We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carlo / Paola Salilican a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Carlo / Paola, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Unlike other bubble tea shops or cafes, we at Boss Tea hosts different events to include k-pop, anime and cosplay, car meets, and more. We don’t have the luxury of being in a centralized location anchored by a big chain retail or other businesses so we have to do more to market and bring customers in.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a first-generation American who migrated from the Philippines when I was 16. I started in the food sector working at McDonald’s while in high school and knew that this is a business I would love to pursue as a career. This was pushed to the side when I enlisted in the Air Force right after graduation in 2003. I have been active duty in the Air Force for over 19 years now starting as an Airman Basic and going all the way up to a Master Sergeant before commissioning as an officer in 2017. My spouse, Paola is a healthcare professional in the Physical Therapy industry and we have 3 kiddos.

Our goal was to pursue a food business after military retirement but that changed quickly when Boss Tea fell into our laps in November 2022. We didn’t have experience with bubble teas or cafes but we knew with my military experience, some MBA courses, and love for food and to serve, that we can make this work. My military career prepared us for this challenge and gave me tools/skills like strategic planning, decisiveness, taking care of mission and people, and organization that are really valuable as an entrepreneur and food-business owner.

It was definitely a struggle the first 1.5 months with a declining customer base, but with a ton of social media marketing and promotion, we saw that it was trending upwards. I had to learn quickly the operations of the business and the power of social media to be successful. Sales have been great and we have added ice cream to our menu. We are hoping to open a second location soon and hopefully, build on our success to serve delicious and refreshing bubble teas to more communities in the greater San Antonio area or beyond.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The biggest mistake small business owners are not utilizing is the power of social media. When I acquired Boss Tea, we only had a little over 1,000 Instagram Followers. The first week as owner, we started a promotion to follow and share our page and get discounts for the whole month. We also started posting 3-5 times a day and engaged with customers with polls and questions. We wanted to learn our customer base so we started a poll and asked our followers on what they want changed and what they want to see in the future. We learned that there is a big anime community in San Antonio and we started hosting anime events. The previous owners already hosted k-pop events but we knew we needed to do more to bring in new customers. We also partnered with a local car club and hosted “Cars & Boba San Antonio” which has been great.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We highlighted the power of social media but that is only the first step. Marketing will get new customers but the real challenge is how you can get them back. When we first started, we really didn’t have a standardized process on our products. It was a lot of trial and error but once we found the best recipes, we stuck with it, trained all our staff, and started serving the best bubble tea in town. This is how you build reputation. It doesn’t really matter how good our instagram posts are or how clean and cozy our shop is, building reputation in a bubble tea business is all about how great and delicious your drinks are. I owe this to our great staff who have embraced our new culture and have provided tealicious bubble tea drinks in addition to excellent customer service!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bosstea.satx
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosstea.satx/