High Time For Tea

For one college student, brewing up international flavor is in the bag

RIVERSIDE, CA. (Thursday, May 01, 2003) - EVERY DAY, EDWARD LIN, A STU-dent at the University of California, Riverside, heads to work at the Tapioca Express, a quick-service cafe specializing in boba tea drinks (colorful tea-based specialty drinks with tapioca balls in them) near campus. But Lin, 21, isn’t just your average college student looking for extra spending money-he runs the franchise owned by his family’s company, Taiwan-based Lin’s Enterprise Inc.

On the three days a week Lin has class, he’ll come in to the store in the morning to handle all the paper-work and accounting, then go off to his classes in the afternoon. But his day doesn’t end there; he returns to the store nearly every night to take care of closing.

While balancing a business and going to school has become second nature to Lin, he wasn’t completely confident in his managerial abilities when his Tapioca Express store opened last year. “I was afraid I was so young, no would listen to me,” he says. “But I’ve done everything I can do, and it’s working out just fine.”

Lin plans to graduate with a degree in management next year, and he hopes to open more Tapioca Express locations in Southern California. “I’ve accomplished one of my personal goals in life: working in management. That’s my [true] interest,” he says. In the meantime, adds Lin, he¡¦s “getting a lot of experience interacting with people and learning what customers want.”

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