We recently connected with Laura Thompson and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

When I decided to leave a salaried job in the restaurant industry to open up a 300 square foot space of my own that was a huge risk. Honestly, if I hadn’t had a partner to provide for me during that time I wouldn’t have been able to do it. Not taking a paycheck for almost two years, some of that during pandemic times to add more stress, made me think I was crazy for deciding to go out on my own. However, being in corporate restaurants you get bought and sold, the quality goes down and you have no say. I was miserable. Now I cannot imagine working for anyone else ever again. It’s wonderful to build something and see it grow. It’s also nice to have control over ingredients, products, hiring practices, etc. We are now a team of 10 people, two brick and mortar locations and my husband is now full time in the business as well. At this point I think it’s safe to say the risk was worth taking.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Hi, Laura Thompson here, owner and co-founder of International Tea and Coffee Company in Nashville, TN and surrounding areas. I have been in the restaurant industry since the age of 15 and graduated with a hospitality management degree from Auburn University. When we first opened there was hardly any bubble tea or loose leaf tea in the Nashville area. We wanted to change that, but we also wanted the consumer to be able to make their own at home. Thus the concept was born. We have a very large selection of loose leaf tea, whole bean coffee, local honey and all the things to make tea and coffee too. Our beverage menu consists of anything on the wall or a preset menu item like milk teas, fresh teas, iced or hot coffees. We are an anti-powder boba shop, everything is fresh ingredients and tea. We do not use creamer powders and flavored syrups in our bubble tea drinks like a lot of other shops do. In our opinion that is a far superior product than just powder + ice equals drink. I love to introduce people to tea because in my opinion if you don’t like tea you just haven’t had the right one. We ship within the United States so if someone tries something while on vacation they can get it shipped to enjoy at home too. Our shops are small as far as square footage goes but I like to think the products are bold and help to get people out of their “box.” I’m all about trying new things and hope for others to do the same!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit we had just survived a tornado that hit literally down the street and we weren’t even a year into the business. To make it through we started offering local delivery, at first we serviced a 30 mile radius from our shop and only required a $25 order for free delivery. That fortunately kept us pretty busy during the main lockdown period. Since then we have reopened and moved into a bigger space but we still offer local delivery today, just with a smaller radius and a larger delivery minimum.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We started our business with 10k from a personal loan and 10k from my dad. That gave us initial inventory (less than half of what we have now) and we did all the construction of our initial space ourselves. Personal loans suck, it took a long time to pay off 10k with that interest rate. We also reinvested all profit back into the business for the first couple of years to grow. When we hit two years we opened a second location and moved the first location into a large store, all of that we were able to do with cash. Starting small can be good sometimes!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.intlteaandcoffeeco.com
• Instagram: @intlteaandcoffeeco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/teaandcoffeeaddiction

Image Credits
Zane Dumont