After some time in tweaking, however, she began earning thousands of dollars a month from that e-commerce store, which is now her full-time job.

So stay tuned. The story is called "Online Tea Store Becomes Matcha Made in Heaven." Coming to you after this quick shout-out to our sponsor. Luciana Torres is a lover of all things tea. This mild obsession started during her high school days where she often struggled with anxiety and OCD. She had trouble quieting her mind and found it difficult to switch off to become present in the moment.

Much of that changed the day she visited a tea house with some friends. It was the first time she'd experienced properly brewed tea and she instantly adored it. The aromas, flavors, and ritualistic process of properly brewed tea resonated with her. The experience calmed her down and helped alleviate some of her symptoms. Shortly after the trip to the tea house, a childhood friend returned from a student exchange in Japan.

As a souvenir, she brought Luciana some matcha tea. Matcha, if you don't know, is a traditional Japanese green tea. Taken from tea leaves and ground into a fine powder, it's commonly used in tea ceremonies. And for Luciana, it was a matcha made in heaven, the beginning of a brew tea full friendship. That tea became a part of her daily ritual.

After drinking a cup, she felt calm, alert, and mentally clear. She became interested in the health benefits that matcha provided and felt that this relatively unknown tea from Japan needed to go mainstream. So she decided she'd start a business selling matcha. The only issue was Luciana had no business experience and no real idea where to start. On top of that, she already had a full-time job.

By now, she had graduated high school and was working as a manager at a local Mexican restaurant. Although she was busy at that job, it was also time to get busy learning. She read articles and books on starting a business, and she asked her mom for a loan of $3,000. That money was spent mostly on importing matcha from Japan, as well as other herbs and blends to mix in to create different flavors. Because that money didn't go far, Luciana took advantage of the kitchen at the restaurant after hours.

There, she used her creativity and ran experiments on different blends of teas, figured out which tasted the best, which worked to give clarity of mind, and which had the nicest aromas. When she felt more confident in her creations, she tried some of them on her co-workers. Then she decided to build a website and start selling online. She chose the name Three Leaf Tea, namely because tea often grows in three leaf combinations, plus 3LT incorporated her initials. Once she officially launched the website, Luciana expected things to go off like a boiling whistling pot, but instead it was more like a lifeless, strained teabag.

On her first day, she had, oh, that looks like zero sales. On her first day, she had zero sales and took a serious knock to her confidence. That day provided a big lesson. If you brew it, they will not come. What made things worse was that she had stocked up on inventory with her mom's money, and the inventory was now sitting there dormant.

Since she had no budget for marketing, Luciana used all the free resources she could get, starting with making profiles on social media accounts. She posted content regularly and ran contests to get people engaged and build her following. She found out quickly it's important to be active online, especially when you're doing e-commerce. She also learned the basics of search engine optimization. She made sure to add the proper titles and content to the site so that if people were searching for specific types or brands or blends of matcha tea, it would rank high in those results.

And then the kettle began heating up. Sure, it was still lukewarm for a while. In the first few months, Luciana earned less than $100. But gradually, thanks to her social media and SEO efforts, sales grew month over month. This happened all while she's still working her full-time job.

A fact that she attributes as a big factor in her ultimate success. She was able to keep herself paid and supported while she worked her way up to leaving the restaurant. Which is exactly what she ended up doing only seven months later, when three leaf tea began earning enough that she could open a small retail store in her hometown. Her experience managing the restaurant and her newfound business acumen made the transition much easier. It would have been if she had gone in cold.

Now, a few years later, Luciana is not looking back. Her physical store is doing well and sales from her online store continue to grow. So much so that she's now profiting thousands of dollars a month, all while only a couple of years out of high school. So when the path of success seems far away, remember that you too can start small. With consistent work, your idea will eventually hit the boiling point.

Well, this is the way of the side hustle. Build a bridge to the future you want. Start where you are. Start small. Accept that there will be challenges.

Understand that there are things you don't know how to do. And for some of those things, you're going to learn as you go along. Other things you may realize you don't actually need to know. So that's another way of starting that problem. And when you start without the pressure of, "Oh, I need to do this.

This has to work. It has to work in X amount of time." Then you relieve yourself of such a burden. It becomes much more of an experiment. And yes, of course, you still want to make it work, you know? That's true.

You're still working toward that ultimate success, whatever you define that to be. But without the extreme pressure, without the burden, and hopefully in a way that can still be fun and enjoyable to you, which is not always the case when you're like, "Oh, I've got to absolutely make this work within, you know, that X period of time." So let Luciana's story be an example to you. Our show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/914. And here are as well some rejected titles for this episode. Rejected titles include "Macha Wants Some Japanese Tea," "Macha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me," and "Hey, Macherena." And yes, we did like all of those, but we decided to go with online teastore becomes Mache made in heaven.

All right, thanks so much. Much more is on the way. Happy Independence Day coming up, at least in the United States. But I hope every day is your Independence Day, because that's what we're all about here on Sidehustleschool. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

Have a wonderful day wherever you are.