small business: from cooking for friends to cooking for customers - jess' underground kitchen - what do restaurants use to sanitize dishes

Jessie Daniel, 32, explained how unemployment started her food business and why she worked nearly 90 hours a week.
Can you describe your business?
Jesse's underground kitchen is a ready-made
Did the rice business.
We make a healthy home cooked meal every day and we have two delicatessens in Auckland that create delicious and healthy food that changes with the seasons.
I started in February 2013, opened the first store in February 2016, and opened the second store in Remuera in July.
We sell hundreds of meals a day, as well as frozen meals from a selection of gourmet shops.
What is your motivation to start a business?
I decided about five years ago to focus on the food industry as a food writer, so I got a two-
A monthly contract to work in the newly established Bite Magazine.
There were layoffs at the end of 2012. . .
Then I suddenly lost my job and started my Christmas holiday.
All summer I had friends coming over to dinner and they were like "Omg, I can't believe you made hummus from scratch, what's wrong with you? ".
One of the suggestions, she wanted to eat my meal every night, and I said, "Of course, you can come to dinner at any time and I always cook too much," she said, "No, I want to pay you. "I think," Don't be silly ".
So, when I was out of work, I came up with an idea that I could pack dinner for myself and my friends, and if they all gave me $10, I would go out, shop and create a delicious home-
Cooked meals, packed and placed on the steps of the door, let them pick up on their way home from work.
That's how things started: I was cooking for my friends and they would leave with my brown paper bag in my house in pangolin, I believe my neighbors think I'm dealing with things other than food.
Since then this is a roller coaster of real organic growth, and I think the best part of my business is that it finds its own path without too much pressure, which makes itdriven.
Where is your base and how big is your team?
We have 22 full time and part time combinations on our payroll.
The only male on the payroll was my partner Jono, who came to wash the dishes on Saturday.
How hard is it to get a food permit and a commercial kitchen?
After three or four weeks of trying, I realized I couldn't promote what I was doing because "technically" you're not allowed to sell food prepared in the family kitchen, so I found a commercial kitchen that I can rent by hour and I will pack it up there and people will pick it up from my house which is a more convenient option --up location.
I ran very strange.
In the Council's discussion, but in the end we decided to use it after the cafe on jowos road was closed.
We signed the lease on the Jervois Rd store early last year, which means we can have a commercial kitchen, pick-up location and a brickand-
There are mortars in one place.
Do you think your business will be as successful as it is now?
I can't believe it.
It's a whirlwind and I love it and sometimes I hate it but in general I like it.
Sometimes I find myself stirring a pot of 40 kg Bologna wine and wondering why I am learning English in college.
I think the best part of this industry is that it is mine, this is what I grew up from an absolute basis, my investment is very small besides my time, blood, sweat and tears.
What do you grow-
Semester plan for business?
Over the next 12 months, what we are looking forward to is a real look at our distribution model and how we can bring Jesse's underground kitchen to more people and reach New Zealand further.
We have just launched a new website, an attempt at our digital distribution, how do we view the logistics of delivering food outside Auckland and deliver food with extended shelf life to some major centers, even nationwide.
Fresh or frozen meals are single for $15 per serving, but we hope to provide home service in the future.
How does it feel to manage such a large team?
Sometimes it's crazy and hard, but a few months ago, I just started the job of the general manager, which changed my life, in terms of being able to delegate and distribute some larger picture content.
I'm in the kitchen from six o'clock A. M. and then I go home and my day won't stop when my other chefs quit.
I already have orders, accounting, thinking about the big picture and so on, so hopefully someone will support me as a 2IC, which will give me the opportunity to do more work on the business than on the business.
I have a great team. I don't feel like I'm in command;
Like working with friends.
What advice do you have for others considering starting a business?
Write a business plan and tear it off.
Write another business plan and tear it off.
Start again, follow your passion and let the business plan write it yourself because you can prepare and prepare until the cows go home, but until you start your business and see what people want, and what direction people want your business to go, and if it doesn't work, you really can't push it in the direction you want.
Sometimes you have to let things happen organically.