Hannah is a great cook with a big heart who has always dreamed of running her own restaurant.  Before her mentoring Hannah was catering for her friends’ weddings, birthdays and community meetings, and all her work came by word of mouth.  However, this often left her out of pocket as she tended to accept the first price her customers offered, paid for the ingredients out of her own purse, and didn’t take into account the gas, electricity, equipment and her own time when pricing her service.

Hannah was paired up with Christiana, who runs a successful restaurant, which she set up from scratch.  Christiana came to the UK 10 years ago, went to a catering college and got a certificate in food hygiene.  She raised the initial money needed to rent and set up a restaurant from family and friends, and her hard work has created a successful business, catering to her community, at fair prices which yields a decent profit.

Hannah and Christiana met at the restaurant on two afternoons each week, so that Hannah could learn how to run a restaurant.  Christiana helped Hannah to develop a more business-like approach to her catering work, which included developing a business plan, getting business cards and attending a food hygiene course.  Eventually, Hannah decided to offer a complete wedding package for her community.  As well as the food, this includes venue hire, decorations, live entertainment, staffing, and the bride’s hair and make-up.  This is a great success.  Hannah still has a long-term plan of opening a restaurant and is saving hard for this.