Catering equipment for my food business

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Caroline. I am the last child in a family of 3. My elder sister is a housewife with no job, and my brother is a small holder charcoal dealer back in my village.

As of now, my highest academic qualification is a primary school certification: here is why. I was brought up in hardship. I was removed from school when I was 11 years old, in 2006, to go and serve as a househelp in Nairobi. After a year of service, my employer decided to enroll me back into school. Barely a year went by before my family insisted that I go on working or be returned home. I was promptly returned to the village. With no job prospects in the village, and facing a bleak future, I pleaded with my family to let me return to school and at least attain a primary school certification.

My request was reluctantly granted after 2 years. I enrolled back into primary school when I was 14, in 2009, in class 4 and I was far much older than the class. My peers at that age were enrolling in secondary school. I managed to study through and sat the national exams when I was nearly turning 19. I did not perform very well, but got a chance in a local secondary school in 2014.

I was determined to study. Unfortunately I could not. There was no money to finance my education. So I went back home, and my family already had suitors lined up to marry me. Without an education worth falling back on, and without other promising choices, I refused the marriage route and asked my cousin whether I could put up with her as I contemplated my next move. Thankfully, she agreed.

I moved in with her and her home has been my home since 2014. My cousin did not want me to stay idle so she promptly taught me a business, a catering affair! It is the best thing that has ever happened to me! My cousin advised me to take my time and lay some foundation for myself before I can decide to get married, have kids and start a family. So far, the foundation is laying up real fine. Whenever I take time off work, I visit the park and travel a bit.

My Business

I am a proficient cook, I have always been. My cousin, Sherry, told me about the demand for quality but affordable food at the office where she worked and told me that I was going to be the one to provide that food during their lunch breaks. I was mortified at first. I was scared how I would interact with the learned office people, but my cousin had my back.

I started preparing food and packing it in hotpots, then delivering and serving it to my cousin's colleagues at their workplace. The venture was good. I started off with expenses of about $20, mainly buying food, as I used the utensils available and cooking pots, and after the sales I had earned approximately $30. That was after serving only 10 people.

The food I supply is in demand because many working class people crave top-quality food, and they are willing to pay a premium to get it. Since I am a good cook, my cousin spotted the opportunity and directed me! From serving 10 people in one office, my clientele has grown to about 50 people spread across 4 offices.

With the increase in number came some exciting benefits. I was able to save on production costs but maximise on sales. I spend about $30 to produce the food I serve and earn about $65 in sales per day. I work for five days a week and that translates to about $325 in sales. After all costing is done, I remain with about $120 in profits per week!

I manage to save most of the profits since I plan on sitting the secondary school diploma certification as a private candidate soon. Although my plan is not to seek employment after that, it is just for giving me knowledge on new market trends and skills on how I can be a better person on future.

Loan Proposal

I intend to purchase a set of hot pots and food carrier bags, worth $250. With the increase in number of customers I serve, and I even anticipate a rise in number as I have pitched the idea to a newly set up office and so far the response is promisingly positive, I have trouble packaging the food for transportation. Since I cook in the house, and only deliver ready to eat food, hygiene and packaging space needs to be of top priority if I will have happy customers. The equipment I use currently is overwhelmed and I require an upgrade.

With the upgrade of the catering equipment, I will guarantee super clean and uncrushed food to my customers.

I expect to reduce my production costs from the current $50 to about $40 due to the expectation that the excess food prepared that was to cover wastages will no longer be there. Also, I expect to increase sales by having more food to sell, and probably raise prices slightly due to proper and neat presentation.

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