Starting a Small Business in the Second Half of Life

If you have visited my blog before you may have wondered where I’ve been the past three years. In summary, the second half of life began in a way I did NOT expect. I moved back into my rental house, renovated and remodeled to reflect MY colors and MY Style, (more on that later) and unexpectedly started an accidental business.

I Didn’t Set Out to Start a Small Business

In the fall of 2020, my home dynamics changed. I was single again in my mid-50s. But a simple quart of homemade Chai concentrate changed everything. Tea n’ More, a home small business was born.

Oh, a particularly bad day, I needed a hug in a mug. A friend sent me a gift certificate for a Dunkin Donuts Chai latte. I drove up to the drive-thru expecting a warm smooth chai, it was so bad I handed it back. Which I never do. But I still needed a hug-in-a-mug.

Make Homemade Chai = tea lattes for the win!

I went searching for a homemade chai tea recipe. Yeah, I know, Chai means “tea” so saying Chai tea is saying tea tea. I found a few chai recipes, tested them, did some modifications, and eventually came out with my own unique My Chai concentrate and the journey in starting a small business began.

If I had to Give Advice on Starting a Small Business

I’m not an expert in small business development, but I did learn a lot when I worked at Oxbow Animal Health during their start-up phase between 2008 and 2010. So I did learn a few things.

My advice on starting a small business are the following.

• Listen to your customers
• Find a product they need and want.
• Be prepared to shift directions
• Listen to your customers
  • Yes, I said it again, this is product research
• Don’t go into debt
• Be patient. Slow and steady wins the race.
• Research various suppliers to find the best price
• Don’t underprice your products
• Remember, listen to your customers
  • Again, a third time. This is market research.
• Ask questions, and LISTEN to your customers.

Listening to your customers is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give you when starting a small business. This is the number one business tip that helped me grow over the past three years. For example, my customers asked the following.

• Are you going to add iced teas during the spring and summer?
  • In my head I said to myself “I don’t like ice tea”. But I found myself saying, “SURE”
• Is there a Chai Kit I can buy to make your concentrate
  • You see for the first 6 months, I just sold the liquid concentrate locally
• Can you offer single bags for hot tea?
  • I had created some samples, but needed a better method of packaging.
• It would be nice to have sample packs. Is there any way you make them?
  • My single tea bag samples then served a double-function for customer samples and tea party
• Do you have a website? You know you need one right?
  • I reluctantly created a website https://www.chaiteaandmore.com/

How to Support Small Businesses

Supporting a small business is easy and it doesn’t have to be momentarily. You can visit their website

• Visit their website: gives link juice and Google authority and potentially more traffic
• Engage on all their social media platforms: It’s not as easy as when I first started in the 1990s
• Comment and Share Facebook Posts: it’s so hard to get views now
• Engage on Instagram Account: we all know algorithms are dependent on likes, comments and shares
• Leave a review on Google: Even better, post a photo! Again Google search authority
• Talk to your friends the old-fashioned way
• Encourage your friend with the small business: You have NO IDEA how much this means