About the Entrepreneur

Senchu Chemjong is the founder and owner of Nepcha, a brand-new tea company sourcing specialty tea from Nepali farmers’ cooperatives. Nepcha’s name represents its vision to unite the diverse cultures of Hong Kong and Nepal through tea, with “NEP” referencing Nepal and “CHA” referencing tea in Cantonese. As an impact start-up, Nepcha is committed to contributing a portion of its proceeds to supporting community projects in Nepal and Hong Kong while providing its customers with a unique tea experience that is both organic and sustainable. 

The FSI team met Senchu at the Networking Event for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs on 9  March 2024 for the first time, when she had just started furbishing her first and new tea shop in Yau Ma Tei and was getting ready to open the doors to her shop. Being a solopreneur who has never run a physical tea shop before, Senchu was eager to connect with peer entrepreneurs and access available resources to kickstart her business.

Challenges Faced by the Entrepreneur

• Lack of Knowledge of the Market and Pricing of the Product

  • As this was Senchu’s first time running a tea business serving a clientele of the general public in Hong Kong, she lacked knowledge of product pricing and the current market price for tea products. While hesitant about pricing her products too high as she wanted to make sure her brand was affordable, she also had to consider a cost range that would pay her Nepalese suppliers a fair fee and enable her to run her business in a financially sound manner. 

• Lack of Business Structure

  • Senchu had not yet started operating her business, and she did not feel completely ready to do so as she was unsure about how to keep track of the sales revenue and operational expenses in the absence of a bookkeeping system.

• Little to No Established Digital Presence

  • Senchu had a social media account ready for Nepcha, but she had not yet built a website. Without a presence on Google, her business remained largely invisible to her potential new customers. 

Direct Business Support Provided by FSI and CBI Intern 

Together with Emily Tze Shin Lee, FSI’s Community Business Intern, the FSI team has provided more than 20 hours of direct business support to Senchu throughout March and April 2024. Following an in-depth consultation with Senchu to set the priorities of tasks, the FSI team was able to help Senchu achieve the following:

• Market Research and Competitor Analysis to Identify Price Range

  • Conducted an extensive market research and competitor analysis on comparable tea shops in Hong Kong and especially around Nepcha’s neighborhood in the Yau Tsim Mong district to arrive at the suggested retail price for Senchu’s products.

• Setting Up a Bookkeeping Structure

  • Created an Excel sheet that Senchu has since adopted to keep track of all the costs incurred and sales generated, which also facilitates the calculation of monthly and annual profit analysis for future reporting and tax purposes.

• Buliding a Digital Presence

  • Listed Nepcha on FSI’s GuideFong website so that basic information about the business, including its description, contact information, opening hours, address and more is now visible to a broader local audience via GuideFong, which garners 9,400 unique visits from the general public in Hong Kong, in addition to reaching 1,735 accounts on GuideFong’s Instagram.

  • Assisted Senchu in creating a Google Suite account to create a business profile for Nepcha, so that Nepcha is now searchable on Google Maps.

  • Created and published a reel to introduce and promote Nepcha’s website and its products on GuideFong’s Instagram.

  • Created a library of media assets with photographs of the shop, brewed tea, products, and Senchu herself, to be used for marketing and promotion purposes.

From the Entrepreneur

“FSI’s support and genuine interest in kickstarting my small business has been amazing! Firstly, their website offers amazing resources to newly starting entrepreneurs; the team will ensure that you know your way around them. And more importantly, the interns are amazing individuals who are responsible, perform due diligence, and engage with me for my business needs. In my case, Emily has been amazing: very friendly, enthusiastic, and efficient. Despite having her own tight schedule she managed to finish her task as a researcher and even helped me create bookkeeping tabs according to my business’ needs. Her market research about pricing has played a major role in helping me decide the prices of my products. Amazing initiative by FSI, doing good for people!” – Senchu Chemjong

From the Youth

“My journey of assisting Senchu in her business venture in Hong Kong has been a tremendous learning experience. I’ve gained valuable insights into the intricacies and excitement involved in starting up a business, which has inspired me to create a startup myself, too. This experience has also exposed me to the challenges that arise for the ethnically diverse communities to set up a new business in Hong Kong. Despite my hectic schedule in school, the satisfaction I gained from knowing that my contributions have made a positive impact on someone’s business and life, putting a smile on their face and alleviating their stress and worries, surpasses any satisfaction I’ve previously experienced solely through academic pursuits in school. 

I would recommend this internship experience to other youths because the community at FSI is so supportive and I enjoyed working and communicating with everyone there. What made it even more rewarding was the realization that my time and efforts were worthwhile. Knowing that my work and dedication had a tangible impact on Senchu and Nepcha was incredibly fulfilling, especially when I had the chance to visit her new shop and see her products come to life – it really touched me. Despite only being with FSI for a few weeks, I am grateful for being able to work with them as they provided me with an opportunity to refine and develop essential soft skills that will prove invaluable in my prospective career whilst making an impact in the ethnic minority community in Hong Kong, making it a truly enriching and meaningful experience.” – Emily Tze Shen Lee

This blog post was drafted by Emily Tze Shen Lee who participated in Community Business Internship Program at the Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) during the spring of 2024. The Community Business Internship Program to support ethnically diverse youths in Hong Kong was supported by Linklaters Asia.