Expand and Organize: My Mom’s Small Businesses
Goal: Helping my mom expand her arts and crafts business and organize her catering business
Results: Active way of selling her crafts from facebook market place and effeciently documenting orders for her catering business via excel.
Who was helped: My mom (Julie Naik) and her clients
During my service I learned that there are many ways to get a small business up and running. My moms passion for art and cooking has allowed me to help her kick-start her business. Prior to the proper use of technology, my mom was only able to sell her crafts to her friends who wanted to support her. She didn’t have many other clients and as a result I suggested that she should facebook marketplace to allow others to see her work and purchase goods. At first she was hesitant, but I helped her navigate her way through the platform and a few months later she had many other customers willing to purchase her crafts. She was even able to communicate with some to design custom made goods. My mom also loves to cater on the side. Her catering service operates from home and offers meals to families who do not have time to prepare a meal beacuse of work or other reasons. She first began with a few families but day after day the word spread and my started receiving more orders. She also started taking requests and adding new items to her menu for families to select from. My mom needed a way to handle the amount of orders she was receiving and keep track of the revenue she was generating. I showed her a simple way to use excel and keep track of the families who order from her, what they order, the price, and the total that each family would pay. At the end of the week she would calulate how much she made using simple excel formulas. My mom was really happy with this process and can now keep track of every order without any issues. My next step is helping my mom create an actual name for herself starting with a proper name for both her businesses and maybe even making business cards for her.