Just what I am talking about at the World Tea Expo New Business Boot Camp?

People always laugh when I try to describe my contribution to the World Tea Expo's New Business Boot Camp. Technology and Tea - could we have selected a set of more diametrically opposite topics?!!

As I mention in my introductory remarks, my background is in biotechnology and I used to live in Silicon Valley. Technology is in my blood, whether I like it or not. Actually, I'm very adamant about using only what you need.

For a retail tea shop or online tea business, this might mean one or more of the following:

• Point of Sale system (a computer) or basic cash register (dedicated cash register)
• Accounting system
• E-commerce domain, hosting, and cart
• Merchant account
• Electronic postage
• Digital camera and photo editing software
• Gift and loyalty cards
• Security cameras and digital recording systems
• Wireless hotspot
• Social networking strategy
• Data security plan
• Scorecards

Mostly, we look for ways to optimize and automate what we do. This means finding ways to simply management tasks so you can focus on what's really important in your business.

The above lists are just some of the tools we've implemented. The end result is we know what we've done, what we're doing, and where we're going. I remember one of my old employers had a high paid consulting team come in and tell us the core of what they try to discover is simply "what's working" and "what's not working".