Happy Sunday friends and thanks for joining me as I share a little bit about the Tea Thoughts journey. As my next shop update approaches tomorrow I’ve been doing a lot of reflection myself and wanted to share. Before I start, I want to say that I will be sharing difficulties and triumphs with you. I don’t share the difficulties as a way to garner sympathy, just to share. I feel extremely grateful to be able to have the means and time to run a small business.

The Start

Many of you have been around since the inception of Tea Thoughts. I was hired for a creative type job that turned out to not be that creative, I felt drained and like I didn’t have a place to express myself. I’ve always crafted, hand making gifts and cards. I’ve also almost started an etsy shop maybe 10 times at this point but fear always got the better of me. So Instead I started a blog and since tea was such and important part of my life I wanted to make it about that and learn more because I didn’t know that much.

I started my blog and began “reviewing” teas. This eventually turned into me creating recipes because that was something I enjoyed more. After a couple of months, that creativity bug was still biting and I decided to start an etsy shop. That was back in May of 2016. At the start, there was no direction, I was painting, doing calligraphy, creating items for weddings, custom pieces etc. It was nice to create but It wasn’t working well so I made the decision to connect my shop and blog and create tea themed designs!

The Shop

Tea Thoughts has come a long way as a shop, mostly because I’ve come a long way as a designer and business owner. When I started my shop I also starting teaching myself design. Tea Thoughts has always been bootstrapped by funds from my full time job. Working at a small non profit, this isn’t a ton but I’ve made it work. There were some scary times where this funding method really took it’s toll on me but overtime as the shop has grown, the pressure is less.

The most difficult part of my shop has been keeping it stocked while at the same time trying different products to see what people like best. For a couple of years I was drowning. Funding an idea, having it fail and then being stuck with all of the stock in my tiny apartment. I think many people assume that if you have a certain amount of followers, you are rich or have a sell out shop. Not the case. The reality is that marketing your products is like asking over and over “please buy this.” Something I did a lot of was watching webinar after webinar about how to have a successful social media presence. They always say that follower count doesn’t equal a paycheck and let me tell you: TRUE!

Attachment

Something I’ve really had to overcome is connecting shop sales and social media success to my personal worth. When your shop isn’t doing well, it can be really tough mentally. When I didn’t get likes on a photo, I felt like a failure. There were many times where when my shop wasn’t doing well and I saw myself as worthless because I couldn’t make it succeed. Much of my desire to start a shop was to have creative control and freedom and something I built that I could be proud of and these feelings made it difficult to go on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost quit Tea Thoughts because I didn’t think it could work. Thankfully I have a wonderful support network who always encourages me to keep going because deep down that’s what I want to do. While most nights look like: staying up late, falling asleep in front of my computer and burnt out, I don’t mind because I love Tea Thoughts. The feedback I get from you all motivates me to keep creating and thinking of new things! I’ve come a long way in my mindset. I spend less time on social media and obsessing over likes. I try to share good content with you all and that’s it. I’ve also learned to not take slow sales personally, just that I need to keep going!

Hope

Now for some good. Tomorrow, I release my second annual Tea & Treats Advent calendar. Want to know how random things are? Last year I was hunting for an advent calendar for myself and since I don’t really like tea bags or blends, It was tough to find one so I decided to make my own! Last minute I ordered tea from a few places and was able to throw together 15 listings of an advent calendar. It was so much fun wrapping everything and I was so excited to be able to combine my love of gifting and tea.

It was a hit! So I did a valentine’s day box and a spring box and a summer box and a halloween box! The halloween box sold out in one day and y’all I can’t tell you how much I cried that day. Tears of joy of course. I cried because I finally felt a little success after all my hard work. It was very emotional and I think about that day all the time to remember to be grateful. Now, selling out in one day sounds great but honestly, four years later and I am still working a full time job because I’ve barely scratched the surface of being able to make Tea Thoughts a full time gig. The reality is that on release day I get sales and between release days, sales ebb and flow. Despite this, I’ve never felt more hopeful. The items I’ve been putting in my shop have been doing well and while the countdown boxes are very labor intensive, I love them. I love curating, wrapping, and most of all - seeing your reactions.

The Future

Thanks to all of your support, I feel like I finally found my dream job. I get to design things that combine my love of tea and other items and also fill a need in the tea themed items category. Thanks to your support, the shop has been self sustaining in 2020 for the most part. Still have a long way to go but I feel hopeful and grateful. While I feel like my hard work and trying different things have helped I couldn’t have done it without you. People who shop from me, are putting their trust in me as they shop from a small business and I try my best to make your order feel special. As I look to 2021, I already have 2 boxes planned and depending on how this holiday season goes, lots of new fun items! Something else I am really excited about is that I am saving to purchase my own pottery wheel so that I can update my shop with pottery more often!

I wanted to write this to give you a little peak into Tea Thoughts. Most of you probably follow me on social media and there, I try to keep my feed put together and calm because I think that’s what we could all use more of. In an effort to keep it real though I wanted to share that it’s not always pretty pours and fun product shots!

I am incredibly grateful that I’ve been able to start this business and keep it going. As COVID hit, I thought that it might be the end for Tea Thoughts but in an amazing turn, this has been my best year yet! This is something that’s hard to celebrate, especially because people have lost so much. I will continue to stay humble and keep creating and bringing you tea goodies.

To all of you who follow on social media, thank you!

To those who like and comment on my posts, thank you!

To those who subscribe to my newsletter, thank you!

To those who order from my shop, thank you!

To those, who share about Tea Thoughts, you have been a huge part of my success and I thank you so much!

Wishing you lots of joy and tea,

Nazanin