Lately I've been obsessed with the whole "Julie & Julia" phenomenon. I had read Julia Child's memoir a couple of years ago, on a trip to Paris, and it was incredibly inspiring. Here was this woman who, at age 37, found her true purpose in life just because she liked to eat. What better inspiration could I have than that?
I love tea, therefore at this point in my life (unfortunately even later than age 37), I'd like to make it my life's work. And since I seem to have been getting signs from the universe that perhaps going back into corporate life may not be my path (see previous post), I'm taking the next month to work on getting my tea dream moving forward.
At the moment, that may be as a part-time, home-based business, with the goal of opening a brick & mortar location in the (hopefully near) future. I'm having some meetings this week to figure out more details on what I need to do in order to get this going. Sounds vague, I know--and I know I need to be more crisp on what I want and what I plan to do. However, at this point, even just saying something that vaguely is a step forward for me.
I need to contact some of my tea connections to talk about sourcing tea, as that is one of my biggest concerns at this point. Then of course there are all the various government regulations to navigate--but I have sources for that info which should be very helpful. And I need to figure out what it will all cost--how I can get things moving with limited funds, and then grow from there. Bootstrap Austin should be a good resource for that info.
And as I stumble through the fog in my quest, I'll keep Julia Child's journey in mind. I know there must have been many points when she questioned why she was doing any of it (eight years to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking!), but she persevered. So I'll use her as my role model. And I'll keep experimenting with recipes for my eventual tea shop--the cherry clafoutis dessert to our Julia-inspired roast chicken & asparagus with hollandaise dinner was a huge success--and hope to find some added inspiration as I bake!
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8 months ago
You should go for it. Or at least check it out. I buy a lot of tea online, some from independent sellers on sites like etsy.com, artfire, bonanzle, 1000markets, etc. I've bought baked goods/candy online as well.
ReplyDeleteI lost my job in 2002 and decided to stay home through the summer and work on my art. I ended up starting a website and selling online on various venues. Still doing that fulltime :-).