Sova Catering is a family owned business serving the Nashville, Tennessee area. Sova specializes in Kosher Cuisine and provides a wide variety of services, including full service catering, cooking classes, private dinners, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, and weddings.
Kevin Alexandroni, Founder and Executive Chef, was Kosher trained in Israel and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Kevin graduated from Belmont in 2004. He was the inaugural recipient of the Union Planters Outstanding Belmont Student Entrepreneur during his final semester of study.
Since Kevin's graduation, Sova Catering has continued to grow. His wife, Theresa, recently left her job to become a full-time employee of Sova. Sova has hired two additional full-time and three part-time employees. They have opened a cafe at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville to showcase for their product and services.
"In honesty, I must say that I did not set out to start a kosher catering company," said Kevin about the start-up of Sova. "Initially I was trying to make some extra money while a finished my degree. However, it became clear that there was a demand for another kosher caterer in town. The actual creation of the company coincided with my participation in an entrepreneurship course at Belmont University. It was while taking that class, and working on another similar project, that we realized that SOVA was a feasible enterprise, catering (no pun intended) to a defined niche market."
Kevin and Theresa faced many of the typical challenges faced by many entrepreneurs. For example, they planned to bootstrap their business start-up. When trying to hire the right professionals, such as an accountant and an attorney, they found that many billed start-up entrepreneurs at their full rates and billed "by the hour" for even the simplest questions. They did not have the cash to pay professionals who would bill them using these common standards.
"Another set of challenges we faced was to try and understand the huge volume of regulations that different authorities required our business," said Kevin. "Federal, state and county governments all host an unbelievable amount of requirements on a new business. Business taxes, sales taxes, franchise fees, licenses, health department inspections, federal tax ID, tax exemption certificates, unemployment, payroll tax, Medicare, social security, insurance, disability insurance, and more. This does not leave much time to start a business. And you really can't make any mistakes by not addressing all of these requirements."
Kevin and Theresa plan to continue to explore ways to expand the services offered by Sova Catering, including a meal replacement program, a retail outlet, and a summer pool concession. They also hope to find ways to broaden their base of customers.
