We recently connected with ShaQuanta McCleary and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, ShaQuanta thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I like to eat so I had to learn to cook at an early age. I love cooking for others so I would join community bake sales and volunteer to cook for church groups. One day I was laying in the bed and just started creating menus and envisioning me with my own business or small cafe so I just said “Ok, I want to start my own business”. At that moment I started my plan on how I would set up my business. My grandmother had passed a few years prior and I learned a lot of my cooking experience, skills and recipes from her so it only felt right to incorporate her in the name of the company. After reaching out to my mother and her siblings to ask their blessing and approval on naming the catering company after her it was time to get started with executing everything. We went with Rosie’s Recipes and Catering by ShaQuanta to pay homage to my grandmother, since her name was Rosie. Within three months we had put together a “pitch party” where I invited a few family and friends where I bounced logos, ideas and recipes off of them receiving valuable feedback to continue on my journey of becoming an official caterer. After that party we had our certificates, logo and first job in the next two months and we have not stop rolling since. As the cafe is no longer a goal for me I have definitely been researching and doing some ground work on going the food truck route. So look for us soon to be wandering the streets in our new food truck.

ShaQuanta, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well I’m a natural foodie and have always loved to cook for myself and others. Just to enjoy the smiles and expressions on someone’s face after taking the first bite of your food is everything. Since I come from a family with a substantial cooking background I would always play around with creating menus and visualize me having a small cafe, which was my original plan and goal. I then start thinking of catering only so I can have more control of my schedule. Our company can accommodate many cuisines and desserts but we specialize in southern and soul food. That’s what I grew up on so I’m very comfortable there but not afraid to try something new and always willing to oblige my customers taste buds. We pride ourselves in visions. Our customer’s vision is our vision that starts out with a customized menu whether it is provided by the customer, myself or us collaborating on a menu. Although, we are a small team our food speaks measures with a big taste and have been enjoyed for years. We have many repeat customers that recommend us often and praise our professionalism and food. We have provided service to multiple customers serving 200 plus guest at a time. We are now a mobile caterer with no store front but we are actively working on expanding to the food truck market to gain more notoriety.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Lately we have gained new clientele by adding a social media presence. Once we started sharing promotions, pictures of our dishes and testimonials a different following started to flow in. Now the pop up shops are the new found trend and we have been joining that market more often to be noticed by all types of clients as well. We’ve been trying to join at least one a month to expand our reputation in the catering market. Since we are a mobile caterer and will travel which made more sense to explore the food truck side of the market. That venture is up and coming and will be finalized soon. Once we launch the grand opening of the food truck we will invite all previous clients and customers to join us in an elaborate customer appreciation day introducing the new addition of our food truck.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We are constantly trying to grow our social media presence. It started out very slow because I hadn’t personally been on social media in over five years so I had no idea how things had changed and what I was doing. Once I got a couple of crash courses on how things now worked we started sharing and posting. The process has to be trusted and much patience is needed to get started and stay on the positive side. We are in the middle of working on a new marketing strategy to revamp ourselves and become more appealing in the media world. So my advice is to jump in and don’t stop. Do whatever you need to do to make your world accommodate the media world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rosiesrecipesandcatering.weebly.com
• Facebook: rosiesrecipesandcateringbyshaquanta
• Other: Email: [email protected]