Fresh ABS data shows that 365,500 new businesses were started in the 2020/21 financial year – many of them founded and led by women, who’s employment has been more affected by the pandemic than their male peers’. Pamela Yip and her pal Jenny Li found themselves in that exact position, losing their jobs in mid-2020 due to COVID shutdowns. While others turned to baking banana bread, Pamela and Jenny decided to try to launch their own business – “we were actually starting businesses every single week!” After a list of failed attempts, they finally hit on an idea that stuck: at-home DIY kits for bubble tea. Bubble Tea Club found customers and fans almost immediately.
What started with ingredients from a local Asian grocer, a website and an Instagram account, grew to a business turning over $2million in just 12 months. Pamela and Jenny’s story is a case study in how powerful social media is for Australian small businesses – something Instagram is leaning into with it’s accelerator program for young female entrepreneurs. As part of the Instagram Academy, female business-owners under the age of 25 will receive dedicated training and mentorship to master the strategies and tools that fuel the growth of businesses like Bubble Tea Club.
We spoke to Pamela about her wild 12 months growing Bubble Tea Club, and her social media advice that any small business can use.
What did the beginnings of Bubble Tea Club look like for you and Jenny?
It started in April last year, pretty much the peak of the pandemic. Jenny was stood down from her job, and I owned a digital marketing agency but my clients were all in hospitality – my income vanished overnight. So we thought we’d try to make a business, we pretty much had a different idea every week.
In my area, Lyndhurst, there’s no bubble tea shops. And even on Uber Eats, there was nowhere that would deliver it to my house. To Jenny’s house it was like $8 for the drink and then an additional $7 to get it delivered – and people were paying for it! I tried searching online for how to make it, and I couldn’t even access the ingredients. It’s not like taro powders or like tapioca is available at Woolies or Coles. It was crazy to me that bubble tea is like a massive phenomenon, but you couldn’t actually make it yourself at home.
So Jenny pretty much rocked up and brought all the ingredients to my house the next day – where she lives, she has more access to Asian grocers. I shot everything in my living room, we got the website up and posted our content on Instagram. On the fourth day we pretty much went viral, and it hasn’t really stopped from there.
What is it about bubble tea that made it the perfect product – why do you think this idea worked when the others didn’t?
If you think about bubble tea it’s actually in almost every single shopping centre. Especially if you’re in Springvale (VIC) or other Asian suburbs there’s probably like 10 in a row nowadays. If you went into a shopping centre, and you’ve never tried bubble tea before… The menu is massive, there’s like thousands of combinations, and massive lines usually. It can be really overwhelming and you’re unlikely to stand there and try to figure out what it is.
Interestingly, most of our audience is [not Asian] – we’ve had about 25% of customers say they’ve never tried bubble tea before prior to buying Bubble Tea Club. Because what we are actually doing through social media is educating people on what bubble tea is for the first time. You’re in the comfort of your own home, able to sit and read the reviews and directly message us. We have a Facebook group as well, we get a lot of Instagram messages. It was just about completely answering everyone’s questions and any thoughts people had about the drink.
You and Jenny are often really visible on the accounts too, explaining things to your customers – do you think that played a role in the business success too?
It’s actually been a very big focus for us. And it was something that we very naturally just happened to do in the beginning – when we went viral and there were comments coming in across all the platforms, we were personally replying. Every single comment. We were reading all the feedback.
For example, someone said instead of plastic straws can you guys do paper straws? And I was like, yeah what a great idea. So the next day we went to source paper straws, and took a picture to reply back to that person to thank them for the suggestion. Because they’ve made the suggestion, we’ve changed our whole order packing to include paper straws only. At Christmas time, people would tell us there was a particular courier driver they’re upset with – and it’s great feedback, because we’re not the customers receiving the packages so we have no idea. We literally asked them which companies do you have the best experience with in your area, and they would give us the answer for who to partner with.
We’ve maintained a lot of that communication.
Do you think young customers in particular are more keen to go on that journey with the brand? They like being onboard early and involved with the process.
Yeah. Imagine like if you organise plans with a friend. And then two weeks later, out of nowhere, no communication, you say: “Oh, sorry, cancelling that.” But what if during that time you tell your friend what’s going on at your end, maybe you’ve experienced some issues. In two weeks, they would be a lot more open to you cancelling those plans because they understand why. As opposed to just coming out of nowhere.
That applies the same to customers. They are still people. They just need an update, like people aren’t unreasonable. They want more context and reason as to why things are happening. That’s what we did through social media, with monthly updates and videos, since we’ve started. We’ve never missed a month – it’s really important to us.
What’s the most important thing business owners need to know about social media?
It’s engagement. Social media is a platform for entertainment first, and then communication. I think a lot of businesses tend to start a social media account, create a lot of content – put a lot of effort into that – but then forget to actually reply to their customers. People and customers are actually engaging with you, but if you don’t reply that makes no sense.
And then just being really authentic and sharing updates that a friend would care about, about your business. That’s when you build a really strong community online, and people will continue to engage with you because they’ve seen that you will reply. They know there is a real person who owns this business behind the account.
Whether they’re a silent viewer or a solid follower, that’s the stuff that keeps them coming back and helps them recommend you to a friend.
What’s the lesson that young people should take from the Bubble Tea Club story, whether they already have their own business or they want to start one soon?
I reckon it’s getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Recognise it’s actually fine, and then go ahead and find ways to grow yourself.
For us and for any business, when you’re doing something new, you’re going outside of your comfort zone. It makes so much sense that you’re always uncomfortable. If you get used to that, you can acknowledge what you don’t know and then find ways to resolve – practically finding the answers for things you’re unsure about.
The Instagram Academy entrepreneurship accelerator is open to Australian female business owners aged 25 and under. Applications are open until Friday, 1st October 2021 – visit the website to apply or for more details.
