Hi, my name is Chyna Pace and I'm the mother of Chloe Randall.
Being an entrepreneur has helped me become a better mother.
It has helped me become more financially stable and be an asset to my community.
Before I started the catering business, I was making only about seven hundred dollars a
week. With rent and my daughter
I wasn't really having too much leftover.
I had no extra money but $100. My mom said, well, Hey, you love to cook so you
need to go to a couple of hair salon, sell your plates there.
Cause I was like scared of rejection, but I was like, Hey, you have nothing to lose.
I remember having chicken in my freezer.
And I think some Alfredo sauce.
Then like I just went and bought styrofoam containers and I just went for it.
As I kept doing it for like a week or two, people were just really impressed.
They wanted more information.
So I just started giving them my Instagram and then after that people was actually
like placing orders.
It just made me so happy to know that people enjoy my food cause I never went to
culinary school.
I knew how to make like everyday single mother
type food and I started to impress myself with different things that I was doing.
I had made these shrimp scampi, baked potatoes, any seafood dishes.
If it was shrimp and lobster, they will love it.
My page was like a full Yelp.
You would see pictures of food, but then you would also see great feedback.
I made the transition from selling plates to catering around 2015. First I would get
small events like baby showers, office luncheons, and it got more into weddings
and bigger events, and then I would have to hire staff to come in.
I went from making a couple hundred dollars for a gig to start charging per
person, and I would make 2000 if not more. Prior to catering
I was like living month to month, I went from budgeting five to $600.
Versus now, I have more freedom to do what I want with my money.
That showed me how to be more organized and operate cause I didn't really have a
lot of experience in business.
I cater about five to 25 a month.
Sometimes I'm my cater two or three events in a day.
The most busy time of the year for me is definitely November and December.
I'm booked literally every day.
It's super hard
to split my time between family and the business.
My customers, I'm not going to say are my top priority over my daughter, but Chloe,
she's so understanding.
She sees how much I work.
If she has any performances at school, I'm able to make that decision and say, I need
to be there for my daughter.
So that's some of the pros of being an entrepreneur.
Chloe, has
Truly amazed me with her entrepenuer skills.
I did this little street event and we were selling food and Chloe was like, I want to
sell my lemonades.
She literally got the little cups.
Chloe was telling them that the lemonades were like $10 and so people were buying
them.
They were like, we appreciate her hustle, and they made her go harder
to the point where every event that I did, she was like, I want to come work. So outside
of catering.
I do offer healthy meal plans.
We have a bunch of obesity in the community, and people don't understand
that you can eat good food and it'd be healthy.
And then I also offer cooking classes, and I do these
consultations where I help people that have businesses similar to me because I
didn't have that help.
There's so many young African Americans that do want to be entrepreneurs and they
don't know where to start.
Being an Insta chef has changed my life.
I'm not working for anyone else.
I'm able to show my daughter entrepreneur skills, able to show her more
responsibility.
Well, I come from South central LA.
So I felt the need to help out.
I get so much feedback from young mothers.
They're like, how do you manage to do all this stuff?
I'm happy that I can be an inspiration to them.
Certain people have started businesses and you know, catering businesses or clothing
lines like, girl, if you can do it, I can do it.
My advice to any young mothers that want to become a business owner is
the first couple of years are going to be your hardest.
You're going to have to sacrifice a lot.
And the most important part is having self care, being able to manage time with your
family, and managing money.
So you have to stay innovative and always ask yourself, "what is going to make me
stand out?"
to grow in your business.
I definitely feel like being an entrepreneur has helped me be a better
mom.
I know that I'm setting a blueprint for her as far as saving money and money
management.
As far as even teaching her how to cook, she'll be okay in the real world.
I want a restaurant or a studio where I can do more hands on cooking classes to be
able to help more in the community.
I want to be able to leave something for Chloe.