Discover the inspiring journey of Zorodzai Letwin Chingorivo, a 28-year-old entrepreneur who transformed her hobby of baking into a successful catering business. Explore how she leverages technology through online tutorials and classes, shares insights on financial discipline for women entrepreneurs, and overcomes challenges in the competitive industry. Gain valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and learn about Zorodzai's vision for the future.
Zorodzai Letwin Chingorivo is a 28-year-old woman who turned a common business idea into an outstanding venture through innovation and exploitation of technology. She founded a catering business in 2017 focusing on cakes and snacks. To expand her horizon, she went further to offer online tutorials to people in different parts of the world.
Zorodzai is an accountant by profession; initially, catering was a hobby and meant to serve her family. Initially she enrolled for a baking lesson so she could prepare a birthday cake for her husband in 2016. That single lesson equipped her with basic cake-baking knowledge which enabled her to practice making more cakes. She went on to do a lesson on two-tier cakes for her daughter’s birthday, which was a success. Her drive for further knowledge saw her spending time on research and online tutorials. The young lady experimented by baking different types of cakes making use of online tutorials. The more she baked, the more she realised that this was her passion and an innate talent that had potential to turn into a thriving business venture.
It is the touch and the texture of my products that make all the difference
After setting her mind to establish her business, she registered a company and named her catering venture The Standard Shop. Taking advantage of social media platforms, she began advertising her products and in no time was getting customers. The impeccable service she offered to clients grew her clientele base as they referred more customers to her. Despite the catering business being highly competitive, Zorodzai believes that it is the quality of her products that enables her to stand out from the competition. “It is the touch and the texture of my products that make all the difference. Some cakes may look pleasant on the outside but are poorly done on the inside,” she said.
The uptake of online classes was boosted in 2020 due to Covid-19 related lockdown
In 2019 Zorodzai identified an opportunity to impart her skills to other people and she started baking classes. Previously she had shared her ideas and skills for free but she realised that there was a high demand for the service thus she turned it to another income generating stream. The response was impressive and she realised that there were other people in different parts of the country and even beyond the borders who needed to learn thus she started online classes. The uptake of online classes was boosted in 2020 due to Covid-19 related lockdown where most people found themselves with a lot of time on their hands and in need of new skills. Her online classes make use of her written recipes, tried and tested videos, audio recordings and video calls on different communication platforms including Skype, Zoom and Whatsapp.
Zorodzai pointed out the importance of financial discipline for women running businesses especially from home. She revealed that most women owned ventures suffer where business working capital ends up being used to cover household needs and expenses. “I always buy requisite ingredients first when I receive payments from customers. At times I make use of a piggy bank to force myself to be disciplined because as women our needs are plenty,” she stated.
In the competitive industry that she is operating in, Zorodzai makes use of various marketing techniques to ensure that her business keeps on growing. At times she runs promotions where she makes cakes at discounted prices to increase demand of her products and also make her products more affordable to a wider market. The major challenge she has had to deal with is the high competition in the business. Zorodzai attests however that running her own business has made her more flexible. It has enabled her to spend more time with her family than if she were formally employed elsewhere. In the next 5 years she believes she would have started a formal school of cooking and baking and would have moved to being a supplier of baking ingredients.
Success lies in endurance
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is for them to fall in love completely with their businesses and commit to them. She also adds the importance of sticking to one idea and not quitting early on when the going gets tough because success lies in endurance. Zorodzai is inspired by Talent Munhuwekare and Geemax in the cake making industry. She also gets inspiration on platforms such as Youtube and Pinterest for latest cake designs. Her gratitude is extended to her husband Bothwell Chingorivo for the support he gives her in pushing the business forward.
