IDEA INSPIRATIONS FOR WANTREPRENEURS (HighDEAS by Zee)

I must admit, I am an extensive brain-chatter and my mind keeps working on certain ideas/concepts that spark frequently. I used to sketch a proof of concept for each idea and save it for rainy days.

Since I am pretty much occupied with my current plans (which are more tech-related), and instead of hoarding everything in my mind, I feel it’s time to dust off my brain and share those ideas with people who can lay claim to any of it. Disseminating knowledge is a human duty and I favour this principle. These are small and big ideas which I will keep floating that anyone of you might actually find useful and plan to work on it.

I am up for a reason to give back to society, to care for people who want to get themselves into this system (without expecting anything in return), to share knowledge and expertise to those who deserve, to those who are really looking to learn and lead this system in Pakistan.

HighDEA #1 — Become a Tea-Preneur in Pakistan!

I am a tea freak (consuming 4–5 rounds per day), and I know most people in Pakistan are tea lovers too. Pakistan runs and lives on CHAI…As a matter of fact mornings across the country and across social cadres start with a cup of tea, it is not surprising that Pakistan is one of the top tea-consuming countries in the world.

Currently, black tea consumption in Pakistan has been estimated at 1,72,911 tonnes annually which is expected to increase to 2,50,755 tonnes in 2027, the FAO report projects.

Do you agree? In Pakistan — offices, educational institutes, meetings, gatherings mostly have tea breaks NOT coffee breaks.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

NOTE: LAUNCHING A STARTUP REQUIRES LOTS OF PLANNING, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, FORECASTING & BUDGETING.

(I cannot write the complete business plan, but I am sharing the ideation to help you understand the concept of this business.)

STEP 1. You need to crack the code of developing an authentic and universal taste of CHAI that inspires perfection and fuels progress and energy in every Pakistani. This is no rocket science but may require several tea tasting trials before you can crack the code. You MUST be willing to practice like Thomas Edison until you find the right recipe.

If you figured out the formulation of the best taste, this is where the actual experimentation begins! A comprehensive evaluation process is required after you think you’ve decoded the greatest taste of CHAI on earth that suits the majority of taste buds in Pakistan.

Now that you have formulated the “best” tasting CHAI, it’s time for you to call in your friends, family, neighbours etc. and dispense them with your divine CHAI and get honest feedback. Try the tasting trials on a minimum of 50 people… if you think this number is not sufficient, try running a label-less campaign on streets/markets offering people a cup of CHAI and ask for honest opinions. In case you hit a bummer, get back to STEP 1. You know the drill…

Finally, after countless attempts, you are successful in your quest! Now is the time to write down your recipe and put it into a safety deposit and plan things out.

Think of starting a CHAI brand that:

1. Has no compromise on Taste and Quality. (Don’t forget, your aim is not to become just another roadside Dhaba)
2. Has Full focus on Cleanliness, Customer Sales, Customer Experience & Value.
3. Offer Delivery Services both commercially and residentially via heat-retaining disposable flasks (it can easily retain heat for 30–45 minutes) and yes, there would be a minimum order policy in place.
4. A pre-defined process to make tea (so in future if you operate with multiple outlets, me as a customer would want the very same refreshing taste). Use your creativity, formulate theories, play with numbers and plan a process that gets the same taste regardless of how many cups are made.
5. Has Exclusive milk supply (Liquefied, Powdered or blend of both) in order to retain the taste and of course,
6. Your own “Special secret mixture of grounded Tea-Patti”. (This along with exclusive milk supply is what sets you apart from other. Yes, you ain’t gonna start a Dhaba!) Just a heads-up, don’t use any standard milk or tea-patti easily available in the market. You want to keep your divine CHAI recipe a secret. Procure rich in taste tea-patti from a supplier in or outside Pakistan.
7. Most importantly a strategy in place to cover the majority of the audience (operating from a small kiosk under a busy building, mobile cart outside a university or at a place that has a good footfall, branded stand at food festivals, highway/motorway outlets to a flagship outlet at an ideal location)

There are so many ideas, suggestions, schemes in place related to this. If this is of interest to anyone, I’ll happily share more information on request.

IDEA VALIDATION & ENDORSEMENT EXAMPLES

Study how these CHAI brands started and have exponentially grown within years:

Chai Point — One of the fastest-growing CHAI brand that started in 2010 from one small outlet in India and celebrated its 100th outlet opening in 2018. They raised an investment of over $12 Million dollars and have estimated annual revenue of $7.5 Million. Amuleek Singh, an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School started his first outlet in 2010. Today they collect about 6.5-ton tea leaves per month, 2.5 lakh litres of milk and sell about 1.6 lakh of tea every day.

(Chai Point’s first investor was Prof. Tarun Khanna from Harvard Business School and I have had the opportunity to be one of his long-distance learning students)

Filli Cafe — Rafih Filli took over his father’s ailing Al Zumalaa Cafeteria — nestled among small convenience stores in Dubai — in 2003, he would pray every night for it to make just enough money so that he could pay the staff salaries. So when he came up with his special recipe for the milky tea he added to the cafe’s menu in 2004, he called it Filli. Today the brand expands across the UAE — there are already 27 additional outlets, with the goal of opening 100 in the region by 2020 — time has stood still in Al Mamzar, where the “hole-in-the-wall” tea shop sells about 5,000 cups of the piping hot beverage each weekend. With a current of about AED 50–60 million annually, the expansion-plan aims to reach an annual turnover of about AED250-AED300 million by 2020. For this, FiLLi plans to invest about AED80 to AED100 million itself.

If you are interested to work on this idea, please make sure you undergo proper business and financial planning, research, idea validation and most importantly studying the “need of market” for this product.

GOOD LUCK.

Please feel free to ask if you need more information.

In case I have missed any important point(s) with the concept feasibility, all of you are requested to share your inputs so those who take interest can know about it.

After all, we are here to learn something new. 🙂