We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Makini Jovaun. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Makini below.
Makini, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I was first bit by the entrepreneurship bug at the age of 10. I would take $1 from my allowance and purchase 100 pieces of candy from the penny candy store each weekend, and sell them to the kids at school for $.10 each. The fire this put in my belly was something I had never felt before. As a student at a Catholic School, this was not allowed so my mother was called in by the head nun for a conference. When my mother learned about my candy business, she was impressed!
I received my BS in Biomedical Science with the idea of medical school in my future but my passion for entrepreneurship led me to pursue my MBA first. It was at this point that I decided entrepreneurship was my ultimate goal. I started my first small business as a consultant during this time, working with a private physician practice and a few financial companies. I learned quickly that there was so much more for me to learn, so I took a corporate position as a Business Development Manager with the largest publicly traded recruiting company in the country. The knowledge I gained was invaluable. Acting as a sponge, I absorbed a wealth of knowledge to carry with me to my own company, from recruiting skills, office management skills, forecasting/budgeting, sales/business development, marketing, etc. After 13 years in corporate, I decided I had gained enough knowledge to move forward with my dream of entrepreneurship. The first adventure was a vegan café in Las Vegas which closed after the pandemic. Then I launched Harvest Divine Elegance (HDE) in 2020. Thsi is a corporate catering company located in Las Vegas, NV focused on using the freshest, locally and ethically sourced ingredients to create food for the soul. This has been an amazing journey, and I am looking forward to the future of this company.
I come from a family of small business owners so it was always in my spirit to do so. It was just a matter of finding my voice and being patient enough to take the steps needed to get to this point.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a chef/business owner of Harvest Divine Elegance (HDE) catering in Las Vegas, NV. My passion for good quality and tasteful food lead me to this journey. We have a team of talented chefs from different backgrounds which allows our company to provide dishes for all dietary requests. Clients are often stressed when planning an event, whether it’s a wedding, birthday party, corporate picnic, etc. We elevate the stress of planning the menu for the event and allow your clients to focus on enjoying the event. My team handles everything from menu planning, catering equipment rentals, serving staff, bartenders etc.
I am most proud of my staff and the quality of service we provide. Our clients can rest assured that the food will taste amazing and the service of the staff will be professional. Our name says it all, from quality sourced ingredients used to prepare our dishes to the elegance of our presentation, your guests will be talking out your events for years to come.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I was the co-owner of a vegan restaurant that was doing well prior to the pandemic. Most restaurants were forced to close during the pandemic but we refused to close when because we felt that was the time the community needed us the most. Instead, we rented a food truck and traveled to our clients to serve them top-quality plant-based food and fresh juices. We also shifted and started a meal prep business, which allowed our clients to purchase full meals each week to enjoy in the comfort of their homes. All meals were prepared in our commercial kitchen and delivered to clients each week.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I ahve 2 business partners, Ashleigh Kendall and Luis Jara. I met both of them when I had my vegan restaurant. Ashleigh was recruited from Houston, TX to be a sous chef for the vegan restaurant. Luis worked as the executive chef for another company in the commercial kitchen. I admired the work ethic of each of them and felt like if given an opportunity to learn the management side of the food industry, they would soar. In my decision to start a catering company, I felt they would be great partners to share in this adventure. Our passion for creativity and community involvement was aligned, and this has been a great experience so far!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.harvestelegance.com
- Instagram: harvest_events
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/havestdivineelegance/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=true&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Aorganization%3A95756943&keywords=harvest%20divine%20elegance&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=6ed51ac6-8bbd-4d39-b923-49927f27f07f&sid=sL3&spellCorrectionEnabled=false
Image Credits
I, Makini Jovaun , have all rights to the photos provided