My Biz September 2021 Winner
My Biz competition winner Safia Khan wins £250 to launch superfood-fueled vegan chocolate company Chocaterre
My Biz Start Up business workshop participant, Safia Khan, plans to use her passion for raw foods and tasty treats to create a viable business out of her idea for Chocaterre – a vegan and gluten free take handmade chocolates.
The My Biz programme, delivered by Let’s Do Business Group under the CHART programme, supports aspiring entrepreneurs in Hastings and Bexhill, and aims to support more people to follow their career aspirations. Ran in-person in Hastings Library throughout the year by our expert business manager Lisa Young, the programme got off to a positive start in September 2021 after most workshops had been taken online during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Chocaterre aims to be a vegan, gluten free chocolate and sweets company that will focus on the construction and presentation of the chocolates, and the use of interesting flavours, natural colours and superfoods. It follows the uptick in the Vegan market has had a recent upsurge due to a focus on environment, health and well-being.
“Research statistics show an 11.3 % increase in demand for vegan ‘milk’ chocolate products, there seems to be a big leap in established chocolate companies offering products. Research shows that the most important aspect that consumers require is taste, which can be so arbitrary that I feel I have a chance to compete with the big companies with my tiny little machine and very low budget.”
“Of course, as the demand grows, so will the supply. My aim is to be a few steps ahead of the established big companies, with both my understanding of growing trends, but most importantly, my ability to make excellent-tasting chocolate.”
Safia aims to make all her products available both online and in local outlets, and already supplies vegan brownies and truffles to a popular local vegan café to get her name out there.
“My desire to run my own business came about by accident: Having lost my previous work due to the lockdown (I was working as a Massage Therapist in offices) and subsequently developed an injury in my foot, I was chatting to someone about vegan desserts and how to make them when the manager of a vegan cafe overheard and said he was interested in trying my products. The rest is history, and I have discovered since then that people really like my products, and that there is a big gap in the market for vegan products and particularly chocolate.”
“I attended a free training course run by Let’s Do Business at Hastings Library with Lisa Young. It was incredibly informative, engaging and really helped me with the nuts and bolts of business and injected a new excitement into the subject. For me, making things is my passion but the selling side has always been difficult. This course has really changed all this and opened up a new world. With the added bonus of special guest speakers and our wonderful trainer going out of her way to provide extra information to us as individuals, I really recommend this course to anyone in business or thinking of starting up.”
We wish Safia and Chocaterre the best of luck for the future!
If you are thinking of starting your own business and would like more information on our Start Up workshop programmes, visit our events page for details on our next start dates.
