When COVID-19 brought life to a standstill, Palesa Eleanor Moanakwena found herself with time on her hands, a kitchen and a skill she had nurtured since school.
She had a bag of flour. The 25-year-old Mochudi native had been baking long before the pandemic. In Form 3, she made muffins for school and became the unofficial class baker after winning over her classmates.
Lockdown turned that passion into a business. Moanakwena tried making scones and posted them on Facebook. Soon, people in her area were asking to buy them and requesting deliveries.
With the help of a friend who had a movement permit, she began delivering scones across Kgatleng to families unable to leave their homes.
The Baker’s Corner was born. Her entrepreneurial instincts were shaped by her mother, who built a poultry business from a small family operation into a commercial enterprise supplying chicken and pork.
At 19 or 20, Moanakwena baked through the night, prepared orders, then woke early to deliver scones to women around the bus rank who helped her sell them. After work, she collected the day’s returns and prepared the next batch.
Winter made the routine harder, but she persisted. “I looked at a bag of flour and saw a solution,” she says.
As the business grew, her training in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics became an advantage.
When scone sales declined, she returned to the numbers. She built dashboards to identify her target market and used Excel to track costs against returns. The analysis led to the introduction of muffins and cakes. “BIDA proved to be essential when I needed to create business plans and predict trends,” she says.
Running a home based bakery comes with limitations. Large orders are difficult without specialised equipment, while production must be scheduled around the household kitchen.
Unable to secure a permanent position in her field, Moanakwena turned to freelancing as a Business Intelligence specialist and data analyst, allowing her to sustain the bakery.
The business has earned customer loyalty. Former classmates and family members still return for large wedding and funeral orders.
Her ambitions now stretch beyond the home kitchen. She envisions coffee shops, library bakeries and pop up stores across Botswana and eventually beyond.
Moanakwena dreams about creating opportunities for others. She believes entrepreneurship should not be limited by background.
She had a bag of flour. The 25-year-old Mochudi native had been baking long before the pandemic. In Form 3, she made muffins for school and became the unofficial class baker after winning over her classmates.
Lockdown turned that passion into a business. Moanakwena tried making scones and posted them on Facebook. Soon, people in her area were asking to buy them and requesting deliveries.
With the help of a friend who had a movement permit, she began delivering scones across Kgatleng to families unable to leave their homes.
The Baker’s Corner was born. Her entrepreneurial instincts were shaped by her mother, who built a poultry business from a small family operation into a commercial enterprise supplying chicken and pork.
At 19 or 20, Moanakwena baked through the night, prepared orders, then woke early to deliver scones to women around the bus rank who helped her sell them. After work, she collected the day’s returns and prepared the next batch.
Winter made the routine harder, but she persisted. “I looked at a bag of flour and saw a solution,” she says.
As the business grew, her training in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics became an advantage.
When scone sales declined, she returned to the numbers. She built dashboards to identify her target market and used Excel to track costs against returns. The analysis led to the introduction of muffins and cakes. “BIDA proved to be essential when I needed to create business plans and predict trends,” she says.
Running a home based bakery comes with limitations. Large orders are difficult without specialised equipment, while production must be scheduled around the household kitchen.
Unable to secure a permanent position in her field, Moanakwena turned to freelancing as a Business Intelligence specialist and data analyst, allowing her to sustain the bakery.
The business has earned customer loyalty. Former classmates and family members still return for large wedding and funeral orders.
Her ambitions now stretch beyond the home kitchen. She envisions coffee shops, library bakeries and pop up stores across Botswana and eventually beyond.
Moanakwena dreams about creating opportunities for others. She believes entrepreneurship should not be limited by background.
