As long as she could remember Naomi wanted to run her own business. Inspired by awful gluten free food, she began to operate a small gluten free bakery which soon became a full time occupation after losing her day job. She soon realized that if she was going to live off the profits from this bakery, she would have to scale the business and reduce her costs.

Due to past personal obstacles, Naomi was unable to obtain financing from traditional banking institutions. After several unsuccessful attempts to secure a small business loan, Naomi found Rise Asset Development, which offered her financing based on the strength of her character, work ethic and business plan. “They felt confident that I had overcome my personal obstacles and that I could follow through. They were willing to take a chance on me,” she recalls.

Using the Rise loan, Naomi was able to upgrade to expensive, high volume kitchen
equipment and purchase ingredients at wholesale prices. The impact on her costs
and production were immediately evident. Today, she sells to the top 4 organic
retail outlets in Ottawa as well as a variety of coffee shops. Naomi now has a 20
quart Hobart Mixer towering over her itty bitty KitchenAid, and a commercial
convection oven that can pump out her entire order in under an hour.

“Re-inventing myself and my career wasn’t easy. When I started my business, I believed it was the right thing to do, but there were so many doors that were closed to me. Rise helped to open all of them. Now my company grows a bit every day – I love the taste of success!”

Naomi Muise | owner of CeleeakNak, a gluten-free catering business