Beta Test Week 3
Welcome back to my series following the process it takes to host my business, the Super Mini K-pop Shop’s, first event! The details are falling into place, but before I get into that, here’s a look at my agenda for this past week:
The most important and time sensitive item on this list was to secure a deal with a bubble tea shop that would be the location for my pop-up. Luckily, all it took for that to happen was messaging the shop over Instagram and we instantly had an agreement! Ding Tea of Greenville has collaborated with other K-pop organizations before, so the owner’s familiarity with my business concept was extremely helpful. We worked out a date and time for my event, which will be Saturday, December 23, from 12 pm to 5 pm.
Ding Tea even offered to let me pick out a few drinks from their menu to give K-pop-themed names and add to an exclusive menu for the event. The speciality boba drinks are customary when it comes to K-pop events at tea shops because the K-pop shops usually make cupsleeves to give out as freebies in exchange for customers buying a drink from the exclusive menu. Since I’ve never made cupsleeves or named drinks before, I asked MyLinh, the owner of Ding Tea, if we could meet in person to discuss these things.
So, at the end of that week, I ended up meeting her at MP Tea in Clemson, which is the other bubble tea shop that MyLinh owns. It was a perfect coincidence since I live in Clemson, and she was having her soft launch for her shop on that day. She told me how the other K-pop events at Ding Tea have gone about setting up, decorating, and making cupsleeves for the drinks. I thanked her for the information, and she said that I could have complete creative freedom over this event. MyLinh was so kind and helpful. Shout out to her!
After our meeting, I felt like I had enough details worked out to start advertising my event on social media. I created a simple Instagram post on Canva and began sharing it with all my friends and followers!
As you can see at the bottom of the Instagram graphic, there is another K-pop shop joining me at this event. The Real K-pop Shop makes 3-D printed K-pop decorations and earrings! She accepted my last minute invitation to become the other vendor for my event, since MyLinh told me her shop could fit multiple pop-up booths. I’m so thrilled to work with another K-pop fan/small business owner!
In my next blog, I’ll talk about the busy weekend coming up, as I’m planning to attend a Winter K-pop market in Greenville. I’m a bit nervous since technically all the shops at the market are my competitors, but I’d rather establish friendships with them by showing my support from the get-go. When I’m finished at the event, I’ll then be attending Seventeen’s showing of their Japanese concert at a movie theater in Greenville. On a personal level, I’ll be watching it because I’m a fan of this K-pop group. On a business level, though, it counts as research, since I’ll get an idea of the size of Seventeen’s fandom in my area.
Stay tuned to read about how my weekend plays out, and how I’ll be gathering materials for my pop-up, as well as establishing prices for my products. Thank you for reading this week’s blog!
-Noah
