My name is Lawrence, and I am the owner and chef behind Rafal Dishes. My background is
in Community Development from Maasai Mara University, where I learned the value of
serving and understanding the needs of a local community—a skill that has proven essential in
my current business.
My journey as an entrepreneur has involved learning from several experiences. While in
university, I first explored business by operating a mutumba (second-hand clothes) business.
After graduating, I pursued farming, but both ventures struggled and ultimately failed due to a
lack of necessary resources and sufficient working capital.
Later, I invested in the Milk and Water ATM business. This taught me a great deal about
operations, but I faced significant challenges with management of employees, poor sales
tracking, and difficulties in monitoring profits, which led to its failure.
Finding the Right Recipe for Success
These past experiences were not failures; they were crucial lessons. They taught me the
importance of controlling overhead, maintaining quality, and building a direct connection with the
customer. This knowledge led me to start Rafal Dishes, my current home-based kitchen.
I cook fresh, high-quality meals and deliver them to customers, primarily managed through a
dedicated WhatsApp client group. This model allows me to:
● Maintain low overhead by operating from home.
● Ensure quality by cooking all meals myself.
● Manage cash flow directly and efficiently.
Today, Rafal Dishes has a loyal and consistent pool of customers. I know the demand is
strong, and the business model is working. The only limit to my growth is the ability to scale
production to meet the demand from my current clients.
My goal now is to apply the lessons learned—especially around capital management and
efficient operations—to grow Rafal Dishes into a more formal and professional enterprise. The
loan I am applying for will be the key to making this jump, allowing me to invest in the resources
I need to serve my existing customers better and confidently expand my reach.
Rafal Dishes is a nimble, home-based food delivery service founded and operated by Lawrence,
serving customers in the Pipeline area. We specialize in preparing and delivering fresh, hot,
and affordable lunch meals that focus on popular, hearty local dishes.
Our menu features staples like beef pilau with kachumbari, ugali and omena mixed with
sukuma, ugali nyama, and mokimo beef spiced with cabbage with ugali and kienyeji. We
operate a highly efficient, made-to-order system: the menu for the following day is posted to our
dedicated WhatsApp group, and customers must place their orders before 11:00 AM. This
focused approach ensures zero waste, maximum efficiency, and the freshest possible product,
as we only purchase and prepare food for confirmed orders.
Currently operating for three months, Rafal Dishes has already built a solid customer base.
Many of these clients were originally gained from Lawrence's previous Milk and Water ATM
business, demonstrating a strong ability to maintain and transition a local customer network. On
an average day, we prepare and deliver approximately 15 plates, generating a daily profit of
between Ksh 500 and Ksh 1,100, depending on the meal's cost and complexity. This
successful, low-overhead model proves the business is highly viable and ready for strategic
growth.
This loan is strategically allocated to address the two most critical bottlenecks in Rafal Dishes' operation: delivery quality and peak capacity.
The KES 12,000 will be used for the immediate purchase of the following assets:
Professional Insulated Delivery Backpack (Est. KES 6,500):
Goal: Eliminate the primary customer complaint regarding cold food deliveries, especially for walking deliveries.
ROI: Guaranteed hot food leads directly to improved customer satisfaction, protecting brand reputation, and increasing repeat business, securing our revenue base.
One High-Capacity Stainless Steel Cooking Pot/Sufuria (Est. KES 5,500):
Goal: Increase the batch size of our most popular dish (Pilau/Ugali).
ROI: This single asset immediately boosts kitchen capacity and efficiency during the lunch rush, allowing us to process and fulfill 40% more orders in the same time frame, which increases daily sales volume.