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CATHY’S COOKING BUSINESS

PLAN
CATHY’S COOKING BUSINESS PLAN

BUSINESS PRESENTED TO DEPARTMENT AND SUPPLIES MANAGEMENT

CATHERINE ACHIENG 
DPS/204/2017

LECTURE DANIEL NYABARO

KIRIRI WOMEN UNIVERSITY

DATE

DECLARATION

I hereby verify that this business plan is my original document and it is derived from my own thoughts, study and
research and was not copied from any other source.

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this business plan to my lecture Mr. Daniel Nyabaro and my dad Mr. Paul Okotch the best
parent in the world and also my friends, who always believed in me and fully supported me with this project
from the beginning

Acknowledgement

I would like to give a vote of thanks to my lecture Mr. Daniel for the golden opportunity to undertake this
wonderful project which is to shed some more light on business plan that am undertaking. By doing so, I added
more knowledge that earlier on had no idea about. For this reason Iam so grateful for the experience. Last but
not least I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to Kiriri Women’s University which has offered the platform and
resources which has enabled me to do the research and gain more knowledge on the business field.

Table of content

1. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

1.1 Mission……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

1.2 Keys to Success………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

1.3 Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

2. Company Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

2.1 Company Ownership………………………………………………………………………………………10

3. Services……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10

4. Market Analysis Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………..11

4.1 Market Segmentation………………………………………………………………………………………………..12


4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy………………………………………………………………………………..13
4.3 Service business analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………..14

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns…………………………………………………………………………….15

Executive Summary

Cathy’s cooking is an exciting, new business with a unique approach to helping people enjoy home cooked
meals with their families. Customers will come to our Plano, kisumu location and prepare 12 meals that they pre-
select from a menu in a party atmosphere. In two hours, they will have a month’s worth of meals to put in their
freezer.

By focusing on our competitive edge (no direct competitors’ Kisumu area), our customers, and their needs,
Cathy’s cooking will increase sales to a point that exceeds ksh500,000 in three years.

Cathy’s cooking is owned by Catherine Achieng as the C.E.O. Due to the complexity of the industry; Catherine has
employed skilled labors who have a wide range of technical skills that help in making sure that the food being
produced attains the required standards. They know the kinds of food preparation available in Nyanza region
and its environs. Being the first born, Catherine, has experienced the frustration of trying to feed a whole family
healthy food both cheaply and quickly. She has existing contacts with local social and community groups, and
also ongoing relationships with food distributors, specialty grocers, and high-end clients will all help to generate
high sales from early in the first year.

Cathy’s cooking offers several advantages to its target market:

Relatively inexpensive meal preparation: ksh1400 for a four-person meal which translates to ksh350 per
person
Fun, social, party atmosphere.
Convenient: eat your prepared meals in your home, when you want.
Saves time: no shopping, no prep, no clean up.
For seniors, special menus and transportation assistance make meals easy.
And, best of all, not having to decide Cathy’s cooking

The purpose of this plan to lay the foundations of the company’s vision, philosophy, and strategy, to ensure that
we know where we are going and how to get there.

1.1 Mission

Cathy’s cooking is a specialized business that provides a variety of people with the opportunity to prepare health
conscious, yet savory meals that can be frozen to take home and eat at a later time.  The purpose of this process
is to both optimize the time investment needed to prepare the quality of meals that Cathy’s cooking will become
known for, within the clients’ current schedules, and also for them to practice the proper health conscious
behavior that has become the target lifestyle of a health deficient society.

Cathy’s cooking will provide a unique and distinctive service that will unite a party-like atmosphere with
professional food preparation that will attract a growing repeat customer base.  Cathy’s cooking will allow

families and busy professionals the ability to prepare a variety of meals quickly in a fun atmosphere, away from
home, thus giving people more of what they are looking for – time.

Our goal is to be a self-sustaining corporate enterprise within 3 years from the company’s inception to begin
expanding our menu offerings within 3 months and its location offerings within 4 years.  Cathy’s cooking will
employ more individuals full time within 3 years, and will hit net profit goals of ksh50,000 by the end of its
second year of existence.

In short, we will be in the business of helping our customers to relieve their daily stresses of what to fix their
families for dinner by providing them with a great menu choice of meals that they will prepare.

1.2 Keys to Success

The keys to success in this business are:

Creating a high level of customer satisfaction in our service and products, which will lead to customer
retention each month.
Marketing: getting our name out to the public, primarily through an intensive marketing campaign driven by
our customers (word of mouth) with a supplemental vehicle of standardized and conventional marketing
tactics.
Great product quality and variety that will be used to aid in customer retention and growth.
Finances: as our customer base increases we will be better able to lower our supply costs by buying more in
bulk through food service distributors.
Variety of menus offered based on seasons, trends and customer preferences.
Exceeding our customers’ expectations by offering them a higher quality of food for a competitive price.
Cathy’s cooking website will be an efficient and convenient place for customers to register and pay for parties.

1.3 Objectives

The objectives for Cathy’s cooking in the first three years of operation include:

To exceed customers’ expectations for food service and food service products.
To increase the number of clients served by 25% per year through superior service.
To develop a sustainable start-up business that is profitable.
To increase profit thereby increase the tax given to the county and national governments
To achieve a net income of more than 10% of sales by the third year

Company Summary

Cathy’s cooking is a unique business where customers come to our distribution depo in Kisumu and prepare
twelve pre-chosen meals that will be taken home and frozen until they are ready to cook and serve. All of the
planning, shopping, food preparation and containers are provided with no worries to the customer. The meals
will be prepared in a party like atmosphere where customers will have separate workstations to prepare their
meals and have a good time with friends, both new and old.

Our goal is to provide our customers with home cooked meals that their families will enjoy, while saving them

time and effort and relieve stress from that age-old question of Cathy’s cooking
The scheduling aspect of our company will be combination of a standard walk-up scheduling procedure, a
phone messaging service and an intensive highly-interactive e-commerce website that will allow the customer
to not only schedule parties but also to pay online, using standard secure technology and mobile payment
platforms.

2.1 Start-up Summary

The start-up expenses include:

Rent expenses include a deposit and rent for one month at ksh50,000 which includes other utilities expenses
for one month.
Insurance deposit and first month.
Sales & Marketing expenses including stationery, brochures, outdoor signage.
Website development.
Office, kitchen and janitorial supply expenses.
Leasehold improvements, including contractors’ fees and permits.

The required start-up assets of ksh300,000 include:

Kitchen Equipment (long-term assets)

Prep Tables (long-term assets)
Cooking utensils
Various Kitchen Utensils
Computer and small business software

Please note that the long-term assets above will be depreciated using approved straight-line depreciation
method.

2.2 COMPANY OWNERSHIP

Cathy’s cooking is a privately owned by Catherine Achieng. For this reason, she is able to make proper
accounting documentations which enable her to make proper tax fillings for both external and internal stake
holders. The principle owners of Cathy’s cooking is Catherine Achieng who owns 100% stake in the business. This
business operates under the jurisdiction of both county and central governments.

3. Services

Cathy’s cooking will provide its customers with twelve home cooked meals that they will freeze until customers
are ready to serve them. These meals will be chosen from a set menu designed weekly by us and the meals will
be prepared in our location. All of the planning, shopping, food preparation, recipe directions and containers will
be provided to help make it as easy as possible for our customers to enjoy their time at our establishment.

Our customers will prepare their meals in a fun, party-like atmosphere where they can relax, meet new friends or
spend time with old friends while preparing dinners for their families for the next month.

The Key benefits our customers will receive from using Cathy’s cooking are: 
 Spend less time in the kitchen
Less money on groceries & eating out – it keeps you from being tempted to eat out
Home style meals & better eating
Able to sit down at the table together as a family – including conversation and socialization
Clean up is easy, because prep is done outside the home, and all meals come in disposable containers
Less time spent on grocery shopping
In 2 hours you will have 12 dinners for you and your family
We create the menus – order the ingredients – slice, dice, chop and prepare
Social hour preparing dinners

Our menus and portion sizes are tailored for the group and individual customers. Seniors get added benefits,
with diabetic, low-cholesterol, and low-sodium choices. Families can increase portion sizes for a small fee to
accommodate more children or guests.

4. Market Analysis Summary

The Kisumu area’s meal preparation market is untapped. As a matter of fact, there is no other business of this
kind in the Nyanza area.  Though there are no exact replicas of our company there are some types of companies
that we would have to consider to be indirect competitors.  These include such companies and service
professionals as caterers and those that will come to your home and prepare meals for you to freeze.  Cathy’s
cooking at this time, has few direct competitors, with exception to area restaurants and your basic home cooking.
At the inception of Cathy’s cooking, there will be no type of company like ours in the area, thus giving us the
overwhelming competitive advantage of first entry.

Cathy’s cooking market is primarily in Nyanza and its surrounding counties. We will be focusing on households in
these areas that have more than one person. Primarily, the target population of this business is nuclear families
who have both parents working and in most cases do not have time to prepare decent meals. Initially, the greater
portion of our customers will be busy, working class people and the growing group of single-parent families, but
it will be of great benefit now and in the future to market our services to the highest growing population
demographic – senior citizens.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Cathy’s cooking has three distinct target populations:

Family households with children under the age of 18 years old. This group of people is generally busier than
other families with their time split between work, home and their children’s activities. This group may be single
parent households, which only adds to the stress resulting from lack of time, coupled with the need for proper
meals for their children.  This provides them with a desire to provide their families with good meals and free time
to enjoy being together.

Family households with no children living at their home. This group has a need for our services, as hectic
schedules, professional careers, and daily demands on time come up against the need for tasty, healthy meals. 
Depending on their work and home situations this demographic could use our service to enhance their selection

of meals all the while minimizing their time in the kitchen. This group does recognize the benefits of our service
and want to enjoy making meals for themselves and socializing through our business.

Senior and Elderly Citizens. This group (65 and older) is the fastest growing portion of the population, and needs
our services for several reasons:

A good portion of this group is simply unable to cook nutritious meals and does not have the knowledge or skills
to continue to effectively maneuver themselves in the kitchen.
Many seniors do not have the time, energy, or means to make it to the grocery store.

We will market several menus designed for the diet needs of the senior populace (diabetic, low cholesterol, low
sodium), with pick-up and drop-off coordinated with a local senior-transportation center. All prep and measuring
will be done beforehand, so they will need only to stir and combine ingredients. In addition to meeting their
practical needs, we will create the social experience that this group consistently hunts for, and help them to
enhance their lifestyle through a higher quality of health.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

These target market segments were chosen based on their greater need for our services. Families with children
are very busy, and they can end up spending a great deal on fast food and junk food because they don’t have
time to cook healthy meals at home. Busy working couples and individuals without children are also busy, and
may not have the skills or desire to plan and cook entire meals at home just for themselves; they can spend a lot
on going out to eat. Seniors have special challenges in obtaining and preparing quality ingredients to feed them,
including the loneliness of cooking for oneself. Options like “Meals on Wheels” are generally last-resorts, and
many would prefer alternate food preparation arrangements, if any were available at a reasonable price – fixed
incomes can be hard on the palate.

Our marketing strategies for all groups will emphasize our relatively inexpensive, fun, and easy approach to
preparing healthy meals. We will vary our serving sizes, menu options, and level of preparation for each group;
the family-size entree just right for a family of four makes no sense for a single individual. Different sized families
have different needs, and it will be our goal to look to accommodate most family sizes through our variations in
serving size.

The customers require as little as Ksh300 for a decent meal that has got a balanced diet. It may be hard for the
clients to offer out some cash for a service that it is not tested yet. It may be harder for the new clients to trust
Cathy’s cooking to offer the services and deliver as expected. This is why we are starting our marketing and sales
campaigns with established groups (church groups, cooking clubs, local senior center restaurant clubs), at a
price reduction. These consumers already have experience socializing with each other, and our service will be an
exciting change of pace in their calendars. We anticipate that these initial positive experiences will generate
significant word of mouth and produce referrals so we can say to potential customers, “don’t just take our word
for it – go ask people who’ve tried us!”

4.3 Service Business Analysis


Our service is unique among Nyanza meal preparation options. There are no direct competitors for Cathy’s
cooking. The closest competitors are personal chefs, who will come to your home and prepare your chosen
meals for you and freeze them, at a very high price. Our target market segments cannot afford personal chefs.

Our indirect competitors are area restaurants. These include family-oriented, inexpensive diners and casual
restaurants, as well as fast food and takeout. We will generally not be competing with upscale, adult-oriented
restaurants, since those are “special occasion” locations, and do not fulfill local residents’ daily meal needs.

Our competitor restaurants compete on price, perceived convenience, and atmosphere. They succeed when
they convince customers that going out to eat is an affordable “treat” that is easier and more pleasant than
preparing meals at home. In truth, the restaurants with the lowest prices also offer poor quality food and
atmosphere, and the struggle to get children ready, out the door, and have them behave in a restaurant setting
can make these choices less appealing in families’ realities than in their imagination. For all customers, the time it
takes to get ready, travel to a restaurant, order dinner, eat, pay, and get home make going out to a eat a full-
evening’s commitment – hardly the convenience it claims.

With the introduction of Cathy’s cooking to the Nyanza market, we will revolutionize the way that the community
looks at cooking convenience. Our prices really are much lower than restaurant meals, with much higher quality
meals. In addition, our “convenience” comes in two ways – preparing meals at a set time, outside the daily
routine, so they are ready in advance, and eating and minimal clean-up right in the customer’s own home, which
saves time and energy at the end of a long day.

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

Even though Cathy’s cooking has no direct competitors, the business is set as if we are entering an already
aggressive and hostile market. This is aimed at helping us to become successful through a constant drive for
increased service model efficiencies and marketing effectiveness. We will strive to excel in customer service
excellence, continuing our menu varieties and achieving the highest standards for our food products. The owner
feels that word of mouth and customer retention are significant factors in our success. Our convenient locations,
sanitary facilities, competitive pricing structure and honorable reputation will all play a part in satisfying our
customers and increasing our clientele at an accelerating rate. Cathy’s cooking will focus on these factors and
always strive to improve our business model and service offerings.  Cathy’s cooking will strive to be the very best
in our industry and will not rest until we not only have the largest market share in our industry, but also have the
most satisfied customers.

The buying patterns of our customer base will be affected by our initial meal prep party prices.  We have
concluded through our exhaustive focus market groups that we could set our prices high, since there is no direct
competitor, but we feel that to attract and retain customers and be able to steadily grow our customer base, so
we should price ourselves at a lower level first. By setting ourselves at the lower end of our pricing range, we will
not only gain the attention of the vast majority of our target markets, but we will also be able to start our revenue
streams off with an upward growth pattern. The price that we will choose will be reasonable for our customers
and be adequate for the business to maintain a gross margin around 25%.

References

 Scarborough, N. M. (2016). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Pearson.

Honig, B., & Karlsson, T. (2004). Institutional forces and the written business plan. Journal of Management, 30(1),
29-48.

Mason, C., & Stark, M. (2004). What do investors look for in a business plan? A comparison of the investment
criteria of bankers, venture capitalists and business angels. International small business journal, 22(3), 227-248.

Finch, B. (2013). How to write a business plan (Vol. 35). Kogan Page Publishers.

McKeever, M. (2016). How to write a business plan. Nolo.

McKeever, M. (2010). How to write a business plan. Nolo.

Matopoulos, A., Vlachopoulou, M., Manthou, V., & Manos, B. (2007). A conceptual framework for supply chain
collaboration: empirical evidence from the agri-food industry. Supply Chain Management: an international journal,
12(3), 177-186.

Mann, R., Adebanjo, O., & Kehoe, D. (1998). Best practices in the food and drinks industry. Benchmarking for Quality
Management & Technology, 5(3), 184-199.

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