Graduate chooses catering business

After completing her Networking and Infrastructure Management Degree, the youthful and creative, Lapologang Semong decided to use her cooking talent to earn a living and create employment for other youth. Semong told the Business Trends that she registered her company, Purple Petals Investments in 2016 after operating as a street vendor for one month. She runs a Gabane based catering business, which supplies to corporates, social events, individuals and weddings. “After graduating and realizing that it was difficult to get a job I started cooking and selling food as a street vendor. Most people liked my food because I am talented then they began to recommend me to cater for their events and I realized that I could operate a formal catering business,” said Semong. She offers various menus including breakfast, lunch and dinner.She said starting up was not a big challenge as she only had to buy some catering equipments using her personal funds. “I never looked for funding anywhere because I wanted to test the market before I could approach any financial institution.”She said there is a lot of potential in the market and she wants to expand the business and increase her supplies capacity. She has catered for national events including the State of the Nation address on which she supplied breakfast and other large government and private institutions. “I have now penetrated the market and I want to increase my supply capacity. I have supplied to about 200 people and I want to grow from that but this needs more hands on and equipment,” she said. Currently she is working with a team of four people.