And now that Lamani’s business, which she opened in August 2022 has found its feet in the market, she is in the process of building an express supermarket that will sell convenient items to her customers. 

“For any entrepreneur you need to spread your business out because firstly it makes better financial sense and secondly it will allow me to employ more people in addition to the eight permanent staff members that I already have.

“The express supermarket will also be convenient to our customers because we are open till late, and they can still come to get good quality items they need without the pressure of time,” she adds while showing Sowetan the space that is already furnished with shelves, fruit, veggies and egg racks as well as fridges for beverages and meat. 

“We just need to add two till registers and are waiting for a few more items from our supplier and then we’ll be good to go,” she proudly says. 

Although Lamani’s business is now booming, she does admit that the road from having a business idea to execution was not easy. 

“After having the idea of opening the flame-grilled chicken restaurant, I started to obsess over it and did a lot of research about how the chicken must be cooked, who will supply it, how to serve it fresh all the time and how to train staff, and all of that. I’d learn so much and would stay up in the mornings and would ask people who had walked this path before.

“I hit a lot of brick walls with people saying no to me, but because of passion I kept going,” she said,  adding that funding was a major challenge she faced. 

“The biggest challenge for me was finances because I started with nothing. Before that my husband and I had ventured into buying into supermarkets and petrol stations but that did not go well, and we lost everything we had. So, getting funding was a challenge and banks were not interested in assisting me because I had no security. I tried to get help from the banks for two years with no luck,” she recalls.