Hey guys,

Wondering if anyone could give me any advice regarding a new online tea company I am hoping to launch within the next couple of months.

We are at a very early stage so I am looking for any advice and suggestions. Here is where I stand at the moment:

I have an idea for a pretty interesting niche in the market and I have ready access to the herbs and teas needed at very good prices. I am currently working with my business partners on 3 initial blends which we hope to bag into teabags and sell in really nice natural looking tins. It should be a pretty interesting and attractive product to be fair.

I am hoping to sell the products online to individuals interested in high quality organic teas aimed at their well being as well as reaching out to spas and other health businesses in the hope they would sell our teas as a supplement to their business - for example a cup of our tea with a haircut. I am able to source some really nice tea pots and cups which I hope to include with the teas for businesses to get them interested in selling them. These could also serve as accessory items on our website.

To gain traction online I will be writing articles about health and well-being, linking to our products. These articles I will be uploading weekly. I also hope to take advantage of Instagram and the like with lots of nice high quality pictures of herbs, teas, landscapes, etc. I do not have much knowledge regarding this type of marketing at all however I believe it should be fairly easy to learn with online resources available.

I hope to start selling on shopify unless someone could suggest a better platform. I have very little knowledge on website design, however I am hoping that shopify will have adequate presets to begin the venture initially, and a blog like feature for my articles and pictures, after which I will either improve my web design knowledge or hire someone specifically for the task if I prove to be lacking in this department.

As for the packaging I hope to hire an artist in the near future to work on the brand, logos etc. and I will be reaching out to a health department in the UK for advice regarding necessary labelling on tins. There is of course some suggestions regarding this online and it appears fairly easy as I will be merely mixing herbs and tea-bagging them so from my understanding I will only need to list the herbs used and allergens therein and of course the vessel carrying them needs to be safe for food handling.

I will have a facility for the packing of the teas and we will comply with all HACCP protocols and hygiene standards. This facility will be outside the EU, and I will be importing the sealed tins into the UK for sale to the UK and EU initially. From my research there is a 3% import duty for these products from the country of origin into the EU. I will also have all the paperwork needed to prove safe growing practises, safe pesticide use (or organic depending on if I am able to get the proper compliance paperwork from my suppliers), and I will be able to source the farm all the herbs came from too.

I welcome any thoughts, questions, insights and experiences.