Credits

COVER STORY
Jules Quinn
Twenty-eight-year-old Jules Quinn
always knew she wanted to run her
own business. At 14, she was selling
bracelets to her friends in the school
yard. A few years later, she was
running a small outside catering company and then
organising under-18s club nights in Hexham.
The ambitious teen’s aim was to start a business as
soon as she finished her A levels, but Jules’s parents
insisted she go to university first.
“They said I needed to get a degree so that I
would have something to fall back on in case my
business didn’t work out,” Jules reveals. “I’m glad
they did as university is a great way to develop skills
and allow time to get a little older and wiser.”
Jules choose to study fashion marketing at
Northumbria University because of her love for
design and the business element of the course.
It while she was on a work placement seven years
ago - as part of that course - when the idea for The
TeaShed was born.
“The placement was at a fashion company in
London and it was really ‘sh*tty,” Jules recalls.
“All they made me do was make cups of tea for
everyone. I made so much that they ran out of
teabags so I was sent to Sainsbury’s to buy some
more.”
As the 21-year-old stood in the supermarket
aisle, she was stuck by the lack of choice when it
came to tea.
Jules returned to university and began developing
a tea business, which would offer something
different and unique to consumers.
“I wanted to focus on gifting as opposed to
everyday tea,” she explains. “I didn’t want the tea to
come in a standard box so one of the first products
I created was where the bags came in a paper cup so
you had something to drink out of, too. It just made
it a bit different.”
Jules admits that she relied on internet searches
for much of her business information in the early
days.
“Google was my mentor!” she exclaims. “I knew
very little about running a business. I didn’t know
what margins were or how to work them out, so I
spent a lot of time on the internet.
“There were lots of little challenges to overcome
along the way and some things haven’t gone the way
I wanted. But I wouldn’t change anything because
everything that has happened– good and bad - I’ve
learnt from.”
Working from home, Jules created an online
presence but knew getting her products into major
retailers would be key to appealing to a mass
audience.
It took her six months before The TeaShed
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