Out of work and desperate to make a little extra money to fund her festive holidays, Katlego Magogwe decided to heat things up in the kitchen.
Realising most of her friends, like many Batswana, loved spicy food and would lavishly pile hot sauce onto their meals, the 28-year-old Moshupa native figured she would tap into this and appeal to their taste buds.
Backed by a love for experimenting with different ingredients, in December, Magogwe started producing and selling her own homemade chilli sauce.
Although it’s still very early days – she is yet to even give her business a name – the AAT Botho University graduate believes she is onto a winner; festive has come and gone but Magogwe’s chilli is here to stay!
“I am a creative person when it comes to food and the Internet of course made things easy for me. Although I know my way around food, I never thought one day I will be making chilli sauce from scratch and selling it. Unique quality flavor, natural ingredients, clean products and of course the taste is just awesome and that makes the product stand out,” she tells Voice Money with a proud smile this week.
As well as her wide circle of friends, the young woman is also targeting small businesses such as local butcheries and catering companies.
At the moment she produces one flavour, Peri Peri and Garlic Chilli sauce, available in 1 litre, 750g and ‘dipping jar’ sizes, priced at P120, P100 and P25 respectively.
If all goes to plan, she will introduce more tasty varieties as the business takes off.
While some are put off by her prices, Magogwe insists she will not be budging.
“I stand my ground with my prices because of things like packaging costs money and also the ingredients; at the end of the day I must also make profit,” states the no-nonsense youth emphatically.
Currently selling an average of 13 bottles a month, Magogwe is confident these numbers will rise when she starts branding her chilli and comes up with an official name for the enterprise – something she plans to have completed by the end of March.
“My dream is to one day see my products in supermarkets shelves. My target market won’t be just individuals and small businesses anymore but also big businesses,” declares the eager entrepreneur.
