Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Jones.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Carlos. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2011, I tasted loose leaf tea for the first time ever. After tasting it, I said “This is really good and I don’t have afternoon caffeine crash”. Since that day, I have continued drinking tea daily and have seen tremendous positive changes in my body regarding allergies, common-colds, and energy levels. Tea is something I wish I knew about earlier, but very happy I eventually found out about it. Despite enjoying tea so much, it took me years before I even thought of opening my own teashop. Towards the end of summer 2018, I began writing my teashop business plan that I would execute in Q1 of 2019.
I wanted to share the knowledge I have about tea, along with amazing tea products with others in my community. The idea behind Roots and Crops was to create a healthy business that will operate responsibly, provide exceptional products, and show exceptional love to our customers.
We have enjoyed every bit of it thus far!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This has not been a smooth road; however, this has been an extremely fun and exciting journey so far! I didn’t go into this thinking anything would be easy. Entrepreneurship has been amazing so far though!
Very briefly, I want to highlight E-commerce. E-commerce is not entirely new; however, customers are demanding exceptional service and amazing products now; more than ever, which they absolutely should be demanding. The fast-paced supply chains, the competitiveness, and adhering to customer expectations are only a few key points to why e-commerce has drastically changed over the years (We can also thank Amazon too lol ). These are all things that create struggles for all companies trying to operate in this space.
Our struggles specifically are:
Website SEO – according to experts, tea is the 2nd most popular consumed beverage in the world. This should let you know how competitive the tea industry is. There are many tea brands fighting for top spots on Google searches and other search engine, but so are we! We are working very hard to understand the analytics and strategies behind increasing our visibility. This will hopefully help drive more site traffic and conversions. It is still very early in our business and we know this will be a great challenge for us, but we are very determined.
Social Media Marketing – social media can get a bad rap at times; however, it is really good for many things, such as business marketing. Because social media platforms are very broad and diverse, we have to be very specific about the content that we are marketing, who we are marketing too, and our ultimate goal for marketing on social media. We are working very hard to manage through these strategies so that we could begin seeing positive impacts on the business from Social Media.
Please tell us about Roots and Crops Tea Company.
Our business is an E-commerce business only; however, we do several pop-up events around the city of Atlanta. We sell specialty loose leaf tea that comes from responsible farmers around the world. Tea is a global product and there are many different regions in the world that produce tea. Each of them have their own unique style and flavors, which makes tea such a cool product to work with. The idea behind Roots and Crops was to create a healthy business that will operate responsibly, provide exceptional products, and show exceptional love to our customers.
I am the owner/operator of Roots and Crops Tea Company. My daily task include Social Media Management, Event Setups and Management, Sales, Marketing, Blog Management, and much more. I also have an awesome Web Developer Joey Berrios, Owner of WP Tech Services, that I work very closely with on the web development and web analytics portion of the business.
I am most proud of first, the support that I have received during my few short months of being in business. Support from family members, friends, previous coworkers, and more have been awesome! I am also proud of how receptive the business has been from the public. When we are out doing pop-up events, we are receiving extraordinary feedback from customers and those who sample our products.
Tea is more than a beverage to us, it is a lifestyle that allows us to express creativity, spread love, and impact lives daily. We truly mean this and we believe this is what sets us apart from other tea shops. Not only do we have tasty teas, but we are also looking to impact lives through in other ways. We have several community campaigns that we have planned throughout the year. We also have a vision of not only sticking to tea as a beverage but using the tea plant in other forms and making it available to our customers.
Stay connected with us for more on that.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Running a business requires many things to ensure that you stay in business for a long time.
Staying disciplined is key. Being organized and knowing exactly the task that needs to be done each day are keys to success.
I have also learned to be persistent in everything that deals with this business. If I am confident in something that deals with this business then I will go after it and continue until its done. I believe this is a good business lesson AND life lesson.
Staying confident in my skills and my abilities go a long way in running a business.
Pricing:
- 3 Ounce Packs (makes 35 cups of tea) = $15.00
- 8 Ounce Packs (makes 90 cups of tea) = $32.00
- 16 Ounce Packs (makes 90 cups of tea) = $60.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ractea.com
- Phone: 770-580-4038
- Email: admin@ractea.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootsandcrops/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RootsandCropsTeaCompany/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rootsandcrops
Image Credit:
Karl Benion – The Kool Life Digital
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