How I Started My Food Business

From the beginning, doing business wasn’t my thing because I can’t just imagine myself doing business. Where would I start. What do I know about business. And besides, from the default knowledge I have about business, I know people who run business are strict people who don’t joke with their money or business and I know my nature is not like that. I can’t be strict on people or always being too formal or business-minded. I just knew in my mind that it wasn’t my thing. I believed if I started a business, I would give away my products or goods when people are in need and wouldn’t care about the money. I know I’m a generous and loving person who wouldn’t afford to lose care for people over business. 

All of these were my thoughts and mindsets, not until I had a great breakthrough with my ideologies. For the first time, I understood that business is not about my personality or nature, it is a principle. It has no respect for persons or place. Wherever you are, whoever you are, business is the same all over the world. And it also doesn’t matter who is doing it. If you know how to run a business, you can be successful at it, even more than the people who are teaching it. The principle of business first of all is the principle of give and take; the principle of transaction. If nothing is given, nothing is taken. They say nothing ventured, nothing gained. Baggage in, baggage out. When you put in something, you will get out something. 

The principle of transaction in business allows value to be traded or exchanged in the bid to make profit. The profit can be in different forms. It can be pecuniary; in terms of monetary gains and it can be intangible in terms of support, social value and human capital. But there’s always a final goal with every business. No business is established just for the sake of doing a business, but to engage in productive transactions. So, how exactly did I start my business? And how did I overcome those limiting beliefs? There was a day I woke up in the middle of the night and started meditating. I do this most of the time, even sometimes during the day when I need to fix some things. While I was meditating in the midnight, I asked a question within me that “What exactly can I do to make money?” 

That time was a difficult time for me because my mom was the only one sponsoring me and she also has my siblings to cater for. So, that time, things were difficult that she couldn’t send me any money and I was without food for many days. One of my friends who observed that I didn’t have money bought me some food items and asked me why I didn’t tell him what was going on. I always don’t like putting my own burden on other people and I believed that whoever would help would help without me asking for it. Though, this might not be applicable for everyone and not in all circumstances. But that time, that was my belief. So, I told him I wouldn’t want to bother him with what is going on with me. Though, I knew he wasn’t happy about it. I appreciate the love and support but I just prefer to be myself and learn whatever I’ve got to learn in that situation. 

So, while I was meditating and asking that question, an answer came almost immediately -“go start a food business”. I was like – how would I start? I know a lot of my friends have commended my food before and told me that I know how to cook, but I had always reject that in my mind – thinking it’s because they are my friends and the food that I cook should not be sold or no one would buy it. When there are people who are professionals at cooking, what am I doing there? All of these were self-limiting beliefs I had created in my mind to fight against that idea coupled with my wrong mindset about business. 

Eventually, I had to surmount courage to start anyhow. I started with beans. I knew there were many people who wanted to eat beans but couldn’t afford the stress of cooking it for long hours and have the exact taste they wanted. So, I got little money and went to go and buy pressure cooker which can make the cooking faster and easier. When I got the pressure cooker, I cooked my first beans. The beans burnt very well. I didn’t know the technique on how to use it. I washed the pot and cooked another beans the following day, the result was much better, I didn’t allow it to burn as was before. I made sure I lowered the heat well and allowed the pressure within the pot to cook the beans. This was how I started gradually and began to introduce the beans to people. 

I would prepare it and put it in small plates as samples that I would give people for testing. And a lot of people liked it. I was surprise at those comments because I would wonder what’s the big deal out of what I’ve done? There are even some of my buyers who have become so addicted to the beans that they can’t do without it in a week. So, gradually I was reaching out to more and more people and I also printed my business card which I was giving to everyone I saw. But after I gave out the sample of my food and my business card and a lot of people told me they liked the beans, something interesting happened that taught me a big lesson in my business. After I got all the nice comments and gave people my business card so that they can call me anytime they want food or even at least for my support on anything about food, I didn’t get any response. No one called me. I waited and waited. What’s going on? I asked myself. Was it that these people were just deceiving me when they told me the food was nice or they just wanted me to feel happy to appreciate my effort of trying to make a living or do a business? Different questions flooded my mind. I said –anyways, I’ve got to find out what is really happening. 

So, I decided to go out and meet a lot of them. Many of them were students and they live in the hostel. So, I went to one of the hostels where there were most of the students. When I got there, I started going from room to room and meeting with the students. I was shocked at the result that I got. I realized that many of these students had been waiting for me to bring food to them. I was like- but I gave them my contact, why didn’t they call me? If you understand human nature that people don’t remember you until you remember them and people won’t come to you if you don’t first go to them. 

Now, this happens in different ways, but the principle is the same. For you to be known in your business, you must first let people know you. You must bring yourself to the mind of people all the time. Let them have your image in their minds all the time, so that they would remember you more and contact you. But if you expect that they should remember after just one contact would mean close-to-zero probability. People know you after you’ve known them. And people value what you give to them after you have valued what they give to you. 

So, the action or process starts from you. If you don’t do anything, nothing remains undone. I learned this very well in my business and since that time, I had never wait on people anymore to do anything, I would just go ahead to meet them. Imagine how much opportunities we miss when we don’t reach out to people. When we expect them to come to us while they are there waiting for us. We need to be proactive and make the move towards everything that concerns our progress and success. This is one of the key principle in business that I learned in the early days of my business. I know there are still many more things to share, but this is just the idea/highlight of how I started my food business.

My First Cooking Experience

As far as I can remember, my mom used to cook for us, and I sometimes used to help her with few things in the kitchen. Later my sisters joined her in the cooking. But she’s the type that doesn’t force children to learn how to cook. Though it’s important but she just believed we would learn as she does most of the things for us and also invite us to the kitchen every time she’s cooking. I remember one of those days, she would tell us some nice stories and how she used to cook when she was young. She was the first born of her parents, so she learned most of the things when she was very young. She also told us how she used to go to their farm to fetch some fresh vegetables and prepare them for the family. These and many more were the interesting stories she told us then. We were always anticipating to hear some of those stories. And while in the kitchen, the aroma of the food that she’s preparing are also fizzling into our nostrils. So we can’t just but be with her in the kitchen and enjoy the nice stories she shares with us. It was always a good time in the kitchen. All along, I was passively learning how she does most of the cooking but wasn’t paying so much attention into it. This continued until the very first day I had to cook by myself. I was going to prepare rice and beans concoction because I love rice and beans when I was young. I still love it now but not as then. I could eat it every day all day. It was my number one favourite. And my mom knew this. So, anytime she really wants to please me, she would just prepare it or ask my sisters to do. They also liked it as well. So, on this faithful day when I needed to cook, many questions came to my mind including how I would not screw things up and waste the food I was going to prepare. This happened when I’ve already gained admission to a higher institution. I can’t remember anytime I did a complete cooking when I was still at home. I helped my mom with most of the things in the kitchen like manual grinding of pepper, cutting of onions, peppers and vegetables, and pounding of yam and other items, but not to do the whole cooking all by myself. So, I was always helping her with one or two things in the kitchen. While I was doing my first cooking, I was really anticipating how the result would be and gist my mom how my first cooking experience was. Eventually, I surmounted courage to start and put water inside the pot and put it on fire. When the water has come to boil, I put the beans I’ve washed inside it and I was trying to remember how my mom and sisters used to prepare it then. You know that moment when you have no clue what to do next but just trying to remember how things should be done, but you know you won’t get the result you want if you don’t follow the right order. I was there expecting good outcome from my first cooking. Some minutes after, I added parboiled rice that I had rinsed inside water. Then I mixed the rice with the beans that’s already partially cooked. I wouldn’t have time to prepare stew, and didn’t have enough ingredients, so I decided to do concoction where I would add everything together in one pot. I waited and allowed the mixture to boil. I was constantly checking to see if I would need to add more water and I did couple of times. I remember my mom used to allow the food to boil and allow enough heat to cook the food before she checked, so I did likewise. When I noticed that the rice and beans are about to be finally done, I added pepper and oil, with all the seasonings and salt to taste. Then I eventually closed it to allow final cooking. Lo and behold, my rice and beans is finally done. All the time I spent was approximately 55 minutes. I tasted it and loved it. I was like wow! I finally did it. Even though in my mind, it was as if I’ve cooked it before. But I know that it was the first time I was cooking all by myself without support from anyone. The fact that I thought I had cooked before in my mind was an evidence that all the cooking that I had seen my mom and sisters did had been registered in my mind subconsciously and I knew I could do it by myself also. There are many things like that that we thought we don’t know how to do or have not really learn how to do but in a way, by watching other people did it, the process has been registered in our minds and we could go to replicate that process. Our brain doesn’t deceive us on what we can do and what we cannot do. If we have seen something done over and over again, it would be registered in our mind and we would be able to replicate it. So, that was how my first cooking experience was and when I told my mom she was happy. Later on, she told me few things I need to work on next time to have a better result. I ate and enjoyed my rice and beans concoction that I cooked for the first time. 

Black Lives Matter

This recently became a “buzzword” after the incident of an African American, George Floyd who was killed by a White American Police. "Black lives matter" has been on for a while and other forms of movements against killing of innocent lives and racial discrimination. While these are rightful courses and should be addressed urgently, there’s something important we need to address here, and that is to understand the ideology or mindset that this movement is passing across. Yes, we may be fighting racial discrimination and social injustice, but are we sure that that phrase –"black lives matter" would not create a wrong ideology in people’s minds? Society has incorporated into our minds what we should believe and what we should not. Why should skin colour be a determinant of someone’s destiny when they would always think they are at the mercy of other person or would always need to fight for their right? Nobody chose their race or skin colour, so why should it be a disadvantage for anyone? We are all made good and perfect and there must not be any iota of regret by anyone. We all came here on earth found ourselves with different colours and diversity, which are all part of nature. Variety and diversity are all what we see in nature. Look at plants, animals (aquatic and terrestrial), stars and other creatures, you would see so much diversity. So, while these are normal events of life that other creatures appreciate, why should human beings be the ones fighting over their own diversity? We’ve got to realize what exactly is going wrong here. Colour or no colour, life is about purpose. So, for the fact that someone is black, white or whatever colour should not make them feel they are disadvantaged or at the mercy of life. “Black lives matter” is an agenda to bring more racial discrimination and agitation. People would no longer focus on their lives and purpose. All what they would be fighting now is racial discrimination. But you don’t want to be a victim of someone’s ideology. You don't want someone to tell you what to believe and what not to believe. You want to live your own life. Someone who is being given the impression that the people of other race or skin colour don’t like him would not think good of such people. That would create more hatred and hostility. We should be more friendly and loving than ever, because there are more things to do on earth and for ourselves. And we shouldn’t allow race, skin colour, culture, tradition, religion, gender or any factor of discrimination to separate or disunite us. My regards.