Florence Vincent

Meet Florence

Florence is a 45 years old married woman with 3 children. She speaks of her passion for cooking and decided to venture into the business of catering using her passion for cooking and also skills she learnt at the catering school to start a business for herself. Florence has been a caterer for 17 years and has not for one day regretted being into that line of business.

During the S.I.M.B.I program training she was engaged as one of the vendors to supply the snacks for two of the training sessions and great reviews were given on her snacks. Florence has a constructed space out of which she does her food selling business and reports that her located at Alapere is strategic enough to bring her good sales.

Venturing into food business for her was spotting an opportunity and also a way to increase her income stream. She surmised that her location is quite prime, and while this is advantageous to her night business it is not very much so for her day business.

What did she learn at the S.I.M.B.I training sessions?

  1. 1. How money works
  2. 2. Budgeting
  3. 3. Separating operating and personal costs
  4. 4. Understanding the difference between profits and income made
  5. 5. Partnering for collaboration to increase revenue
  6. 6. Creating multiple income streams
  7. 7. Selling techniques and grooming personal self
  8. 8. Why insurance is important and its role in protecting small businesses
  9. 9. Health and how it affects her ability to earn and sustain her business.

Impact of the Seed Grant

The Seed Grant came at a time that I was hoping to expand my 2nd line of business which is the making of ‘’eggrolls’. I wanted to be able to do more without necessarily taking from my capital in the food business. As a result of the Grant, I am able to buy a larger quantity of ingredients needed for the Snacks and increase the number of rolls I make available for sale per day.

Right now, she stores her drinks in a third-party fridge where she sometimes has to pay a stipend for that service. This also limits her ability to make more sales as she sometimes only buys already cooled drinks, this means she is also at the mercy of her seller. The fourth portion of her funds went into a regular savings to be able to purchase more items for her night business.

With what I have learnt from the training, I keep a detailed record of my expenses and income from both businesses separate and I am able to track my income and profit.