Taro Yuan has warmth and cold drinks, warming the heart and conveying happiness for four seasons

“Three in One” Comprehensive Dessert Shop

Eason Liu worked in the catering industry in high school and studied accounting in college. After graduation, he strived for a high salary, made everyone’s jaw drop, and entered the Douliu Industrial Zone.

He worked as a mobile phone panel engineer in a Japanese company and stayed on the job for eight years, becoming a person with an annual salary of one million.

However, his stable life awakened his sense of crisis: “For a young man under 30 years old, being at ease is never a good thing”, and he determined to use part-time jobs after work to start a business.

What kind of business could one start? His idea is very realistic, starting from his own daily needs. Going to the night market to set up a stall for selling clothes. The reason is that “if you couldn’t sell them, you can keep them for yourself.”

Later, he found that the business is greatly affected by the weather, and sales volume might change in seasons or rainy days. The performance was “failed”, and he quickly changed his strategy.

Due to his favorite of eating ice desserts and drinking tea, he opened an ice-dessert shop and beverage shop instead. Moreover, he had to eat breakfast daily and opened a breakfast shop.

Japanese company operated three shifts a day, and he was also busy purchasing and handling the matters of stores. The highest record was owning four stores simultaneously, so he could only sleep for 3 or 4 hours a day.

Many people think he “makes a lot of money” by opening so many stores, but the result is not. “The monthly income is only increasing from NT$20,000 to NT$30,000. After deducting the personnel costs of myself and my wife, taking care of the store, it loses money in business, but the practical experience and doing things myself in those years is invaluable.”

He observed the market trend and found that there are tea, ice, and hot drink shops on the market, but no “three-in-one” comprehensive dessert shop.

“Consumers’ preferences are changing at any time. When they want to drink hand-shaken drinks or eat ice desserts, could I satisfy both for them?”

In 2015, the breakfast shop was resolutely closed, and the original beverage shop and ice shop were merged into one. He was preparing to reopen with Taro Balls and Grass Jelly that he loved since childhood as the certain products.

He went to Jiufen in north county and learn the skills from the grandma, then used the 2 million loans from his hometown house for the Taro Yuan establishment in his native place of Dounan, Yunlin.

Taking “mutual benefit” as our business philosophy

This time of business is different from the past, burdened with loans and the expectations of the folks, the pressure of making profits was even greater.

He personally went to the place of origin to select the ingredients. The Taro Balls are made by betel nut heart taro in Dajia District and red beans are from Wandan Township which are excellent, and consumers will pay for it.

Unexpectedly, the market reaction was not as good as expected, and the turnover was poorly sometimes the turnover was only NT$500 a day, losing money for two consecutive years. “It’s too frustrating, but I have to hold it whatever. I don’t believe that no one knows what delicious food it is.”

He used the thinking spirit of an engineer to dismantle the problem step by step. “Iced ingredients attach great importance to the flavor, and the basic items such as boba, beans,  taro balls, and sweet potato balls would taste undercooked or too soft of overcooked that was mass up.

” To stabilize the quality, each item must be prepared. Setting the SOP for products and complying with the required weight of materials, water volume, and boiling time strictly so that the ice ingredients served on the table are delicious and chewy.

Seeing that the customers almost ordered taro, he had a great idea. The idea was to boil the taro to the mash taro that can be sucked by a straw, mixed with red beans, fresh milk, and boba, into a hand-shaken drink, an innovative way to eat. The market’s feedback was amazing; the taro products in the store were further subdivided into four types: Taro Balls, Mini Taro Balls, Taro, and Taro mash.

The sour and fragrant “Taro Smoothie with Mango, Sago” was audacious and made by Irwin type of mango and taro. Furthermore, drawing inspiration from the traditional peanut snack with vanilla ice cream and used taro mash to add fresh milk, peanut powder, and coriander to make the “Taro Coriander Fresh Milk Smoothie ” limited to the middle part of Taiwan.

Each product has its own unique eating method, taste, and frequency , attracting taro fans from all over Taiwan and becoming successful. In 2018, it expanded its channels rapidly, spreading from a single store to hundreds of franchise stores, and established a beautiful franchise system smoothly.

When Taro Yuan opened the store in 2015, someone asked to join him. At that time, he thought spreading many stores was the fastest way to gain popularity.

Without overthinking, he generously transferred all the accessible technology of know-how. It’s a blessing that there are no operational disputes!” When the franchise was officially opened in 2018, I knew that I could not be the luck of the draw, so I formulated the franchise rules and regulations personally.

From the franchise concept, qualifications, operation methods, system regulations, management rules, and recipe standard manuals one by one. Later, I also encountered the “Painful thing of headquarters. ” All franchise headquarters fear that franchise owners beat the gun of materials or reduce the ingredient added and made up their minds adding penalties to maintain the brand image that Taro Yuan has built up with incredible difficulty.

Eason Liu said the “common benefit” is Taro Yuan’s business concept. Employees have the dividend and allotment system, and franchise owners must undergo three performance evaluations before they franchise.

“A couple worked as bank managers and wanted to join. I repeatedly asked both not to resign and start a business at the same time, and it would be too risky.

” He emphasized that a franchise is to make money, and helping the franchise manager to make money is more important than yourself was also stressful. It could take its time.

Continuous innovation creates a snow-ball effect

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought momentous changes to the global industrial chain and consumer market. From the observation of the Japanese market, in terms of consumer psychology, the depressed mood of limited mobility during that time needed to be resolved urgently. Diet is a quick and straightforward recipe.

From the sales figures, consumers’ demand for desserts has dramatically increased. Eason Liu said that the number of Taro Yuan stores echoes this statement: there were 30 franchise stores in 2019, and by the end of September 2020, nearly 80 stores have been opened, and it is expected to reach 130 stores by the end of this year.

“Due to the epidemic situation, the plan of overseas franchise stores is temporarily stopped, but at this time, people would focus on the main consumption in our country, and it is also critical for us to manage the demand market in Taiwan.”

The ambition of the Taro Yuan spread franchise store could be seen from the Xinzhuang flagship store that opened in October: log building materials, hand-painted curtains, and large glass windows create a spacious and transparent sense of space. Located in the Xinzhuang area where historic retailers gathered, it is bright, eye-catching, and supply sockets and charging ports that consumers need, but most restaurants do not provide. Eason Liu smiled confidently: “Taro Yuan’s products are worth savoring thoroughly. You are welcome to sit in such a comfortable environment for a while.” Currently, he is researching and developing stuffing called “Taro with Savory Dumpling” and new iced drinks with strawberries and taro, which are expected to be all the rage in the upcoming winter and spring seasons.

The epidemic has disrupted the composition; however, Taro Yuan, which has gone through a challenging period of entrepreneurship, insists on maintaining its management: doing business must be steady, keep the brand flavor, and strive for innovation, research, and development. No matter how the situation changes, it could still occupy a market position.

《Eason Liu, founder and general manager of the Taro Yuan franchise business, has some words for entrepreneurs》

Don’t live to coziness, as you must know that ” No pain, no gain”, go out and venture out while you are young. Saying “Yes” in advance when you encounter anything, don’t say No quickly. Training yourself to be more powerful, work hard, and you will succeed.

From：Business Today

News Link：https://reurl.cc/Ok9ze9