 today you are in for a treat because i am bringing you behind the scenes to actually show you guys on exactly what i do on how to open up a bubble tea shop at the biggest marketplace in vancouver hello friends now more specifically how do you open up a bubble tea shop at a farmers market or at any events place just to test things out because for some of you that don't know i operate two to three different bubble tea shops at the biggest marketplace in vancouver every single year and now that you know what all the restrictions have passed we just got the call we're opening up again this year and now we only have one week to set the whole thing up and i thought that you know what it'll be really cool to actually show you guys behind the scenes on exactly what i do from going to the city hall to get my business license to figuring out my food safety applications to basically all the equipment that we would need to operate to ordering our inventory to hiring people training people setting up the whole shop everything we need to accomplish in a week's time and i thought that you know what this would be a really really good video series that i'm going to create specifically for you so you can not only learn from the theories that i share with you but also actually see us in motion and if this is the type of content that you would want to see more of and this is something that is interesting for you make sure you guys smash the like button because that would show me that hey you know what this is the type of content you would like and i'll shoot more of this for you um so now without further ado let's dive right in to show you guys some behind the scenes so first and foremost for you to operate any type of food business you must have a business license now typically speaking if you're operating in a farmer's market or at the night market or any types of events those type of business license are very easy to obtain all you need to is to fill in your application pay some money which is always usually around 100 to 200 bucks something like that and also having the contract with the marketplace to submit at your local city hall and within a week or two you should be able to have your license so then that way you can operate now for those of you who are looking into a physical location where you have your own brick and mortar shop then you do not need a contract all you have to do is once again drop by to your local city hall and they're going to give you the applications to fill in so you can get operating now usually this process is something that i dread a lot because the lineups are ridiculously long but because of the new restriction and everything they actually are close to the public what that means is that i create this put this in the letter and put it in the drop-off box there we go we're good to go so when it comes to operating a bubble tea booth at an event design and branding is everything and the reason is because when you have hundreds thousands and even tens of thousands of people coming through your doors and going to these events it is your job to be able to convert the traffic that is coming through into paying customers now how do you do that it is by design because if you're competing and when you're competing amongst tens of others of the same booths down the hallway if your design is not going to be captivating then unfortunately you have not done your job it is not because of anything else so that's the reason why design is everything when you are operating at an event slash farmers market now what i'm showing you guys is different iterations of our design designing process so then that way you can go through our thought logic so then that way you can create a design that fits for your needs now to first show you initially we wanted to be able to be much more aesthetically and minimalistic looking so this really showcases how that looks like and we just want to go that higher end feeling all together now this proves not to be that successful unfortunately because people can't really see what we're selling there's no images here of the product that we're selling and on top of that it just blends into the background and that's the reason why when we were operating with this banner it wasn't effective at all and that's the reason why we improved we changed the branding and then we also made it a lot more we also added a lot of more images of real products that really showcase what people are buying which is the bubble tease and this turned out to be much better as an alternative and we also went on to create something that looks like this as another alternative that we created finally coming to our final version which was this this was our final version we really liked it because not only is it colorful but also really showcasing our product that people are seeing so imagine this being at the top of your banner at the top of your booth so when people are walking through the colors grab their attention and automatically without them thinking without them reading they know exactly what you're selling which is bubble tea right here and then you can see everything so that's the reason why having branding that is much more practical versus aesthetic is important when you're designing for a farmers market or an event place now i want to share with you guys a little bit more about the the menu engineering process that went into this so then that way you can understand why we did what we did first of all we put in our biggest profit generating items it was this is the biggest profit generating item mainly because we're only selling syrup which is the green tea syrup and also mixing that with green tea in order for us to make this drink and this drink makes us around 10 times the margin so we sell this drink for around i would say five to six dollars usually and the cost of making this is around 30 to 40 cents so the margins on this item is huge guys and that's the reason why we highlight this here because this would allow people to actually order it because they see the image that you know what this looks great let's order that and there is our profit generating item and also these three items are our top sales tarot milk tea and mango and because these are our top sales what do we do we usually pre big pre-make batches of these guys available that we can just pour into the cup and we can serve it and that's how we can serve hundreds of drinks every single hours we're talking about one to two drinks every single minute that's a very high pace and we need to make sure we optimize for efficiency especially working in a farmer's market or events place because the more people you can go through the more money you're going to be able to make and that's why we highlight all these as our top picks in a very strategic manner and this is also really high profit generating item on top of that it is super easy to make we just put the brown sugar pearls in there add it with milk and voila the drink is done that's the reason why how we created this menu like this now i'm not sure if you guys notice out of this menu i do not include pricing on this menu that is on the top banner and the reason for that is because our pricing can change depending on the weeks depending on the different season and depending on the years that we operate as well for example this year the prices would be 550 or this year we increased it to six dollars but however the following year it could be 650 depending on the cost of the item and that's reason why we do not want to fixate the prices just on this menu because we want to reuse this menu in the future that's the reason why and on top of that as we run promotions as we enter more of the seasons that don't have as much traffic we want to become even more competitive and that's reason why during those times we would actually decrease the our drinks price so then that way it becomes more attractive and we would capture more market share for you guys look at this to see how you can craft your menu whether it's branding whether it's aesthetics whether it's practicality or pricing this is super effective and useful when creating your own bubble tea shop thank you Simon yeah i'll bring you out i'll bring you out so as you can see here guys the storage is finally done as we can see the straws are here we label everything our syrup is down here syrup and then a bunch of powder drinks milk powder um and then cups mango puree pearls coconut jelly cups and pearls pearls pearls the reason why we actually have to make this and make sure that we label everything as you can see is because we have tons of staff coming in and out all the time and if we do not make this systemized and if we do not make it easy for different people to come in and grab their stuff then they're going to spend like half an hour to an hour trying to look for stuff digging through all these boxes if we're not organized so if you guys are having your own operations make sure that things are optimized so then that way anyone can come into your warehouse and flop into these systems of yours and to make this a smooth sailing operation so let me think behind this and show you guys the inside operation of what it actually looks like and how the workflow actually happened so right here is where we take all the orders we take the money after we get it we take the cup and then we put it either the back here which is our slushy station this is where we cook the pearls and then we have the real drink station which is right here tea red tea green tea jugs powder syrup hot water tank right there after we make it then we're going to put it right here to make sure that we put all the drinks here label them properly put on the lids and now this is where we serve the drinks to our customers and the reason why we put this here we built this thing that actually houses a lot of different drinks because sometimes when it gets really busy we have 10 20 drinks just lying here laying here because no one is coming to redeem them so a lot of people do is they actually order your drink they go walk around and then they come and get it so that's the reason why we built this little hut right here to put the interim drinks right here so then that way when people come we can actually serve it to them right here now when it comes to operation one thing that we must be super aware of is that if anything goes wrong it is our fault if someone doesn't have common sense or if people don't know how to create a drink or if they do not know the pricing of their items it's not because of their lack of training it is not because of them not having common sense it is because of us as owners and as operators that we didn't provide the training necessary for them to have these equipment on time they need to have the tools we need to empower them to have the tools it doesn't matter if you're operating a restaurant or as small of an operation as a farmer's market or at any event place you must have policy handbooks tools to help them out and that has proven to be a very very successful resource for us to train the rest of the staff that we have that's a reason how we can have two to three different operations at the same time while we operate and handle with more than a hundred staff doesn't change when we're operating a bubble tea booth as well so as you can see here we list out the responsibility specific responsibilities of each of our positions from a floater to a cashier to a barista exactly what they're responsible for so there is no ambiguity so they know exactly what is expected of them support role and this is key guys when it comes down to operating your booth as well if you're not clear on what the expectations are how do you expect the people working for you to know what they're supposed to do we also label the different items and what we name them and once again a lot of things that we take for granted shouldn't be taking for granted for people who are new to the trade we identify the different tools the different equipment that we use and also we share with them how do we make and how do they make our products we separate it into three different series milk tea series tea flavor series and also slush flavor series so each one of them has their own recipe which we show them and we teach them how to make it and then on top of that what do we do for the cashiers we share with them how should they be writing codes on the cup so then that way the people that are holding on to the cup when they read this these code become something that they know what people are ordering so for example if someone ordered a passion fruit green tea then the code would be p f gt if someone ordered a strawberry green tea it would be str gt as simple as that and we go with even some of the customization easy eyes easy eyes the sweetness level maybe half sweet something along the lines of that so nothing goes to ambiguity we also list down the different prices so then that way they know exactly what to do we teach them how do they do cup labeling so for example milk tea plus pearls milk tea plus pearls half sweet half sweet something along the lines of this allows us to not have any ambiguity and allows the whole team to be on the same page not only this we also have a recipe page that makes it super easy for them to remember because at the end of the day when they are looking at such a big operations and all these manuals it's easy to forget so we took it one step further to make it super big we print it out and we leave it right on their desk so they can use this as a cheat sheet and on top of that we also created a checklist of before they operate what should they be doing exactly the steps that we expect them to perform so then that way once again nothing is left for any ambiguity and they can be able to be set up for success that's the detail that we as operators need to have so when it comes down to it their success becomes our success there's a saying out there that the last 10 percent of any project requires 80 percent of the effort and that is so so true because when you are coming to a final closure final point final sprint line there are still a ton of things that you need to prepare for in order for you to be ready in order for you to not scramble on game times and that's reason why after and aside from the onsite setup there are still a ton of things for us to do in the back office and as you can see here we still need to hire a bunch of staff I need to make sure that on the day of operations I prepare the game floats sorry the the bank floats and then also we need to tag the fire extinguishers so then that way when the fire marshals come they can actually check our fire extinguisher and it is working properly I also need to build a tabletop for our counter that's over the sneeze guard because one of our tables is a little bit too short and it's not supporting well enough therefore I need to build it up and then attach a banner on top to make the branding look nice and make everything look beautiful as well so that's something that I need to do I need to buy some containers for our drink powders and then also I need to make sure that I find my sealers and my sugar dispenser I can't find it anywhere in the warehouse that's why I need to make sure I find it I need to buy a bunch of buckets and zip ties to make sure that oh by the way if you guys are operating at a farmer's market or an at any event zip ties are your best friends it's basically the duct tape of anything so it just helps so much with attaching power cables lights everything zip ties are a must food safety I still need to talk to the food safety officials to make sure that we are approved with our food safety application I need to prepare the contracts for my staff as well I need to make sure that I prepare the recipe booklet so then that way when the staff comes on site they have something to reference back to on how do they make the drinks that is very very important along with the food safety I also need to make sure I print it to be on site because if you do not print it and if it is not on site on the day of operation they're not going to give you the food safety license for you to operate and if you don't have that license you cannot operate you cannot sell that's the reason why it is so important for you to prepare everything in advance that is key guys the more you can prepare the more you are aware of the different items that you need the more and smoothly everything will go on the day of business license we need to get that the paper with this is basically our paper towels and also our garbage bags and these are the things that I need specifically for our operations that I still need to do behind the scenes so guys just because you set up on the day of doesn't mean you're off the hook you still need to figure out all the different aspects that you may not be as prepared as you thought you were to make ensure a smooth operations so there you go friends we have finally finished wrapping up showing you guys behind the scenes of the probably set up in bubble tea operation and in total this whole setup cost us around five hours with four staff so 20 hours in total and do not be do not underestimate this kind of operation as little as this booth may look we can actually sell more than a hundred drinks per hour and that's our max capacity that means that we churn out more than two bubble teas every single minute that's really high efficiency because at the end of the day when you're operating at an event and at the market you need to make sure that you are very very efficient so that that way you can get as much traffic as possible when people see a big lineup they might just go to the next booth which is the reason why your operation must be efficient so everything you see within our booth and our operation is highly maximized and utilized just so that we can actually churn out as much units as possible and if you guys want to see more about how we are operating during an event night and event day and to see us in action then definitely smash the like button because that will show me this is the type of content you enjoy and I can make more of that to show you guys because whatever I'm sharing with you guys it's not just theories that I'm sharing with you it is actually something that I do on a regular basis it is something that works so I hope that this can help you within your operations and if you guys want to learn more about how do you set this thing up how do you create a restaurant how do you start a food business online then definitely check out the free training in the link below because that's where I can share with you from isolation to the menu creation the actual marketing aspect so that way you can have something that you're proud of something that you can be happy about so yeah definitely check it out in the link below make sure you guys smash like button so I know this is the type of content you enjoy and I think greatly sequel just to show you guys the operation in process now see you guys