From a dream to reality – Maggie’s story
As a little girl, Maggie Steyn enjoyed spending time helping her mother in the kitchen baking and cooking, but with the dream that one day she would create a range of cakes under her own brand. Over the years, she gained experience in the restaurant trade, helping her father after school hours at her busy restaurant in Goodwood, Cape Town.
Upon completion of her studies, Maggie set out on the journey to fulfill her dream. She gained business management skills in highly competitive retail and management experience as a branch manager at the Foschini Group of stores, as well as the international corporations Old Mutual and Sanlam.
However, Maggie never forgot her childhood ambition to want to bake cupcakes professionally. She married her husband Stephen, a farmer, and became part of rural life on her farm, Soutfontein, located between Malmesbury and Moorreesburg in Swartland, Western Cape, South Africa. She raised four children, Steven, Emma, Lara, Jana, and began making her dream of baking cupcakes come true!
With a start-up capital of just R262, he bought his first batch of flour and started baking biscuits in a small oven, with just two baking sheets. Her first real business venture was as a vendor at a local Wine Festival, selling jams, cookies and biscuits from a plastic table. However, among the customers who bought cupcakes from Maggie were managers of local branches of major grocery stores.
This opportunity helped fuel Maggie’s dream of success as she was asked if she would bake cupcakes for their stores!
From humble beginnings, Maggie has grown into a thriving business success story. Accepting the challenge of producing her biscuits for resale, the first building she used for baking was the original 17th-century farmhouse that soon became too small for her business. Her current efficient, modern and hygienic factory built on the farm is now equipped with two commercial kilns, with a third about to be purchased.
Maggie is making her dream come true as she sees the demand for her homemade cupcakes 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.
Maggie’s dream and continuing ambition is to achieve her future goals of satisfying and creating increased consumer demand for her “Maggie se Spens” biscuits, nationally and internationally. In turn, her satisfaction will be in giving employment to many people, who today do not have a job and are struggling to survive. Maggie is living her dream, proving to all potential entrepreneurs that anything they can envision is possible.