Baking for a bright future

Having taken her baking skills to thrive in a home catering business, Talei Tueli had this advice to give to future entrepreneurs: “Identify your God-given talent, put it to good use and do not be afraid of utilising your skills.”

The mother of two has been running her business, Talei Catering, from her home at Beverly Hills, Votualevu for some time now.

The Kaba, Bau, Tailevu native learned her baking skills from her mother, who has been a certified caterer since 2015.

The 27-year-old started to show off her talent catering for family functions. This was the encouragement she needed to lead her to venture into the catering business. With the support of her family and friends, she set up her business in 2018.

During this time, a particular restaurant would place an order each morning for one of her chocolate cakes to be sold at $2 a piece. These cakes and pies would rake between $200 and $300 a week. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Tueli claims there was a tremendous increase in demand for her specially baked variety of doughnuts.

The varieties include toppings of chocolate glaze, passion fruit flavour, and pineapple and sugar coatings.

Currently, this product is so high in demand that she receives earnings of $300 per week, with customers ordering daily and picking the products from her home. This new demand still continues today.

Grant to help expand operations

Last month, the young mother received support from the Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports. She was one of four recipients of a Youth Grant that was presented by the Minister Parveen Bala.

She said the grant would help her be able to meet the current demands from her clients.

It would also ensure that she would be able to broaden her customer base.

“I know with these items, the dreams and goals of my small business will be achieved much easier in the near future,” she said.

She is also expecting her third child.