Enitan Macaulay, popularly known as Mac-K started his Grilling business in Lagos during a time when most catering companies did large-scale catering in parties. Macaulay speaks to Connect Nigeria on why he decided to stick to grilling alone, how the K-Mac name became a brand name and what aspiring entrepreneurs need to know about starting a new business.
CN: Tell us about your educational and professional background?EM: I am from Lagos state. I went to the University of Lagos, I studied Business Administration. i’m A father of two girls, happily married, no professional background; I have done business all my life. The only time I worked for a company was during NYSC when I worked for FinBank for six months. After six months, I left and did not go back to that life again. All my life is business. I’m a hustler (Laughs)
CN: How did you come about the name, K-Mac?EM: It is from Macaulay, my surname. A lot of people know me as Mac-K. Initially, I was not sure of what name to chose for my company – Mac-K, K-Mac, wasn’t sure which one would sound better but eventually, I chose K-Mac.
CN: Why choose Grilling in the catering business?EM: It is just recently that a lot of people are tending towards grilling. There were not too many grilling companies out there. The people that were grilling then were mostly the small chops guys doing spring rolls. Initially when I started, I did a bit of spring rolls too but I said, no, be known for something, just be different sometimes, you look at the bigger picture and do rice and a bit of large scale catering but you know, if you don’t get it right, you don’t get it right which can spoil the brand so stick to what you know and do. So, we kept on learning and doing grilling and I felt if we were going to do grilling, we have to grill everything so we don’t only grill chicken but we also grill, turkey, prawns, potatoes, lamb shoulders, lamb kebab, ribs, pork chops, hanging goats and more and we have come to find out that find out that people like our idea. I am not a fan of going to a party and eating rice. Party food should be different from the rice or the swallow we usually eat at home. Our clients like that idea too and we have kept grilling since then.
CN: Who are your target customers?EM: It depends. My target market is basically for people that can afford our services. God has been faithful as we have only had clients that are willing to pay for the services they want. On a wider scale, anyone that has an event. If you tell us your budget, we will work with your budget, I don’t like turning down jobs, but they say you take a job for profit or position so if I am not going to profit or be known because of the job, then why would I want to do the job? On a wider scale, any one that wants to have a party, any kind of event, birthday party and all… The other day we did something for the ministry of justice. They had their pro – bono week and what we did was turkey, chicken, kebab and spicy chips and the feedback was fantastic honestly I did not expect it but people noticed and I did not make a dime but I did the job for positioning and that alone has put money in my pocket. Most times, I don’t give my clients what they ask for, I give them more than what they ask for because I know if I give them what they ask for, my team would be done when the party has not kicked off at all.
CN: How would you rate your customers’ satisfaction level?EM: I’ll rate it a 8/10 because over the years, there is something, I have always tried to be consistent with and that is the taste of the food. I believe that we have gotten to that stage when our main customers whenever they eat K-Mac Barbeque, they know that they are eating K-Mac. This case has happened like twice where they call me and ask me if I was at a particular party because they’ve eaten my barbeque. We also try out recipes from time to time because people can get tired of having the same taste. We have been doing really well but we know we can be better.
CN: What should we expect from K-Mac Grill in five years?EM: In five years, we are working on having lots of outlets all over Lagos. We want to have different outlets for our warehouse. You can come to our outlets and order different grilled, barbeque food. Also out of every 10 parties people go to in a week, K-Mac would be at 8.
CN: How do you deal with your competition?EM: I am watching them closely although they don’t know I am watching them (laughs) and I am learning.
CN: What advice do you have for a young one looking into the catering/grilling business?EM: It is not hard just be consistent. I think it is consistency. Even if it is not this business, just be consistent, you know I backed out at first. I remember that there was a time that in a month we do one or two jobs but now, every other weekend, at least, K-Mac is at 8 events in a month and that is a bad month (laughs). Another thing is timing. You need to be very good with timing when you grant this kind of service. Your clients cannot tell you to get to the venue at 12noon and you get there by 2pm. That will mess you up. Timing is important. Be consistent with the food, try and improve and see what the next person is not doing and see if you can do it. Be consistent and be disciplined with money. I guess if they do all that, they will be okay.
