While trying to find a place that have High quality pre-cooked meals I came across Maria, and was instantly hooked by her wonderful ability to cook.
Maria would you tell me a little bit how you started your company?
Sure, everything started when I was laid off from my former job, I needed some type of income, and unemployment alone did not help much, since English is not my first language I needed to do something that did not required to be very proficient in English, so I started cooking for friends and people I knew, I guess the word spread out and more people found out about my services and all started then.
Could you give me some examples to illustrate the challenge you faced in starting your company?
One of the biggest challenges was the language, not being able to speak English made things hard, also spreading the word around, since I did not have any capital for advertisement I was very dependent on word of mouth, and the high quality of my food, that way if my customers tried my food the first time they where hooked and came up for more.
How do you resolve problems when they arise?
Most of the problems I face are with communication, for that I ask one of my employees to help me translate, also everyone wants to be in this type of business so is extremely competitive, I have to depend heavily on the good quality of my product.
How have the experiences that you have had during your entire career influence the way you run your business?
Well, most of my life I have worked for someone else, and I never though of cooking for customers, I have always astride for high quality in everything I do, I guess I am a bit of perfectionist and I have been carried best practices through everything I do.
How do you motivate and reward your employees?
Well, the best way to reward people is with money, I don’t have many employees, but the ones I have I like to keep them happy so they do not leave me. I give them gift cards, they can take dinners for their families, I try to be fair with salaries, and I think I have happy employees.
How do you select people to join your company?
I like to work with happy people, and honest, usually I select people I know and are highly referred by friends and family, my husband help me tremendously and I also have my daughters helping me whenever they can, since they are my family is easier for me to let them know when something is not right, also, I know they have very high standard because I though them those standards since they were small.
How do you keep up with best practices in your company?
Working with food is a delicate business, I have to make sure that everyone wears the appropriate attire for the kitchen and cleanliness is the most important thing.
How did you first enter your line of work?
It was out of need, I did not a job and needed more money so I did what I know how to do best, which is cook.
What advice would you give to someone who was considering entering your line of work?
This type of work is very hard and very competitive, my advice to young people is to stay in school and get a career.
Ms. Clavijo mentions word-of-mouth, which seems to be a recurring theme in the story of many small business owners. Starting small and providing a quality product are two keys to her success, as they are for many entrepreneurs. The growing pains come in with the double-edged sword of a tight business loan market happening at the very time a business is attracting new customers, making it difficult to expand when you need to.