Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nakia Haughton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Nakia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?
When I first started out both of my catering businesses in 2019, I was a one woman army. Cleaning up, taking orders, delivery driver, social media marketing and everything else. My business has grown overnight, and being a new mom back then I managed but it was so physically exhausting. I love to see families all pitching in to help m, when someone in the family is trying to create something to past down for generations to come. A person like that holds the key to breaking those generational curses. Unfortunately for myself I wanted that too. More than half of my family lives back in Louisiana. I tried to pitch a few times to them how moving here would be great not only for the business, but for them as well. Offered to pay them so it wasn’t as if they would be working for free. But no one wanted to Why is that? Why wouldn’t you want to quit your 9-5 grind ,to have more of a flexible lifestyle, more income, and something worth lasting worth years to come? I have to remind myself my vision is not there’s. I see myself owning a food truck or a restaurant and maybe they just don’t see it on me. Or maybe they are just comfortable where they are, I’ve always had a compulsive desire for excitement and adventure. A risk taker, I take chances not knowing if the risk is even worth chancing. But least I can go on to live and tell myself, hey you tried it you did it , did it work. And if not my life goes on without any regrets or arcing guessing on myself. At times and a lot of the times I honestly lose my itch for being a business owner. Not because my skills or wearing off, or any of those things. Simply because life itself gets hard. I’ve tried hiring a few people to help me out and it never works. As mentioned earlier not too many people can see YOUR vision. So until I can find the right people and a god balance, I’ll continue to be a one woman show. I’m blessed to have gotten this far.
Nakia, 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?
Born and raised in Louisiana small town girl. I have never had a passion or thought about cooking anything until I got in my senior year of high school. There was a class called Prostart. ProStart is a two-year, industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students. So I’m this class we weren’t baking monkey bread or east baby recipes. We were really in the kitchen. And that’s where my love for cooking grew. .Fast forward to 2019, I had my first child and the stay at home mom life started to become really boring. So one day in my kitchen I told myself that maybe I should try posting pictures of my good to Facebook . And with me still being new to the area I didn’t know anyone. So I joined a ton of Facebook groups as well. Target audience was reached and that was a wrap. A business discipline that I try and tell myself is “that I’d you can give someone’s company 8 hours a day why can’t you do that for your own? Being a 9-5er and a business owner I have to give myself my business that same energy. Even if it’s me up scrolling online looking at new recipes.. Type of services I offer include in home private catering, meal preps, I do a lot of at home cooking videos for the everyday person looking for a quick meal, and sometimes I have weekend plate sells. The biggest problem I solve is everyone’s favorite debate ? What’s for dinner, what can we eat, what do you have a taste for. You can view my social media pages and find cooking videos with step by step directions. Or I can come into your home and create a good dinner or brunch. Giving restaurant vibes in the comfort of your home. All meals are prepared fresh in home from scratch. Some of the top ingredients, from local grocers and sometimes if I have to I’ll even order product from Louisiana. To ensure all of my Texas residents that every bite is truly an authentic bite of Louisiana.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Having a Louisiana phone number along with a accent. Just being myself 100 percent no matter who it is I’m around. Like the famous saying goes it’s cheaper to be yourself. Once people heard the way I talk it was like yeah I can tell you can cook
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth and social media marketing on all platforms. People love to see actual live reviews. And to consider myself a small business without a brick and mortar when people traveling from out of town to the San Antonio area they reach out to me. And it makes me feel so good inside that you are considering me to be cater your next meal. Hashtag everything
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