I resigned to concentrate on my baking business, says John Ayieta
John Ayieta and his wife Agnes Adero run their bakery, Wise Choice Bakery located in Kisumu County, together.
Agnes Adero and her husband, John Ayieta, started baking as a hobby, but what started as a pastime a decade ago is now a serious baking enterprise.
Adero learnt how to bake while in high school, and once in a while, she would bake cakes at home.
With simple baking tins, a charcoal jiko and basic baking ingredients, the couple decided to start baking cakes for sale from their house.
John A yieta.
While Adero would do the mixing of the ingredients, her husband would help in regulating the heat and then decorate the cakes once ready. Their first clients were family, friends and neighbours. A kilo would go for Sh1,500, and through this, they were able to meet some of their needs.
In 2013, Adero, who was pregnant, stopped baking for a while since it was taxing, this is when her husband realised the impact their baking side hustle had on their lives.
“I decided to get serious about it and would bake late into the night to ensure that I met the orders, which kept coming,” says Ayieta, who balanced his baking with an IT job with an NGO.
At some point, he lost his job and had to fully depend on the baking business to support his growing family. He believed in the business so much, he invested Sh200,000 in it to expand it. The money went into buying more baking tins, a charcoal oven, decorating equipment and a variety of ingredients needed for baking.
As the business has expanded, John A yieta has increased his workforce and currently employs six.
“I also began to do lots of research on how to improve my baking skills and even enrolled on a crash course in baking at Arina Cake House in Buruburu, Nairobi,” says the 37-year-old.
He also worked hard to polish his cake decorating skills, after which he registered his business, Wise Choice Bakers.
In 2016, he got a job with a firm in Kisumu County, but found it tough balancing his work and running his business, such that a few months later, he resigned and decided to fully focus on his growing business.
“The cake orders were many, and I realised that I could not manage both jobs, if anything, I made more money from my baking,” says the entrepreneur.
The following year, the couple applied for a loan, qualifying for Sh60,000, money that they topped up to buy a cake mixer worth Sh70,000, a fridge and a modern charcoal oven with capacity of baking more than eight cakes at a go - they have since invested in an electric oven.
The couple would get weekly cake orders of between Sh15,000 to Sh20,000, pricing wedding cakes from Sh20,000 to Sh70,000.
Celebrating a milestone
They marketed their business aggressively, not only to individuals, but also organisations, who would order from them whenever they were celebrating a milestone.
And then came along the Covid-19 pandemic, which seriously affected the business, bringing the sales down.
“What helped is the fact that we baked from home, so we didn’t have to shut down - the economy has picked up now, and business is now stable,” says Ayieta.
They offer sample testing for potential clients and invest in social media marketing. They have also partnered with the National Training Industrial Authority to train upcoming bakers at a fee.
In August, the couple opened an outlet in Kondele, Kisumu, to display and sell their cakes and other confectionery. A growing business requires more employees, currently, they have a staff of six.
Their biggest setback is frequent power blackouts, to solve this problem, they plan to invest in a generator, as they strategise how to expand their business.
