More Than Tea, A Lifestyle.
Living Water Tea House - Case Study
Incubator Project Background
Sitting on Little Italy’s Taylor Street in Chicago near the University of Illinois Chicago, Living Water Tea House(LWTH) is a contemporary East Asian tea parlor. This open and calming space features East Asia-sourced tea and Chinese handcrafted artful tea-ware. BRIGHT PEI Consulting helped this tea house happen from the ground up.
BRIGHT PEI Consulting's Role
Strategic research, Business location research, Corporation setup system (license permit, company formation, service provider connection) Startup milestone consulting, Human resource, and Branding design.
Challenges
While starting a teahouse business like Living Water Tea House from scratch, one of the biggest challenges is to select a suitable location, with all the considerations in mind
The first place LWTH chose did not turn out to be a good fit for the following reasons:
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Facilities do not meet the requirement, requires extra construction which would consume a lot of time/budget
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Complicated compliance requirements adding for holding community events
BRIGHTPEI analyzing the first place.
Floor plan draft.
After more strategic research and analysis, BRIGHT PEI selected the final location for the teahouse (current location) on Taylor Street that is close to the UIC community.
Even thoough the overall space is smaller, but it fits most of tea house's requirements.
BRIGHT PEI conducted spatial planning and interior design for the space, led the complete process of reconstruction and renovation, and transformed this space into a welcoming tea house that fits the brand's vision and goals.
The final selected place before renovation.
Final Floor plan
Final Outcome
Reference: Living Water Tea House Facebook Page
Living Water Tea House Achievements
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Accomplished a fully local community running tea and cafe business in UIC bringing great cash flow and attractions
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Support local community on hiring from local. Hired 5-8 (native employees, local school students intern, and low income/unemployed).
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Support local Non-profit org and charity org (Community Church, Fellowship, Save Food Waste Company).
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Inspiring Asian tea, culture, awareness. Sponsored a few Asian culture events online and offline.
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Teach Asia Tea Ceremony, Sunday Private Event Hosting for different charity events.
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Supported international students internship and work focusing on: consumer and food product design, research, operation, and health lifestyle research.
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Successfully sponsored an H1B visa for a key startup team member which is an international student.
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Successfully get 250K total investment from local and international investment funds and goods.
Achievements of BRIGHT PEI
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Startup entrepreneur team get well trained. From the beginning of 2019 till now. BRIGHT PEI Consulting assigned at least 6 consultants to help LWTH fulfill the project needs on the following tasks: location research, negotiation with landlord/association, site fire protection, environmental, community noise level control research and building code compliance corporation.
Though the comprehensive process of finally settle down the current business location and successfully obtain the business license. Our startup entrepreneurs gained intense experiences first hand knowledge and professional skills in different industries of Chicago city which has the highest requirement level on food and consumer industry.
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Our professional and well trained consultants has tremendous development. Mike who was our business consultant now serving as a researcher at a academic research institute of Hangzhou. Penny works as company's brand strategist successfully got approved H1B after the most strict H1B RFE process during 2019-2020.
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Successfully connected the startup project to local and international service providers. It include human recourse service firm which focus on talent selection and team building. Local accounting firm which take charge of our startup projects accounting and tax reporting. Local building design firm which provide design service to fulfill the project business needs and city compliance requirements. Local law firm which provide IP, lease, business contract review service. Local product supplier which supply the LWTH's products raw material.International supply chain service at packaging, tea, retail product accessories.