The Lovely Ladies of Healing House Teas!

Hi Everyone! I was able to track down the ladies of Healing House Teas in Calgary for you this week.

So, how long have you owned Healing House Tea?
We just had our official launch date on May 4th, 2014.

That recently? Wow, Congratulations! I wish you luck! What was your inspiration for starting a business in Tea?
We’ve been long time friends (since grade 8) and we’ve pursued several dreams together including going to college and university together, travelling together, and now building a business together. We both have an entrepreneurial spirit and we want to work for ourselves. We just had to find something we would be passionate about. We LOVE tea and we love providing a product that not only tastes good but is good for you. We focus on the healing aspects and ingredients in tea and we make it a priority to choose teas with only the best healing ingredients. Another huge aspect of Healing House Tea is our Cup for Cup program, it’s so important to us to give back and this program is a great first step.

What was your ultimate goal when you started and has that goal changed?
We want to make a difference in the world. Our goal of opening this business is to keep people healthy and keep tea the way it should be – whole ingredients, all natural and free of any preservatives and artificial additives. When we first started Healing House our vision was small – we wanted to serve high quality tea and deliver to people’s homes. In the process of creating our product it has blossomed way beyond our dreams and expectations. We are now carried in high quality retail shops, organic vendors (GEO) and in restaurants. Our goals have evolved to meet the market, we stay true to our original vision but we are ensuring we are expanding and being flexible to all opportunities.

What experience did you have before starting Healing House Tea?
We both have a background in business. Angela has a Masters in International relations and Arla has an MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship. We’ve both travelled extensively and through our travels have come to know that tea is a huge way of life in many countries. In many eastern countries, tea is known for its healing properties. We are passionate about tea, the countries it is grown in and the people who work so hard to get this tea out into the world.

Did anyone discourage you from this?
No one came straight out to tell us not to do this but we definitely encountered skeptics. Many people don’t understand why we would spend our hard earned money in starting a business that may or may not be successful. When you step out and do something ‘out of the norm’ there will always be people who don’t understand or think that you should be doing something else. However, with every little bit of skepticism that we’ve encountered we have had a lot more support from our family & friends.

Has it been harder than you thought it would be?
Without a doubt it is more difficult than we thought. When we first thought of this idea we had no idea how much time, effort, and money would be going into our business. Every day we run into something new – a new challenge or a new idea. I think when opening your own business you have to remain flexible and be able to roll-with-the-punches so to speak.
But you would do it all again?
YES!!!! It’s been difficult and stressful at times but every second has been worth it and there is nothing like seeing your idea become reality.

What would you do differently?
We’ve made a few mistakes, which have been great to learn from, but some of our mistakes have been our best ideas. For example, we ordered around 700 tins to package our tea in that were the wrong size of tin. We thought the tins would be about 5 times bigger (we somehow majorly messed up the measurements) but we made labels for those tins anyways and they have been one of our best selling products. They’ve turned out to be great for sampling our teas. So, long story short we have made mistakes, like every new business has, but instead of dwelling on them we learn from them, so back to the original question; would we have done anything differently? Probably not.

What advice would you give another person who wants to set up their own business?
Do something you’re positively passionate about. One of our favorite quotes is from Steve Jobs, “your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

And if you have an idea, execute it, so many people have amazing ideas but if you never execute those ideas someone else will, take initiative!

What inspired you to start the Cup for Cup program?
We wanted to incorporate a way to give back to the countries that we get our tea from. After travelling to these countries it became very obvious that fresh water is a luxury and many communities don’t have access to fresh water. We donate a portion of the proceeds of each sale to provide wells in areas that don’t have fresh drinking water these countries include India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China and Africa.

How has the Cup for Cup program impacted your suppliers so far?
Because we have only been open one month, the impact would not have been noticed or felt yet. Our plan is to every year in December build a well in a different country where our tea comes from. This December will be our first well. In the coming year, we will be adding a map to our website so our tea customers can see exactly where the wells have been built and keep track of how many wells their purchases have helped to build.