You might be overwhelmed with the type of business you should invest in with limited capital or during hard times and find them solve your financial problems.
Look at what the business partners had to say during an interview with JIL Africa
kindly walk us through your background. Basically, who you are and what you are doing currently, your age (if you don’t mind), the name of your business and your role in it?
I’m John Jim co founder of Caketime Limited and my partner is Ann Irungu. We are into the cake business and we bake cakes for all occasions. I’m the lead marketer and social media manager. My partner does the baking and customer service.
Where is your business located given that it has a physical location?
Currently we are at Zimmerman Canopy.
What motivated you to start your business and not any other venture?
My partner had just been retrenched from a well paying job. She vowed to start something of her own. To get capital she got a delivery job at a bakery and that’s where the idea came in.
Effortlessly, watched YouTube videos did cakes that burnt out until one day actually 5 months later she felt she could make it a business.
Along the value chain, what are some of the key challenges that your business is facing and how are you tackling them?
Our biggest challenge is to get the cake accessories,there are very few cake accessories;
- Shops- we try to order in advance
- Delivery service – sometimes we get clients all from different locations and organizing delivery is stressful
- Cakes are very delicate and should be handled with care
What’s your operational strategy. What’s the value process like from obtaining the supplies to delivery of the final products?
Honestly , baking business isn’t something that you need all the products on board.
When we started we used to bake cakes at home (like we still do), market them to our friends and thats how we started making money out of it.
We haven’t been able to get all the supplies we need on board, however,from the previous employment process we learnt where to source the supplies we needed.
What’s your expansion strategy, like what’s your plan on going big?
We are looking forward to have our own shop as we are operating from home at the moment.
To do more cakes especially wedding cakes.
To enroll more students for training.
Did you start your business with a Business Plan? How is it affecting your business operations?
To be honest we didn’t have any plan,just passion.
It’s now that we are coming up with the business plan.
How do you finance your business and which advice can you give to those wishing to join the entrepreneurship/investment train?
Cake business is an interesting venture and requires very less capital to start.
We have adapted organic growth method for expansion, basically the business finances itself.
My advice would be you can’t have everything figured out before starting, so start and keep learning. Also monitor every cash made.
Lastly it will take time before your business starts paying you off , either way don’t give up and maintain your focus.
Do you have a website and social media handles that consumers and other interested parties such as those wishing to enroll for your classes can reach you on? Could you also share sample pics of your business?
Kindly share the links if possible.
We are on facebook; CaketimelimitedÂ
Instagram: @cake_time_ltd
