Starting a business can be rewarding, exciting and at the same time, challenging. Because of this, many people pass on the chance to be their own boss, for many reasons, the most common being fear of failure — it is a big risk — sometimes it will work, and sometimes it will not. And the looming fear that their business will fail is exactly why they opt otherwise. 

It is harder now, given the pandemic and all the turmoil it has caused all over the world. However, 23-year-old Kevine Nyampinga, still a university student, decided to take a risk, and started a catering business called ‘Nyampinga Cooks’. Granted she has faced many challenges since starting out, but she is not ready to give up because she has always wanted to be her own boss. 

How she started

Nyampinga started out working in restaurant as a cook, with almost no confidence to ever get her own thing started. 

"I always wanted to go into business, but I had low self-esteem, thinking that no one would ever be interested in what I cooked. So I decided to look for a job with the purpose of learning and testing myself. I got a job as a cook in a restaurant where I made pastries and some other types of food,” she says.

While working at the restaurant, Nyampinga noticed that people liked her food, and they would often come back for more, which gave her confidence that she could actually start her own business. After about a year, she quit her job.

 Some of food and pastries she prepares. Photos/Courtesy

"After quitting I decided, in the meantime, to look for an internship in what I am currently studying as I thought of what to do,” Nyampinga shares.

During her internship period, things were getting hard, due to spending a lot of money on transport. So she started making pastries and snacks for the people she worked with.

"I decided to start making and selling pastries and snacks for my colleagues because we had no restaurant. I thought it was a great idea because I would be making things easier for them and I would also benefit from the money I earned. People loved the pastries and snacks, and so from there, I decided to take the business further,” Nyampinga says.

"I quit my internship a month before its completion, a friend who owns a printer printed my menu and I posted it, but I wasn’t excited about this because I feared to fail. To my surprise and shock, people were eager to try out my food. I was so happy about the orders I was getting from people,” she happily says.

She acquired more cooking skills from online tutorials, training sessions that she attended, and practice at home.

This year, her business kicked off, albeit still in its infant stages, she makes her own pastries and other types of food, and works with taxi-motos for delivery.

Nyampinga says that the support from her parents is still wobbly. "You know, sometimes while starting a business, many people tend to think that you are going to fail, so because of previous failed attempts, my parents have not given me their full support. They want to see where I am heading with my business, but they did give me a cooker and a place to work. I buy everything else I need,” she says.

Nyampinga decided to start her own business because she liked the idea of working on her own terms.

"I like doing my own thing and inventing new things, and you can’t do this while working for someone else, because your ideas are limited. I get tired of doing the same thing over and over, that is why I found joy in self-employment, like when I get ideas or watch videos I am free to try out and see the result,” she says.

Challenges 

Being a young woman in business, Nyampinga faces many challenges, like people thinking she will fail or won’t be able to manage a business for long.

"While starting of course I got negative feedback, people complained that the deliveries took too long because I was not used to this, but as time went by, I learned and I have improved. It is also hard to run a business with people around who think I will not make it because I am still young, but I will prove everyone wrong,” she says.

She is motivated by the fact that for the few months she has been operating, people continue to make orders.

Even with challenges, she is happy with the way things are going, and believes that what keeps one going is determination and passion for something.

You can reach Kevine Nyampinga on 0783895902 or 0788886958