MEET: Lark business mentee ‘True Blends Tea and Coffee’ CEO Joyce Yu
Lark launched its New Normal Business Council and Mentorship Program with a webinar series called Lark Your Way to Success in an effort to provide support for Filipino entrepreneurs. The program targets to provide business owners with the vital know-how to success in the new work landscape.
The webinar series, which happened in November and early December, featured industry experts and key opinion leaders through talks on how to adapt to the new ways of work, evolve for the future, and innovate with technology.
As the webinars ended, Lark announced the CEOs and businesses who have been selected as mentees for the New Normal Business Council and Mentorship Program. These mentees are Joyce Yu, CEO of True Blends Tea & Coffee, and Mark Joseph David, CEO of Pal Maritime Corporation.
Rewards
Private coaching sessions with Lark’s resource speakers, training sessions with the Lark team, as well as an additional 100GB Lark cloud storage for one year and PHP300,000 worth of PR support are awarded to both mentees Joyce and Mark.
Qualifications
To be eligible for the mentorship, the business’ CEO should have attended all three tracks of the series. The company’s operation must also be a minimum of one year with at least 10 employees. The CEO’s answer to the question “Why should you and your company be the beneficiary of the mentorship program?” also went under evaluation during the shortlisting.
Meet business mentee Joyce Yu, CEO of True Blends Tea and Coffee
From being a simple cafe cart in the Ateneo de Manila High School cafeteria, Joyce has pushed True Blends Tea and Coffee into becoming a multi-branch coffee shop. The brand now has stores in key cities across the country.
True Blends is now a top of mind destination in its category. A registered medical technologist, Joyce shares that she relied on her favorite mocha frappuccino to keep her awake during her board exam review. It was this experience that inspired her to put up a coffee shop of her own. She and her husband started True Blends in 2009 by using their wedding angpao and with just coffee on the menu.
While the couple pegged the year 2020 for aggressive expansion of True Blends, plans had to be put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joyce saw the need to adjust and look for opportunities in the midst of the crisis. She allowed her team (whom she credits for her 11 years of success) to open their own satellite branches of True Blends in their communities.
Given the new normal, Joyce is excited to use Lark as an all-in-one solution for her business. A self-confessed non-techie, Joyce is looking forward to learn more about the system. A Lark feature that she appreciates right now is the cloud storage which can conveniently hold all their franchise-related documents in one place. Their team’s virtual collaboration can improve as well by onboarding all of True Blends’ franchisees into the app,
During the awarding, Joyce was able to share this piece of advice with aspiring business owners. “Dream big and start small. Use your skills and resources. Plan, focus, start doing it, and most importantly, pray, ask for guidance all the time.“
To fellow business leaders, Joyce added, “This may be a very difficult time for all of us, but it is a time to pivot, find more opportunities, not just to earn but also to help each other as a nation.“
WATCH the clip:
Visit www.larksuite.com to learn more about the other features of Lark.
The app is available on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android. Click here to start using Lark today.
