Q – Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business.
Sencha Tea Bar is the premier loose leaf tea retailer in Minnesota, with an additional presence in Madison, WI. Sencha’s large and growing selection of loose-leaf teas guarantees to satisfy the most demanding and eclectic tastes of traditional tea drinkers.
Q – What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
To be bold and chase after an idea, the bold ones are the people that can change the world and will be rewarded by taking a chance. Life is short, so take risks.
Q – What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
-Ask for help, get mentors and surround yourself with other like-minded people
-Take risks and keep working at it and when you reach a breaking point, keep going
-Read/listen to audiobooks, some of the best ways to expand your mind it to keep learning
Q – How many hours do you work a day on average?
-8 hours normally, but 24/7 thinking, dreaming of ideas.
Q – To what do you most attribute your success?
-Staying curious; learning new things and trying them out. Taking action from your learnings.
Q – How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
For Sencha, it is our community. Community is our team, our customers and our neighbors that we have the privilege to serve. Without connections to our community, we wouldn’t exist. Our marketing is the most successful with outstanding service, which extends from the stores to the customer’s door. We do this online in addition to stores, we give back to local charities and continue to update our menus seasonally. Creating a customer experience that is not only changing and adapting but that lets customers connect and be a part of their community is what builds our strongest marketing for Sencha.
Q – Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Sencha is a self-funded endeavor.
Q – What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
To have unrelenting self-improvement that extends to each individual within a company.
Q – Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
We see Sencha growing in stores, expanded online offerings and with more product offerings that shares premium tea with the world.
Q – Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Starbucks, Apple and Nike.
Q – How important have good employees been to your success?
Our team is the foundation and is the first step in our business that builds on creating community. Many of our employees seek out Sencha for their passion in tea and are able to use their medium of Sencha to share their passion with customers.
Q – How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Until there is no more passion, if you don’t have the passion, you won’t be able to grow it into a tangible business.
Q – What motivates you?
Learning. The world is always changing and if you can continue to learn, adapt, and take action you’ll feel the motivation to continue to grow.
Q – What are your ideals?
To help people realize how connected that we all are to one another. We all come from different backgrounds and to have respect, mindfulness and patience for others is something that is needed in the world, now more than ever after Covid.
Q – How do you generate new ideas?
Laying out the problem first and then coming up with solutions that are a conglomerate of previously successful solutions.
Q – How do you define success?
Success is something that can be measured with financial gain but the underlying reason to that is you were able to provide true utility and value for a need. Whether it’s for a customer or for a team member, success can be something as little as a goal that has been met or record sales.
Q – How do you build a successful customer base?
By creating an environment of trust. Trust is something that cannot be created but must be earned. With consistency and transparency, it’s one of Sencha’s core values.
Q – What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
To create. As an entrepreneur, one of the most rewarding things to see is people using, experiencing and sharing your product.
Q – What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Internal organization and focused direction. We have implemented a system that allows us to internally set goals, track metrics and have a template to measure our own success upon. Seeing micro-wins lets us continue to build our success in a curated direction.
Q – What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
We think that the difference between an entrepreneur and a person who works for someone else is the creator, versus the implementor. Both are essential to the entire equation and each part needs each other.
Q – What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
Culture at Sencha is created with our core values. We continuously review and revisit our values and make decisions upon what those are.
Q – In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Evolving.
Q – If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Read more, listen to more audio books at a faster rate. Join more networking groups.
Q – How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
It makes you think differently and plan more.
Q – What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
By acknowledging it and addressing it head on.
For more information visit us at https://senchateabar.com/