We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Rochester . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.
Michelle , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
MNR Catering is a team of 10. We did not start off that way. MNR Catering was a one person job. When Covid happened everything changed. The world was on lockdown and no events were happening which meant no work. Once the city started to re-open, pop-up shops became popular. Every weekend I was a vendor selling food. This got my business more attraction and I couldn’t do it alone. My mom and my grandmother would come to the pop ups with me until they couldn’t manage it. My best friend was pregnant at the time and I was complaining to her, letting her know that I need more help and my mom and grandma can no longer manage. She said why didn’t I ask her for help and I said because your pregnant. She said it doesn’t matter, we’re best friends I have your back. So for three months she helped me until she gave birth. After she had the baby she helped me for three more months. Then she start going back to church so I was back to square one. That’s when I decided to put an ad out on Indeed to hire people. I hired my first employee back in June of this year. It was the two of us for quite some time. We started getting busier and we couldn’t manage it. I remember it like it was yesterday we were in Milton, Ontario for a booking and we worked 11 hours straight. We were exhausted, we could barely walk. That’s when I said no I need to hire at least 3 more people. So I hired more people and we just started growing and growing until now we are a solid team of 10.
Michelle , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Michelle Rochester. I am Canadian-Jamaican. I started cooking at a young age and shortly after fell in love with cooking. The key ingredient in MNR Catering recipes is love. What first got me to start my business was losing my grandfather back in 2018. I took a leap of faith with encouragement and push from one of my family members. My grandfather always used to tell me I needed to start putting myself first and should focus on myself. I took my grandfather’s advice, and I started my own catering company on January 5, 2019. My son Stretchy motivates me every single day to keep pushing. Without my son, I don’t believe I’d be an entrepreneur. I’ve learned some valuable lessons being a parent, which I use in my business. Life growing up for me wasn’t easy at all. I do not want my son to experience certain situations I faced. My son always hypes me up when I have my bookings; he’s truly a blessing. He is my little helper at MNR Catering. And being a parent has been the key factor in motivating me with my business. We are a catering company that specializes in Authentic Caribbean & International dishes. Experience the taste of the Caribbean with us, and you’ll taste the quality in every bite. We offer buffet stations, brunches, appetizer stations, dessert stations, and drink stations. Our clients are individuals who are interested in taking the additional stress away from planning events. We are a full-service catering company. Not only do we cook the food, but we also come on-site and set up with table linen, table decor to match your theme, warmers and heat lamps to keep your food nice and hot, catering utensils, servers, and food styling, and tear down. We are determined to not only fill our customers’ bellies but to put a smile on their faces with our excellent presentation and our delicious homemade authentic Jamaican flavours. Our goal is to have our clients 100% satisfied by the end of the booking. Our clients are the ones that are not afraid to pay for convenience and luxurious services because they understand the value we offer. It takes a team of professionals to create a memorable event with tasty foods.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
MNR Catering first started off as a hobby. Then it became my side hustle and now it’s my full-time career. My business scaled up to where it is now because of Covid. When Covid happened I had to switch everything up. No one was having events because the city was on lock down. My clients all insisted that I sell single dinners. During Covid that’s what I did, I started to offer personal meals. Once we came off of lock down I started doing pop up shops. I started off with wire warmers. January 2022 I said since I’m doing pop up shops every weekend and I always have to be buying warmers why don’t I just invest and buy the good solid aluminum warmers. I had $500 and I bought a few warmers. Once the public seen me with good warmers I started get more inquiries. Then I had to invest and buy more warmers because I didn’t have enough. My business scaled up 100% when I invested and turned into a full service luxury catering company. My key milestone was my first wedding I did a full service catering for. It was my biggest booking at the time and I gave it my all. After that booking we were booked every weekend and we just kept growing ever since. Investment was the key to my growth and success.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
When I first started MNR Catering 3.5 years ago I had to think of unique ways to advertise my business and grow my audience. I had a giveaway for black history month. I kid you not, that first giveaway I had I gained over 300 followers. My advice to anyone who wants to grow their social media presence is to have giveaways, offer free advice, use high quality photos and videos, use hashtags that relate to your business, post consistently and stay professional.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mnrcatering.ca
- Instagram: @mnrcatering