Passion for cooking fans the flames for baking enterprise

What started out as a passion for cooking is gradually turning into a growing enterprise for Nancy Munene.

After she realised that cooking and baking could be a money-minting venture, Ms Munene founded Nadys Bakery in 2018.

“I am a lover of good nutritious food, and I am a self-taught baker,” says Ms Munene who is from Chuka town in Tharaka-Nithi County.

She bakes pastries such as cakes, cupcakes, maandazis, doughnuts, bread, and chapatis using flours from sorghum, beetroot, cassava, pumpkin, wheat, pearl and finger millet. She also sells the flour as part of her business.

She started baking in 2016, not as a business, but for family and friends. She turned her passion into business in 2018 when she set up Nadys Bakery.

The capital she started with was from the profit she had made from selling secondhand clothes in an open air market around Chuka University.

“Initially, I started with Sh5,000 that I spent on buying raw materials. I used the utensils I had at home,” says the baker, who also makes banana crisps, banana chevdas and banana chapatis.

The entrepreneur sharpened her baking skills when she attended training at ATC Kaguru, Meru County, through a project of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The skills she acquired, she says, have greatly boosted her trade.

“I get raw materials from a registered youth group called Jacbale Enterprises based in Tharaka-Nithi County,” she says.

“Others that I use to decorate and package the cakes are from Nairobi ,” Ms Munene reveals.

How does she market his products?

“I get clients through referrals, social media and word of mouth,” reveals Ms Munene, 29, who is a business administration graduate from Kenya Methodist University where he majored in entrepreneurship. She also studied marketing

She sells a kilo of banana cake for Sh1,000, beetroot cake Sh1,200 for the same amount, while banana chapati goes for Sh35 apiece.

She sells 100g banana crisps at Sh100, 50g banana chevda at Sh60, and 400g banana bread at Sh800.

She has no employees at the moment.

“Currently, I do all the work — from procurement, production and marketing. At times I hire a bodaboda guy for delivery purposes,” says Ms Munene, who uses courier services such as Wells Fargo, shuttle vehicle services and G4S for delivery.

Despite recording admirable success in the short time she has been in business, Ms Munene says she faces some challenges. Having continued cash flow, and reluctance by people to embrace indigenous flours are some of the challenges.

“Most people are reluctant to buy them (indigenous flours). They only trust the common available flours,” she says.

She advises those who would like to venture into a similar business or any other enterprise to conduct an in-depth market research.

Getting pricing right is also supremely important, she says.

“You should work on a good pricing strategy to avoid making losses,” she adds.

She plans to significantly increase production, and have several outlets for her goods.