From a dream to reality: Maggie’s story
When she was little, Maggie Steyn liked to spend time helping her mother in the kitchen with baking and cooking, but with the dream that one day she would create a variety of cupcakes under her own brand. Over the years, he gained experience in the restaurant industry, assisting his father after school hours at his busy restaurant located in Goodwood, Cape Town.
Upon completing her studies, Maggie set out on the journey towards the realization of her dream. He gained business administration knowledge in highly competitive retail and management experience as a branch manager with the Foschini Store Group, as well as with the international corporations Old Mutual and Sanlam.
However, Maggie never forgot her childhood ambition of wanting to bake cupcakes professionally. She married her husband, farmer Stephen, and became a part of rural life on their farm, Soutfontein, located between Malmesbury and Moorreesburg in Swartland, Western Cape in South Africa. She raised four children, Steven, Emma, Lara, Jana, and began to make her dream of baking cupcakes come true.
With a starting capital of just R262, he bought his first batch of flour and started baking cupcakes in a tiny oven, with just two baking sheets. Her first real business venture was as a booth vendor at a local Wine Festival, selling jams, cookies, and cupcakes on a plastic table. However, among the customers who bought cupcakes from Maggie were the managers of the local branches of the main grocery outlets.
This opportunity helped motivate Maggie’s dream of success, because she was asked if she would make cupcakes for their stores!
From a humble beginning, Maggie has grown into a thriving business success story. Taking on the challenge of producing his biscuits for resale, the first building he used for baking was the original 17th century farmhouse that soon became too small to run his business. Its current, efficient and modern hygienic factory built on the farm is now equipped with two commercial ovens, with a third about to be purchased.
Maggie is fulfilling her dream as she watches the demand for her farmhouse biscuits grow. Maggie was chosen to enter a business incubator program, run by a major retailer; designed to encourage selected small businesses to reach their full potential.
It is Maggie’s continuing ambition and dream to achieve her future goals of meeting and creating greater consumer demand for her “Maggie se Spens” cupcakes, nationally and internationally. In turn, his satisfaction will be to employ many people, who today do not have a job and are struggling to survive. Maggie is living her dream, which shows all potential entrepreneurs that anything you can envision is possible.